14 Lauren

In Your Own Kin

In this week's episode Lauren shares her parenthood journey. Lauren reflects on life with her husband Tyson, and their twin daughters Poppy and Layla.
At their dating scan, Lauren and Tyson were told that they were having twins. Poppy and Layla are MCDA (monochorionic diamniotic) twins, which means they each had their own amniotic sacs, and shared a placenta.
"It had become a running joke... Tyson kept saying imagine if there are two and I was like honey, let's not even throw that in to the mix. We went to the scan and I just thought it was two images of the same thing and he said "oh my god there are two", and I was like enough already, it's not funny. I looked at the ultrasound lady and she held up two fingers."
Lauren talks about her pregnancy as both mentally and physically challenging. Lauren speaks so beautifully about this time as being bittersweet - overwhelming joy, tinged with the anxiety and worry of what would or could be.
Early on, Lauren connected in with a community, finding solace in other's families stories through Parents of Multiples Australia and by reading blogs and connecting to other families online.
"The way that I prepared myself was to seek other people's stories. The more that I saw other stories that started off scary in NICU and then had a happy ending really prepared me."
At 27 weeks Lauren had her baby shower. The next day she was experiencing immense pain. Following a trip to emergency Lauren was told that it was time to finish work, but that the pain she was experiencing was to be expected in a twin pregnancy. This went on for a few days before Lauren and Tyson headed back to emergency. This time Lauren was admitted. By now, Lauren had been in pain for 9 days. The following morning Lauren had a scheduled ultrasound. It was here that Lauren and Tyson discovered that the twins had twin to twin transfusion.
"I just felt validated - finally someone was acknowledging that the pain I was in was a lot more than just being pregnant with twins.... I asked what does this mean? She said it means your babies are being born today."
Lauren was 29 weeks and 1 day. The ultrasound was at 10:40 am and the girls were born 5 hours later.
"Poppy was the recipient twin, so she was the one who got everything so they were really worried about her little heart. The minute she was born Tyson cut her cord and she was taken away, so I didn't get to see her. Layla - they brought her up to me and I was able to give her a little kiss. She was just so tiny! She was 1kg. I remember Tyson with tears streaming down his cheeks just saying "she's so small, she's so small"..."
Once the girls were born they were rushed to NICU. Lauren speaks so courageously and generously about this time - the joy, the heartbreak, and the power of having a kinship network to support you and to bear witness to your parenting journey.
Poppy was able to come home at 7 weeks, and a week later at 8 weeks, Layla joined. Hearing Lauren talk about their first Christmas together will give you prickly eyes.
Lauren speaks so openly and honestly about the joys and challenges of parenthood. She reflects on relationship changes, navigating twin life, her identity shift, and finding time to connect with your village. This is such a gorgeous episode!
You can connect with Lauren on Instagram @thetwinclairs where Lauren shares authentic motherhood musings, recipes, and her daily joys as Mum to Poppy & Layla. You can also find Lauren over @foodiemelbourne her OG account, and dream of the Melbourne food scene.