Twin boys
baffle parents and nurses
When we found out we were having twins, my husband
and I were excited and delighted. We were both from
families with twins and were fairly certain that
they would be fraternal. We were really shocked when
they looked so much alike when they were born. You
really could not tell they were not the same baby,
but we still believed that they were going to be
quite different looking, eventually ... NOT!
The first connection that we really saw was in the
NICU, very early on. They would cry to each other
from the isolettes. The first born, Ethan, would cry
first, then Eric, and then back to Ethan, and then
they would sleep. It was kind of cute and they did
this religiously when they went to sleep. We think
that they had to hear each others voices.
That was different but the really strange things
happened about three days after they were born.
Ethan was terrible about removing his IV, so it had
to be put back in several times. The last time they
put it in his head. We all gathered to watch this
being done. Ethan was on the table in the regular
baby nursery (separated by a thick glass wall from
the NICU) and Eric was in his isolette in the room
with us and the other nurses. They cleaned Ethan's
head and found a vein - as soon as they stuck him
with the needle - Eric burst into a pained wail and
cried uncontrollably for several minutes. We all got
the chills. Ethan never even cried. The nurses were
freaked, I was freaked and my husband just laughed
and said, "OH NO! We’re in trouble!"
This has happened so many times now, that I cannot
count and we have gotten used to it. There is
definitely something there. They are almost five
years old now and are so strangely in sync. They
still get me sometimes ... they will walk in a room,
say Eric first, ask me a random question and then go
to his room. Ethan will come in (from somewhere
else) and ask the same question and then go to his
room. It is just little things like that most of the
time.
They had girlfriends in Preschool for the first
time, just like little kids do. They are in separate
classes and still picked "girlfriends" with the same
name that could easily have been sisters.
They have nightmares on the same night, too. If one
wakes up with a nightmare, within an hour or two the
other will be up with a nightmare, too.
So many strange things that they do, I cannot even
put them all down. They can tell you when the other
is hurt and how. They can tell you what they other
is thinking or why they are crying or upset, even if
they were not there for what happened. It actually
worked out good when they were toddlers because I
could get the story from either one most of the
time, even if he was not there.
Our friends sometimes get freaked out, but I just
have gotten used to it and don't even think about it
much now.
Joyce Davis
Tyler, Texas
