My First Born

In the spring of 2014 I found out I was pregnant with twins and started documenting my journey in a weekly post. I will be periodically posting these past writings, starting from the beginning. This was written January 19, 2015. Karson and Lucy were 15 weeks old. 

Long before our world was full of diapers and sleepless nights, we had another little girl in our lives. From the moment we brought her home, she has meant the world to me. She has always been there to greet me and bring a smile to my face. She comforts me when I’m down, and she rarely leaves my side. I could never handle how cute she was.

My Facebook and Instagram feed were always full of photos of her. She is my dog LuLu, an 18 pound, four year old, hairy Lhasa Apso.

When Karson and Lucy were being born, Lulu stayed with my parents. When we came home and they brought LuLu to us, suddenly in light of the babies and all their glory, LuLu wasn’t the cutest thing I had ever seen anymore. Despite the bath she had just received, she was stinky and hairy and I couldn’t believe how heavy she was compared to my six pound angels.

But it quickly became apparent that not much had changed in LuLu’s eyes. We thought she’d be jealous and act out, but from the beginning, she has treated the babies as an extension of us. She’s never given them more than a little sniff here and there but is always there, protecting and watching over them. Sometimes she looks a little confused like she still hasn’t figured them out yet, but I think she knows what’s up.

And yes, sometimes she drives me crazy. Like when she barks at the sock she’s rolling around on right next to us, just as I’ve gotten the babies asleep. Sometimes it seems like she’s just in the way but that’s a small price to pay for a companion who makes her whole life purpose to be there for you.

We are lucky LuLu has been so good with the babies. I hope she’ll learn to keep a safe distance once they are more mobile and discover they can pull her hair and sit on her and drive her completely mad.

LuLu is an important part of our family and will be around to watch our babies grow. We give her food and shelter, but the love she gives us in return is immeasurable. Even though she’s not the star of the show anymore, in her eyes, she still has a job to do and she’ll keep on with it as long as we’ll let her.