ANNE WILSON
Wife to Andy and mum to Anthony 4 - and triplets – Luke, Matthew and Amy Rose (nearly3)
Imagine our panic when our second child to be - turned out to be triplets – naturally. I cried and my husband forgot that we even paid the gynae bill. The trips arrived in 2008 and since then it has been a real rollercoaster ride with plenty of ups and downs, tears, unbelievable happiness and some of the most difficult moments brought on by exhaustion and stress. Somehow though we have survived (sort of on top of it) and with the trips turning three at the end of the month, it feels as if the world is at our feet and we are starting to get our fledgling wings ready to fly!
Our trips were born at 32,5 weeks. I was pretty relieved once they were out in the world instead of feeling like and looking like a pumped up exercise ball. They came weighing in at 1,94kgs, 1,96kgs and Matt in at 1,42kgs. Not bad weights I suppose. We used to bath Matt in a two litre ice-cream container – crazy when you look at the pictures. The boys spent 4 weeks in Sandton Medi-Clinic’s NICU. Amy was there for 6 weeks - struggling to keep her milk down and it was an interesting time trying to get used to it all. It must have seemed to Anthony that everytime I went to the shops, I came back with another baby. He was only 16 months at the time so it has been quite difficult for him.
We live in Duxberry in Johannesburg – which is about 10 minutes from Sandton City. My husband Andy works at SAP and has an international role which means he travels a lot all over the show to plenty of places I would sometimes rather be, instead of listening to whiny kids. Then again, Andy misses out on all the giggles and the unending stream of love - just for me - that comes from four little hearts and eight little arms and hands hugging me tight! I work upstairs at home, trying to stick to mornings only, mainly with networks and business schools all over Africa that focus on improving business education and thereby the economies of different countries. My home business school is the Gordon Institute of Business Science.
I am continually reminded how blessed we are to have our family and although it is sometimes a hard slog, in a way it’s quite satisfying to see what a long way we have come since the first day in the gynae’s office. I often think of the mum’s that used to have 11 or 12 kids when I start to feel sorry for myself – and that was only in my grandparents generation. I know people have often commented that they think about me when they are having a bad day with their twins which I find quite hilarious. The best comment I have ever heard was when we were recently at a friends 50th in Durban. He was one of five children and his mum now in her late 70’s was at the party. I asked her how she had coped with it all and she put her hand confidentially on my arm and said: “Drugs, my dear, drugs!”
I really look forward to meeting you all over time and if you feel like a chat about your fascinating little people, please give me a call. I would love to try and help you if I can.
Hugs for all
Annie
