Abby Carlsen had her eye on her sister’s fingers. The twins were sitting a few inches apart, perched on the laps of visiting relatives. While the grownups chatted, Abby leaned in and pulled Belle’s left hand tantalizingly close to her mouth. She could almost taste it, when Belle jerked her hand away.
So close, and yet so far.
It was so much easier when they were conjoined.
The Carlsen twins, now 8 months old, are still adjusting to the way life has changed since they were separated at the Mayo Clinic in May. And so are their parents.
Now that they’re back home, there are no more doctors and nurses underfoot, no more feeding tubes to worry about, no more life-and-death decisions to make.
Amy and Jesse Carlsen and the twins could have been mistaken for foreign dignitaries when they arrived at the Rochester, Minn., airport for the flight home in early June. A small jet awaited them. Photographers snapped their pictures. Jesse placed the babies’ car seats on the floor of the hangar and gazed around, a little awestruck.
The day before, the Mayo Clinic had tossed them a farewell to remember.
Their extraordinary journey, from the birth of conjoined twins to the dramatic separation surgery in front of news cameras, had elevated the family to celebrity status.
But on the morning of July 5 something like normalcy seem to have returned. Jesse got dressed for work. A state highway engineer, he had taken six months off, thanks to co-workers who had donated vacation time. Now that was over.
The in-laws were gone, too, back to Montana and New York. The publicity had died down. This day, Amy would be alone with the girls.
As Jesse got ready to leave, Amy felt a little panic-stricken. Stay, she thought. Don’t go.
She only half meant it. Nerve-racking though it was, this was the moment she had dreamed of.
Through the weeks of intensive care after the babies first were born, through the months in Rochester and then nursing them through recovery, she had had one goal: to be a normal mom with normal twins.
Around 7 a.m., Jesse headed out. The door clicked shut behind him.
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Amy sipped her coffee. The house was quiet. It was nice to have a moment to herself. But a moment was all she got.
One of the girls began to stir.
Amy set down her coffee cup and headed for the nursery.