First of many: Tatura mother Catherine Davis will celebrate her first Mother's Day this year. She is pictured with her twins Orlando (left) and Rocci (right).
Photo by
Holly Daniel
Catherine Davis’ first Mother’s Day as mum to identical twins Orlando and Rocci will be extra special on May 8, as she will also be celebrating her birthday.
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Tatura couple Catherine and her husband Luke had joked about having twins, with the fairly uncommon occurrence on both sides of their families.
On the way to her first scan Catherine remembers she was going to say to Luke, “imagine if it’s twins”, but thought better of it.
“Then I’m lying there and the lady says, ‘oh goodness — it’s twins’,” she said.
“I think we nearly had a heart attack.”
Despite the shock, not much changed for the expecting parents — apart from deciding to find out what genders they would be having before the birth.
“Because there were two we had to know what we were going to have to help prepare ourselves,” Catherine said.
Since becoming a mother to twins on July 22, 2021, Catherine said “everything changed”.
Surprise: Catherine Davis says she and husband Luke were shocked to hear they were having twins.
“Having twins is a life-changing experience,” she said.
“You can’t think of yourself. You’ve got to think, ‘what do I need to for the kids’.”
The twins were born in Shepparton through an emergency caesarian at 35 weeks, about four weeks premature.
Catherine said the boys would need to be monitored for small holes in the heart, but were otherwise healthy despite their early start to life.
Catherine had always wanted to have a family as soon as she settled down.
“[Luke and I] got married in March 2020 and then with COVID we thought we may as well have a baby, and we ended up with two,” she said.
“It’s definitely been a learning curve.
“You learn about strengths you didn’t know you had and it’s dealing with a lot of fears you didn’t know existed.
“It’s a lot of joy, lots of love, a lot of responsibility but it’s definitely worthwhile.”
The boys are now nine-months old and their proud mum said they were “really chilled babies”.
“They keep each other company which is always handy.
“We’ve been pretty blessed with supposedly what twins are like, but I think that’s a credit to my husband and I.
Two is better than one: Orlando and Rocci keep each other company.
“Once we found out we were having twin boys I said to him, ‘we’ve just got to be organised, plan our days and always stay calm’.”
Catherine plans to celebrate her Mother’s Day and birthday double whammy with lunch at a winery.
“To all the mothers out there, we’re all doing such a wonderful, amazing job because we actually sacrifice a lot of our time and day-to-day living for our children,” she said.
“I think all mothers deserve a huge pat on the back.”
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