Last night we went to our third of five Twins Classes put on by Swedish. I can't tell you how much I dislike going to these things - the late hours, the forced comaraderie, the oversharing - but Ashley is adamant that we attend, so every Wednesday we trudge up to First Hill from downtown for class from 6:00 to 9:00.

The first class two weeks ago started, after the totally uncomforatable "get to know you" part (we haven't brought up Charlotte because we don't want to freak out the new parents-to-be any more than they already are, which means we have to pretend to be innocent first-timers), with a movie about conception and cell division. I don't know about the other 14 couples attending, but I already knew how I got into this situation. What I need is advice on how to manage it.

The second class, last week, was all doom and gloom. The basic message, at least to my ears, was: Your kids will be premature and, after your Caesarian, they will spend up to five weeks in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) with tubes up their noses before you can take them home and try to bond with them. For already overly anxious parents this was not good material to contemplate for a week.

Last night's class started with a movie about Caesarians, both in real life and computer animated. Scary stuff, but now that I've seen it I'm less scared. And if that is what it takes to get those kids out safely we are in favor.

Then came what we've been waiting for: The Panel Discussion. Our teacher had 12 parents of twins aged three months to 14 months come in and talk to us about everything they had gone through. And they had been through a lot: preeclamsia, bed rest, prematurity, Caesarians, NICU, feeding problems, post-partum depression, you name it. But they were all really happy and wouldn't change a thing. So we learned a lot - most importantly that despite all the crazy medical stuff we will encounter in the next couple of months it will all be worth it.