Woman gives birth to 22lbs of twins
I’ve grown up all my life being very conscious of my status as one half of a pair of twins. But it wasn’t until today that I looked at the situation from a different point of view: that of the mother.
Larna Flowers, Mother of Twins
“When they seh two babies, I wah cry.”
Janelle Chanona, Reporting
But today, those are cries of happiness for forty-one year old Larna Flowers who gave birth to fraternal twins on Tuesday. While the birth of twins is somewhat unusual, it could hardly be called newsworthy…were it not, that is, for the size of Larna’s load. Put on the scale together, the babies weighed in at a whopping twenty-two pounds: her son, the heaviest at eleven pounds thirteen ounces, the daughter at ten pounds ten ounces. But Flowers says her other four children, were also big babies.
Larna Flowers
“The girl was the largest, the oldest, she weighed twelve pounds. Then the boy after her, he weighed ten nine. Then another boy weigh seven then another boy weighed eleven point five pounds…And these two, eleven eight and ten ten.”
Janelle Chanona
“And the Daddy, what did he say when he found about the babies?”
Larna Flowers
“When he find out that dah two? Typical man, they feel like they so great cause dah two.”
Flowers is grateful that both babies, delivered through caesarean section, represent a healthy end to her difficult pregnancy.
Larna Flowers
“At first it nevah hard, but after it jumped like six months, it start to get difficult to do things. And when I reach like seven into eight months I start to can’t sleep lying down. I had to sleep sitting up and I just couldn’t take it no more. I tell the doctor when I came to the clinic the Tuesday, that they have to do something or the other, either induce labour or whatsoever, but I can’t handle it no more, cause then mi belly mi really large.”
Double the joy, but double the work…so says another Belizean mother who knows all about the joy of twins, Nella Woods. Woods, of Belize City is the mother of, not one, but two sets.
Nella Woods
“What I found out with the feedings, because first one would wake up and then I would get through with that one, and by the time I put that one down the other would wake up. So sometimes I would get up and two and not get back into bed until around five o’clock. So I went to the doctor, I said I cannot continue like this, it’s wearing me out. So then he said, well when one wakes up, even if the other one doesn’t wake, still mix a bottle and give it to her, because she will take it, although she will be sleeping. That’s what I did and that helped a lot.”
“Apart from that feeding thing, which was the biggest problem for me until I learned to control it. But when I come to the bathing, well if she noh have some help at home, she just have to let one cry…I used to say, okay then, today you will cry and tomorrow you will cry, take it by turn.”
Relatives of Larna Flowers have promised to take turns to help with her with the new arrivals, but that doesn’t mean willing babysitters won’t be welcomed…and not to mention, supplies.
Larna Flowers
“I couldn’t get the pram, and that dah the biggest problem to like take them where they need fi goh. Well pampers, I could use pampers yes and wipes too, cause dah two baby. And all I have right now dah one of the big wipes and a small Johnson pack.”
But first things first, Flowers is still trying to figure out names for her children.
Larna Flowers
“I listen to the names and soh, but I would want come up with one myself, I wah one weh have meaning behind it. I had a name book and I give it back to the owner, so I have to try find one.
Janelle Chanona reporting for News 5.
If you would like to assist Larna Flowers, please contact Wayne Sanchez at phone number 202-5122. Flowers, a resident of Racecourse Street, is expected to be released from the hospital Friday afternoon.
