GRANDAD’S JOY
BTC is a voluntary self help group and this information is intended for interest only. For medical advice, please contact your GP or Health Visitor
It was wonderful news after such a long wait when I heard of my daughter’s pregnancy. This came after two and a half years of IVF and IXY (more complicated form of IVF) which was successful and also a lot of expense.
Oh joy! My daughter’s first child. Then, after the first scan, double joy being told it was twins. I started to prepare myself, thinking how do you hold, cuddle and kiss two at once?
Time for the second scan to check the progress and make sure everything was going to plan, but then came the thunderbolt, number three appeared. So now it was triple joy!
Amazing how one can hide behind the other (little sneak). Then the waiting and eleven weeks before ejection day Mum supporting a substantial protruding bulge was admitted to hospital to be watched over with tender care.
Five weeks later, but six weeks premature, out came the scalpel for all to be revealed. One boy, Riley, 3lb 13ozs, another boy, Sam 4lb 11ozs. Bated breath, out she came last but not least, a girl, Rebecca, 4lb 4ozs. What a wonderful day, the 17th day of the 7th month, a day to remember!
They were all taken to Neonatal Intensive Care because they were premature and I know you should not have favourites but Sam, who had some fluid on the lungs, was put into an incubator and without any of them knowing, there tends to be a slight bias towards him.
After a few weeks when Sam was out of the incubator and they were all fit, including Mum, the day came to take them home. Then it all started in earnest, first pictures in the local press, family and friends calling with congratulations and presents, and all the local neighbours coming to have a little peek, but then reality strikes! Three of this, three of that and three of everything else including what they eject and dispose of! Only one pram though, a three position, two at the front facing rearward and one at the rear facing forwards, an import from Italy and affectionately known as “The Limo”. When out on manoeuvres it was like a snow plough and pushed anything and everything off the pavement. Being an unusual sight it took three times as long to get anywhere because of the attraction it caused and people stopped you every few yards with amazement and wanting to admire the trio.
Time has passed and “The Limo” has been passed on to another worthy cause. The Christening came and was a first for the vicar who, as he said, had never before in his thirty five years in the business been asked to Christen triplets. Family and friends fussed about, God Parents cuddled and cooed and the next milestone passed.
Life continues. The first steps are taken and soon the mini combat team starts to invade, not just in one direction like a normal family faces, but in three different directions all at the same time. So now is when you need eyes in the back of your head and in every other part of your body! So this is where I step in and, being the Grandad and a great philosopher, I suggest extending dog leads secured to each one, then at least when they get twisted together they can be found all together in one twisted bundle, silly Grandad!
Even now when they are taken out, people still stop you to admire them as they are like local celebrities. Comments are always made about their appearance, and rightly so and full marks should be given to Mum and Grandma for their immaculate turnout. This makes it sound like a military operation, which I suppose in many ways it is. Each morning it’s wash, dress and load into either triple buggy if one is pushing, or one single and one double buggy if two are pushing, and of course not into an ordinary family saloon but into the modern idiom of the people carrier - well done the car designers.
The next stage starts where they make those incoherent noises and look at you in absolute dismay that you do not respond to them with noises of similar nature. Then one day you hear the first clear Daddy or Mummy, then it’s back to mumbo jumbo for a couple of days until it’s repeated. Eventually three voices at the same time sounding like an LP played at 45 rpm (sorry this is Grandad reminiscing from bygone days).
The characters are beginning to show, Riley, the professor, never harassed and in a world of his own. Sam, the sportsman, always on the go, kicking, throwing, batting and swinging with not enough time for anything else. Rebecca, the school mistress, organising, pushing, shoving the boys into some sort of order, not that they are very keen about it.
We are now at the stage of the potty training syndrome. The professor has no inclination towards participating in this exercise at all. The sportsman will indulge if he has time, otherwise it’s the inevitable accident. The school mistress has mastered it without hesitation and insists on embarassing the boys by telling them how easy it is “look I’ve done it!
The next big step is coming very soon when they will be going to pre-school (formerly playgroup) and it will be interesting to see what transpires and who will be the most affected at being parted, the turbulent trio or Mum and Grandma.
You must await the next episode which I hope will be just as fulfilling and exciting as this one. Joy, great joy, being a Grandad to three!
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