Plenty of smiles, support for moms

Two-seated baby carriages. Dual potty training. Separate sets of toys.

It's all part of carting double the baby baggage.

Unfortunately, so is trying to find someone who understands.

"We're kind of in a class of our own," said mother of 19-month-old twins Annie Laker with a laugh. "Childcare books will tell you maybe four ways to do something. But when you're doing it with two, you have to find five or six ways."

Laker offers a buffer to others who were dealt a pair: Twins and Company, the local chapter of the national Mothers of Multiples Club, a support group for moms of twins.

Every month local moms circle in the meeting room at Mountain View Bible Church in Post Falls to unload grievances, swap advice, and enjoy some socializing that their dual descendants might not otherwise allow.

"I just needed to be around moms who understand what it's like going into two directions at once," Lisa Gencarella, who attended her first meeting last week. "I can't bring my two vivacious kids to a moms group where other women have just one quiet girl."

On Thursday night, sitting with bowls of ice cream and watching 10-month-old twins crawl across the carpet, the ladies praised the biggest meeting in awhile with 14 mothers.

The discussed their monthly nights out, fundraisers, toy drives, then slipped into the waterfall of adventures: Breaking in husbands to diapers, squabbling toddlers, the best child care groups.

It's not just a support group. It's a refuge.

"All these girls are loyal," said Rindie Burgess, 35. "Every time I've needed them, they've always been there for me."

Burgess garners comments of admiration from other moms, as she has two sets of twins, 6-year-old girls and a 7-year-old boy and girl set.

"I was still overwhelmed with the first set when the second set came along. They're only 11 months apart," said Post Falls mother, who has three other children. "They're getting older, so it's getting easier."

Still, the biggest challenge of having so many twins - besides separate personalities that usually end in fighting - is school.

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Four different classes, four different parent teacher conferences, four different sets of homework.

"When they come home, I have to sit at the table and each one I have to do homework with," she said.

Twins and Company has helped her through it, she said.

"If I ever have plans or need a break, I can call them anytime and get help," she said.

Gencarella said she is just happy to have an outlet talking about the different worlds she's facing with her children.

She's facing a few.

With three boys ranging from 17 to 21, she and her husband also have twin 3-year-old girls adopted from Guatemala.

"The day when I turned 40, we evaluated our lives, what we wanted to more time on. And we decided we loved being parents," she said.

So after they agreed to adopt a pair of Guatemalan infants, she spent the first six months with them in their native country to bond, all the while accompanied by her 18-year-old son she was homeschooling.

"Right now I'm going through college applications and then taking care of 3-year-olds," the 46-year-old said with wide eyes. "I wanted to be in a group that would sort of understand it."

The mysteries of twins are worth it, she added, to experience raising girls.

"I just bought a pink tutu today, so I'm in heaven," she said. "My mom has five grandsons, so we both have a good time dressing them."

Donna Sayles-Lundy, who got pregnant with her twin boys at 43, said she's grateful to be have friends who can tell her what to expect.

"Having kids in general is hard, but two at once is crazy," she said.

The 50-year-old has learned a lot of tricks to adapting to day-to-day trials, she said. Potty training with two boys was a challenge, as was putting up with twin speak she couldn't understand.

"Everyone warned me that 'Early on, just when you think you've got them figured out and how they act emotionally, they switch,'" she said. "And they do. What's up with that?"

Kasey Pockell, 31, toted her 10-month olds Kennedy and Carter to the meeting from their home in Spokane.

She likes having a support group now that her husband is training overseas, about to be deployed to Africa.

"We've done deployments before, but never with kids," Pockell said. "It's hard, the reality that he's going to be gone for so long."

She laughed at adapting to buying two of everything - high chairs, cribs, toys.

Funny how everything else multiplies while she's increasingly deprived of sleep, she said.

"They're not always on the same sleep schedule, and I still have to get up to take care of one of them," she said. "I'm surprised how long you can function on no sleep."

Laker, 31, said she was elated when she got the news she would have twins.

"I felt like I'd won the lottery. We always wanted a large family and this seemed a good way to get there," she said, adding that she also has a 3-year-old. "I felt flattered I was one of the chosen few."

As much as Laker loves the full house, though, she and her husband are wary of increasing the brood.

"After having twins, the odds of having them again is five times higher," she said. "So we're a little hesitant to try again."

North Idaho College will present a series of lectures in March and April focused on health topics. Each seminar will be from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday nights inthe Meyer Health and Sciences Building Room 106.

"Asbestos: Its Structure, Uses and Abuses"will be presented March 23. NIC Natural Sciences Instructor Bill Richards will lecture on the varied structures of asbestos and where it comes from as well as recent data on the health risk involved with asbestos exposure.

University of Idaho Professor of Foods and Nutrition SeAnne Safaii Fabiano will present "Current and Future Approaches to Nutrition and Cancer Prevention" April 6. The presentation will explore the role of diet and bioactive food component as modifiers of cancer and tumor behavior.

Dr. Michael Coats, director of Kootenai Health Sleep Disorder Center, will discuss "Sleep Apnea" April 13. The presentation will cover signs of sleep apnea, such as snoring, waking up gasping for breath and frequent fatigue. Participants will learn about its causes, consequences and cures.

"What Makes Bubonic Plague So Deadly: New Insights from Genomic Studies" will be presented by University of Idaho Researcher Scott Minnich, Ph.D., April 20. The lecture will cover the agent of plague and three recorded pandemics with an estimated 200 million deaths.

The series is sponsored by the North Idaho College and the Idaho Idea Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE).

All lectures are free and open to the public.

Information: (208) 769-3495.