A new mum has told of the ᴜɴᴜsᴜᴀʟ ʀᴇᴀᴄᴛɪᴏɴ she faced after sharing a video of her holding her ᴛᴡɪɴ girls online. Alexis LaRue, 22, went ᴠɪʀᴀʟ after posing with her seven-month-old ᴛᴡɪɴs, with viewers left sᴛᴜɴɴᴇᴅ at their size. She was ᴀᴄᴄᴜsᴇᴅ of overfeeding the girls – who are both 21lbs – and had to share a video of her weighing her babies to prove their size. Alexis, from Minneapolis–Saint Paul in Minnesota, U.S.A, weighed 108lbs (49kg) and 5’3″ before she became ᴘʀᴇɢɴᴀɴᴛ, but at 38 weeks along she’d increased to 180lbs (82kg).
She ɢᴀᴠᴇ ʙɪʀᴛʜ to her baby girls in March with Camila arriving at 9:52 am weighing 6lbs 6oz and Elena one minute later at 6lbs 7oz. Now, at nearly seven months old, the cute tots have already tripled their ʙɪʀᴛʜ weight at almost 21lbs each. Alexis said: “They just really seem to enjoy trying new foods. Whenever I am eating something, they always stare at me as if they’re waiting for me to give them some.”
Though her fiancé, Leo Mejia, 23, is certainly taller than her at 5’11”, Alexis was not expecting her baby girls to be quite so big. she said: “In the ᴛᴡɪɴ community, it’s pretty normal to expect babies around 5 lbs. or less. I had already bought preemie-sized clothes for the ᴛᴡɪɴs, as I thought they were going to be very small.” She added: “However, with the combined weight of almost 13 lbs., the girls went straight into newborn and have been growing very rapidly since,” , calling them “fast growers.” They are now in the 98th percentile for height and wear clothes for a 12-month to 18-month-olds. The average weight for a seven-month-old girl is 16.8 lbs.
Alexis had been regularly sharing videos of the ᴛᴡɪɴs on TɪᴋTᴏᴋ when, in September, she saw a ᴠɪʀᴀʟ clip of another mother of ᴛᴡɪɴs holding both with one arm while doing other tasks. Alexis tried to do it herself — though it was clearly a struggle. She said: “I tried to copy that girl — you know, everyone knows her. It is not for the ᴡᴇᴀᴋ. I don’t know if I’m just ᴡᴇᴀᴋ, or my babies are just chunky,” holding the girls with one arm.
The video has since been viewed 48.2 million times, and Alexis has shared more clips of herself juggling the ᴛᴡɪɴs. She has also shared a clip of Leo holding the babies in which they look much smaller by comparison. she told :”No one believes they’re mine!” Speaking about her ᴘʀᴇɢɴᴀɴᴄʏ in one TɪᴋTᴏᴋ video, Alexis revealed that she has “always been really Tɪɴʏ” and weighed around 105 lbs. before she ᴄᴏɴᴄᴇɪᴠᴇᴅthe ᴛᴡɪɴs. However, during her ᴘʀᴇɢɴᴀɴᴄʏ, Alexis says she “gained 80 lbs.” and “got really big”, with the mother-of-two admitting: “I don’t know how I did it but our bodies are amazing.”
While most commenters are kind about her videos, a few have made some ʀᴜᴅᴇ comments. Some people say things like, “Oh, they’re gonna be NFL players,” and “together they weigh more than you,” or “stop feeding them so much,” but I don’t let it get to me. They’re getting just the right amount of milk. They’re happy and healthy and that’s all that matters. Some people just have big babies! She added: “Their pediatrician has not had any concerns about their sizes, they are simply very fast growers.”
