'The feeling is joy': Ontario family welcomes 2 sets of twins in the same year

Reva Nicholson (right) can be seen alongside her partner Romaine McFarlane (left) with newborns Mya and Moriah. (Handout by Nicholson)

Reva Nicholson describes herself as lucky.

“I would say the feeling is joy,” Nicholson told CTV News Toronto in an interview Thursday. “Of course, there’s some small overwhelm, but mainly it’s joy.”

The 26-year-old Brampton resident just gave birth to her second set of twins – both born in 2022.

In August 2021, Nicholson found out she was pregnant with the first set of twins. The new mother was met with surprise, as she says twins don’t run in her family.

“My initial reaction was shock. I was like, ‘Wait. What? Wow. Unexpected,’” she said.

The first babies – a girl and a boy whom the new parents named Kyra and Shamar – were born on Feb. 24 at just 27 gestational weeks. Kyra weighed in at one pound, and Shamar weighed two. The two are fraternal twins.

 

 

 

 

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Kyra and Shamar were kept at Mt. Sinai’s NICU for about a month and a half, Nicholson said, as both were born with Respiratory Distress Syndrome, a condition that affects newborns when their lungs are not fully developed.

“They had to learn to breathe on their own, learn to eat, and learn to grow,” Nicholson said.

When the babies were cleared for discharge, Nicholson says she and her partner, Romaine McFarlane, were faced with the learning curve of new parenthood.

“We had everything prepped – we had their room setup, we were stocked up on diapers,” she explained. “It was a lot of family support, and scheduling, scheduling, scheduling.”

Just three months later, however, the family was met with a twist of fate they hadn’t prepared for. In May, Nicholson found out she was pregnant for the second time that year – again, with twins.

“I was at the ultrasound appointment, but I didn’t find out because the ultrasound tech told me – it was her reaction,” Nicholson recalled. “She said, ’Give me a minute,' and stepped out of the room, and I immediately knew, ‘It’s twins.’”

“Romaine was very surprised and my family? They were mostly just screaming,” Nicholson said.

Suddenly, the already busy first-time parents were launched into preparation for another set of newborns.

“Romaine was a huge pillar,” Nicholson said when asked how she managed to care for two young babies while also carrying twins.

“I was more vocal and he was doing more of the manpower.”

On Nov. 28, Mya and Moriah were born – this time, one month premature. The girls are also fraternal twins, Nicholson said.

Nicholson is still waiting for Mya and Moriah to be discharged from the NICU, but says they’re both healthy, something she says “is not to be taken for granted.

She says she's been visiting them as much as possible, bonding with them and holding them.

“Welcoming them into the family has been unique in the sense it's been a lot of facetime, a lot of pictures, because [my family can’t] physically be [in the NICU],” she said.

This week, the girls are expected to come home, and Nicholson says she can’t wait.

“I’ll be able to hold all my babies at once.”