Tuesdays in Twinland: That Time I Had a Pink Nursery

Once upon a time, I had a pink nursery. I’m not making this up. Husband and I had been told we were unable to conceive, and had decided to go the adoption route. We had specified we wanted a little girl. I was convinced, due to various spiritual experiences, that we would have a little girl join our family first.

So convinced, in fact, that I did the entire nursery. In pink. See for yourself.

And it was. Everything was perfect, exactly how I imagined it would be for my first baby. We even bought a packet of diapers and small can of formula so we would have enough to get us through a day or two. We started the adoption process in July, were approved in August, and decorated the nursery in September. In December our Christmas was full of gifts for a precious little girl.

In February, I found out I was pregnant. Complete and total shock. That’s the only words I can use to describe that fantastic, wonderful, amazing day. In March, we found out we were having twins. Over-the-moon-thrilled doesn’t even begin to explain our level of happiness. We were beyond excited.

I was convinced it was twin girls. We knew they were identical, so it had to go one way or the other. It had to be twin girls. I was so sick and so uncomfortable, and the thought of redoing the nursery was more than I could handle.

We picked out another girl name. I bought block letters for that name and scrapbook paper to modge podge on it, and started trying to hunt down a second, matching car seat and high chair. I hunted for a crib similar to the one we already had. It was going to be twin girls. It had to be twin girls.

I was so totally wrong.

In April, we went for our monthly growth scan. I was about 17 weeks, and we’d been told we’d most likely be able to tell the genders that day. “You want to know the genders, right?” the doctor asked. We nodded. He put the ultrasound wand on my stomach and wiggled it around. “Boy,” he said immediately. He moved the wand over, and said, “He isn’t turned right…oh, there he goes. Boy.”

I nearly fell off the exam table. “Both boys?” I asked. “Are you sure?”

“No doubt about it,” he said. It had taken him less than 5 seconds to declare we were having sons.

We left the doctor’s office in shock and got in the car, where I promptly started to cry. My husband and mom took me to Sonic for a watermelon cream slush in an attempt to make me feel better.

“Little boys will be fun!” my mom said.

What she didn’t understand for a couple of days was that I really wasn’t disappointed to be having sons. I was thrilled to be pregnant with twin boys. The genders of the babies really didn’t matter to me.

But I really didn’t want to redo the nursery. I had put so much effort and energy into Emma’s nursery. And I was so sick and so tired and really didn’t want to do it again. Plus, I love pink. It’s my favorite color after all.

My husband, Neil, wasn’t keen on having his sons reside in a pink paradise. Every day after that ultrasound, he asked me, “Have you decided what you want for the new nursery? When can we change it?”

In May, I finally agreed we could start switching things over. We sold the high chair, pack n play, stroller, and car seat. I’d washed everything and thrown away the boxes so they couldn’t be returned to the store. I returned the few baby clothes I hadn’t taken the tags off of. We exchanged the pink bathtub for a blue one at Target.

Neil built a changing table/dresser combo, since with two cribs there wasn’t room for both separately.

We bought gender-neutral car seats, got a double stroller, and sewed boyish car seat canopies.

I can’t imagine life with twin girls (although I’d certainly like a set of twin girls, along with my twin boys). Thing 1 and Thing 2 fit into our family so perfectly, so completely. I can’t help but laugh every time I think about this story now. Because seriously, how much more hilarious could the situation have been?

Heavenly Father always knows best. Looking back, I’m glad I had to redo the nursery. I made this nursery with my twin boys specifically in mind, and it is entirely theirs. I got to do all the typical “preparing for baby” things pregnant women get to do, and I had worried I’d never be able to do. If I had had to add another crib to the pink nursery, it wouldn’t have matched. It had been so long since we bought the fabric that the prints were no longer available. It worked out for the best. My little boys have made me the happiest mommy ever, and I wouldn’t change anything about them.

As for the pink…well, all that stuff is in storage. I know Emma will join our family one day–hopefully soon–and all her stuff is just waiting for when she arrives. It’s not going to waste. I often joke it’s a good thing I already have a pink nursery, because with twin boys there’s no way I’d have the energy to do a pink nursery when we have a girl. I took lots of pictures so that when the time comes, I can replicate the pink nursery. It’ll happen. I just have to be patient.

In the mean time, I’m really enjoying life in Twinland with my sons.

Has anyone else thought their child was one gender, then found out he/she was the other? Anyone had an ultrasound that was wrong? Anyone else gone as far as me down the path of pink, only to have to revert to blue?

TWIN MOM TIP: Wait until after your baby showers to start buying stuff, because you might end up not really needing to buy much like me! And don’t wash anything until the last possible second. You want the ability to return items for different sizes and such if necessary. I really wish I would’ve kept tags on things. At one point the twins each had 20 shirts and 17 pants that they fit in at the same time. That’s 40 shirts and 34 pants if I ever have just one boy again! The tags all said they were different sizes, but they all fit the boys simultaneously.