Garcelle Beauvais-Nilon’s twin boys Jax Joseph and Jaid Thomas who are now 11 weeks old make their debut in Pregnancy Magazine March 2008 issue.Beauvais did a lengthy interview where she talked about giving birth and motherhood.
On how she’s feeling:
I’m very tired. My birthday’s tomorrow and my husband said, ‘What do you want?’And I said, ‘Just a good night’s sleep — that’ll come really cheap to you — no diamonds, no bag, no shoes, I just want to sleep.’
Why her twins were delivered six week early by c-section:
I was showing signs of preeclampsia. My urine had no protein, all the tests came back negative, but my blood pressure was really high, my feet were swollen, and I kept getting headaches.
So they took me to the hospital a couple of times and then had me going for observation. The last time I went, they kept me overnight and gave me Tylenol all throughout the night to see if the headache would go away, and it didn’t.
The boys were fine. Since I had gone in the week before with the same sort of symptoms, they had given me two shots of a steroid to help their lungs to develop quicker in case we needed to take them out. So they could breathe on their own, and we stayed in the hospital for four days, and we were all home together, which is what I was hoping for
On her recovery:
I actually got reprimanded at the hospital because I was doing too much. They said, ‘Um, this isn’t a party!’ I was having people in my room; I had music on; I was walking around. It helped that I was in pretty good shape, for sure.
On losing the baby weight:
This is funny: I’m at Babies R Us and I’m in line buying diapers, and this woman behind me says, ‘Oh my God, look how tiny those diapers are! How old are they?’ And I said, ‘Two weeks.’ She looks me up and down and says, ‘Are they yours?’ and I go ‘Yeah, I can’t tell you what happened. I mean, my weight just went away. I’m a freak of nature,’ and she just gave me the dirtiest look!
I was cracking up — I called my mom from the parking lot. But I really didn’t do anything — it just all went away. I think that prior to getting pregnant, I had been really working out a lot, since I did the Playboy cover shoot. So I think with that, it probably helped me shed the weight.
On being a pregnant celebrity:
I have to say this is the best time to have a baby, because it’s sort of celebrated now. And thank God maternity fashion has gotten better. It seems like people are much more embracing of pregnant women and bellies.
On her favorite brands:
I loved J. Brand jeans — A Pea in the Pod carries them. And I also loved Velvet, which also has a pregnancy line for A Pea in the Pod.
On being 41 and having newborn twins:
I’m not as stressed as when I had [my oldest son] Oliver 16 years ago. My career was just starting and I was younger, so I was a little nervous about that. Now, I think, because people have embraced babies and going back to work, I’m definitely more at ease with it all. I’m not as stressed with the boys.
Friends will come over and say, ‘Oh my God, you’re so calm.’ But I think that’s because I’ve done it, and being older makes it that much easier mentally.
On her fertility issues:
I’m really proud that my body handled it as well as it did. For a while, I was really disappointed that we couldn’t get pregnant, and when we did, it didn’t stick, so I had to overcome a lot mentally. I’m very pleased
On advice for first-time moms:
Try to be relaxed. I think kids feed off our energy. Just take care of yourself, try to eat right, and don’t worry about trying to do everything.
I think in this day and age we put so much pressure on ourselves to be the best mom, the best wife, the best career woman. At the end of the day, you can only do what you can do.