Confessions of an Unhappy Young Mom

After years of battling infertility, a new mother gets her greatest wish times two—but quickly learns that life with twin babies is nothing to go gaga over.

Illustrations by Ellen Lindner

Just four things.

Bananas, pasta, pasta sauce, and milk.

I can do this.

I glance down at my double Snap-N-Go stroller to make sure my usually red-faced, screaming ten-week-old baby is still asleep. She is. And luckily, for the moment, so is he — my second baby.

It’s taken me a little more than two months to leave the house with my infant twins. The hassle of packing up two babies and all of their necessary things seems overwhelming, not to mention the stress of trying not to attract too much attention from fellow shoppers. The decision was made more out of desperation than bravery – no matter what happens while we are out, it can’t possibly be worse than the hours of alternating boredom and sadness I am going through with the twins at home.

After two years of trying and almost 20,000 borrowed dollars, I finally had a successful pregnancy on my second cycle of IVF. My husband of three years, Michael, was giddy, always patting my belly and thinking up terrible n…