The boys have always been really close. They shared their first home, my uterus for over eight months, so naturally, they have always wanted to be close to each other for comfort, on the outside. When they were in NICU, we were told that Joseph was finally eating well and would be able to come home two days earlier than Jackson, who was having other complications. I swear he knew what the doctors were saying, because right after that, he started having horrible feedings and he could not go home until the feedings picked back up, consistently. They ended up leaving the NICU at the same time. From early on, when placed on blankets, play mats, etc., they would always grab each other’s hand or snuggle in as close as they could be to the other brother. It really was sweet. As they’ve gotten older, they learned to get what they wanted and be near to each other always. While they were in cribs, they would figure out how to scoot the cribs across the bedroom floor so they could reach each other. They started out by holding hands, or sleeping against the crib slats in the same way so they could still feel each other. This progressed to them climbing out of one crib and into the other. I think this was for brother comfort, but also them being fresh. The day we put them in toddler beds, they were the happiest boys ever. We would put them in separate beds for the night, and before we could even get the monitor on, they were snuggled up against each other, sharing one bed.

The have some sort of twintuition going on lately, which has been really fun to watch. Last week, the boys were at opposite sides of the house. Joseph closed his finger in the bedroom door. Without knowing Joseph was injured (he didn’t hear it or anything), Jackson came running down the hall with the same finger stretched out crying about his (nonexistent) boo boo. Did he feel his brother’s pain? Today, the boys were climbing on furniture and Joseph fell, resulting it a bit tongue, accompanied by lots of blood. As I was cleaning up Joseph’s mouth, I looked around to see what mischief Jacks was getting into. I found him sitting propped up against the sofa with his hand in his mouth. He was seemingly wiping something out of his mouth and saying “yuck” as he was doing it. As freaky as it sounds, I think he was feeling and tasting blood.

On Christmas morning (around 2am) two years back, Jackson woke up, stood up in his crib, and started screaming his version of his brother’s name, repeatedly. I immediately heard it and thought he was just being rude and trying to wake his brother up, across the room. We ended up going in there because he wouldn’t stop. We didn’t want the whole house to be awake! As soon as we walked in, we noticed that Joseph was having serious breathing trouble. Their little colds had turned to croup over night and poor Joseph just couldn’t breathe well. Thankfully, his twin knew what was happening and woke us up. We were able to get him to the ER in time and after some oxygen and medications, he was much better. It still gives me the shivers to think about what could have happened if Jack didn’t let us know.

Twins really are so fascinating, and each set is different. I have twin mom friends who told me that their twins didn’t even acknowledge each other for years. I am so lucky that my boys have had so much love for each other from day one. This is not to say that they don’t fight, because trust me, they do their fair share of that too. I’m so curious to see the little people they will grow into. I hope their bond is always so strong, and hope that they always look out for each other, and for their big sister.