It's fairly telling, I think, that it has taken me 18 months to get round to writing my thoughts and experiences on being a parent to twins. Long gone are the days of spare time on my hands although, admittedly, these disappeared soon after our first daughter, Lucy-Mae, was born back in 2002. There had been lately, however, a slight respite, a gradual relaxation to our routine that comes as toddlers grow and become children. Lucy-Mae was positively independent now even to the point of being helpful around the house! So why did we want to go and ruin all that by ending up back at square one with a new baby?

Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time. "A sibling for Lucy-Mae", we thought, "someone to keep her company when we're too old and in a home!" Such are the thoughts of older parents! Plus my wife Debbie didn't want to be pushing a buggy whilst pushing 40 (something!! Ooooh, I'm gonna pay for that one!). And so it was decided.

I remember the first scan so well, who can forget when it has such life changing repercussions! Twins? Why was the woman with the scanner in her hand talking about twins? It didn't register for a few seconds in my brain that she was talking about us. Debbie was in shock, I was elated. A couple of hours later, after Debbie had got her head round it all, and I'd worked out we needed a bigger house, bigger car and bigger overdraft, I was in shock.