Julie and Jennifer Enter Our World
Eleven and one-half months after second son David John was born, Joanna and I welcomed identical twin daughters, Julie Lynn and Jennifer Louis into our family.
It was early summer in 1966, school was out and I had taken a new teaching position with the Elmbrook School District (Brookfield and Elm Grove) as a fifth grade teacher. I was working a summer job in Brookfield doing maintenance work. Joanna was back in Janesville. Our first house on 1012 N. Oakhill Ave. was sold and soon would be vacated.
Joanna’s pregnancy was considered a high risk since she had miscarriages in the previous years and so she was required to stay home in Janesville until the birth of the twins. To assist Joanna Grandma Wunrow (Ruth) spent the weekdays in Janesville while I worked my summer job and stayed with Grandpa W. (Alfred), Monday through Friday. Then on the weekends Grandma and I exchanged places. Our plan was that we would move to our new house in Greenfield just as soon as possible after the birth of the twins, who were expected sometime in late July. We were advised by our Pediatrician that the birth would likely be earlier than the late July due date.
Early in the morning of June 23 the phone at 1349 S. 85th St. in West Allis, my Dad’s house, rang waking us up. It was my mother, announcing that she was preparing to take Joanna to the hospital. As Grandma Ruth told the story, she (Ruth) was ready and waiting in the car with motor running just minutes after Joanna told her it was time to go. Immediately it dawn on me that this we the early hours of my birthday, June 23. My Mom said she asked about names on the way to the hospital and she and Joanna decided on Julie, a variation of my maternal grandmother Julia (Johnson) Benson’s name. The second name selected was Jennifer Louise (a variation of my paternal grandmother Louise (Schroeder) Wunrow. As I recall we didn’t know the sex of the expected twins, but Joanna had obviously been thinking about names I am sure.
By the time I made it to the hospital not long after dawn (sixty miles) the twins were with us, the names were securely chosen. Julie was first and weighted 4’7” and Jennifer was 4’2”. The girls were each in an isolette, a device for premature intensive care. Over the next week they lost weight (about 8 ounces) and remained in the nursery until they were five pounds.
They were bottle-fed by a nurses. We also had them baptized by one of the pastors at St. Paul’s Lutheran in Janesville. Like the nurses he used the membrane access holes to baptize each baby.
Mom was released after four or five days. Since we couldn't bring them home immediately we decided to complete the move to our Greenfield house and set it up for the arrival of our twin baby girls. On the thirtieth day of their life we returned to Janesville and brought Julie and Jennifer to their new home and to meet their two brothers, Jeffery and David. We worried about being away from the babies for over for so many days, but we were assured that they would receive loving nurturing touches from the nurses in our absence. We also wanted our new house to be completely ready for them when they came home.
You can only imagine the joy that flowed when we introduced Jeff and David to their new baby sisters.
A couple of weeks later our new twin girls, Julie and Jennifer, had their baptism affirmed in a ceremony at Divine Shepherd Lutheran in Milwaukee and their godparents were their grandparents Winnifred and Ernest Mueller and Ruth and Al Wunrow.
For my Wunrow parents the twins were the first grand daughters born after nine grandsons. Further, I was one of three sibling sons to my parents. Twin girls was cause for considerable celebration in our family. Strangely, Joanna and I subsequently were grandparents to sixteen grandchildren, and twelve of the sixteen are boys.
