Miracle grandma ‘I got two sets of twins in one day!’
Fiona Smith’s wish for grandkids was very much granted! &
Tearing from room to room with a baby bottle in one hand and throw rug in the other, Fiona Smith’s feet have barely touched the ground since she became a grandmother to four grandsons.
The 58-year-old had long pined for grandkids – but nothing could have prepared her for the arrival of four in one day!
On November 26 last year, Fiona’s daughter Joanne gave birth to fraternal twin boys – then her son Sam became a dad to identical twin boys just 24 hours later.
“I’m ‘Granny Smith’,” Fiona laughs over the sound of newborn cries. “Well, that’s what the kids are pushing to call me anyway!”
Her new role has her stressing one minute and soothing the next – but it’s clear she’s easily slipped into grandmother mode.
“It seems like there’s never a moment that I don’t have a baby in my arms,” says the first-time granny, who had been asking for grandkids for two years before the new additions arrived.
“I’ve already forgotten what life was like without them all. It’s so full-on, there was a two-week period when I don’t remember even talking to my husband – not an in-depth conversation, anyway,” says Fiona, who works as a newborn hearing scanner and lives in Mindarie, WA .
Her husband Leslie, 58, says with a wink, “Just last year, Fiona was wondering if we’d ever have grandchildren. Our 31-year-old son Sam and his wife Mel were
right into their careers, and our daughter Jo, 29, and her husband Chris, 31, were travelling.
“Nine months later, they’ve had their wings clipped, and we have an instant new family!”
In fact, Sam and Jo having twins so close together is such a big coincidence Guinness World Records has indicated they could qualify for their very own category – The Shortest Time Between Two Siblings Having Twins.
“We’re just waiting to hear back,” says first-time dad Sam, who lives in Melbourne with 30-year-old Mel.
“It’s not like we planned this. We never contemplated having children at the same time – both pregnancies were accidental.”
Interestingly, twins don’t run in any of the families involved.
“When my sister Jo rang me to tell me she was having twins, I knew we were as well but I didn’t want to steal her thunder,” reveals Sam. “So we waited another day before breaking the news.”
Mel adds, “When we rang back, Jo said, ‘I bet you’re having twins too, just to out-do me,’ and I said, ‘I am!’ We both screamed down the phone in excitement.”
A contest then began between the couples.
“We girls would say to the boys that we were premium babymaking machines,” jokes Mel, who works in IT.
“Then they would say that the reason we were both having twins was because they contributed the ‘super swimmers’.”
Mel and Jo would also send each other into fits of laughter as they swapped pictures of their junk food binges and ‘cankles’.
“I’d eat a whole box of Maltesers then make up some excuse about putting the rubbish out myself so Sam wouldn’t see how much I was eating!” laughs Mel.
Then, at 34 weeks, Mel was diagnosed with pre-eclampsia and had to have an emergency caesarean. As a result, she wasn’t able to introduce Axel and Benji to their grandma until they were six weeks old.
“I felt sad because I couldn’t be there for both births,” says Fiona, who reveals she was more worried about the birth of her grandchildren than she was when she had her own kids.
“Everyone’s shocked when I tell them I got four in one day. It was all so exciting and I wanted to scream the news from the rooftops.
“The boys all have different personalities. Cooper is very serious, Hunter never sits still, Axel is a smiley baby and Benji – who is the easiest to identify because of the birthmark on his finger – is very alert.
“I’m glad I work, because Christmas and birthdays are really going to be a financial strain now – but it’s a lovely problem to have!”
‘It was so exciting and I wanted to scream the news from the rooftops!’