By BETH CHAPMAN / Community Columnist

What could be more challenging than being a nanny to one child?  Being a nanny to twins. Better yet, being a nanny to three sets of twins in the past eight years.

That is what University of Montevallo graduate Heather Bradford has done. She started babysitting years ago and loved the work she did. Even after receiving her degree in biology/pre-med in May of this year, she decided to continue her work as a nanny because it was so rewarding. Her nurturing skills and innate ability to care for a baby or better yet, babies, is obvious from the moment you see her holding one – or two.

Heather is presently keeping 3-month-old twin boys, who live in Riverchase. She said she loves each child she has ever kept and enjoys the opportunity to nurture them and watch them grow.

Watching Heather work and play with the twins is a delight. She holds them, rocks them, changes and feeds them with such comfort and ease. You would think she had been doing this all of her life. Her experience is self-taught and the families with which she has worked love her as much as she loves their children.

Heather works five days a week and, with twins, it is obviously double the work of the typical nanny or mother. Her workday starts at 7:30 a.m. and ends at 5 p.m. It takes a well-planned schedule of feeding and changing the twins every four hours. The secret she said is in keeping a strict schedule and waking one up a little bit earlier to get them started eating before his brother awakens.

Others have a problem telling identical twins apart. Not Heather. She knows every little difference in them from the way they sleep and eat to the amount they weigh. She knows where every dimple is and the thickness of each child’s hair. Oftentimes with identical twins, even the parents can get confused, but not Heather. She’s used to telling them apart. It’s her job and her pleasure.

Keeping one set of twins is impressive, keeping two sets of twins is doubly impressive, but three sets of twins is a record in “multiple” ways.

Beth Chapman, Alabama’s secretary of state, is a Shelby County resident and writes a weekly column for the Shelby County Reporter. You can reach her at bethchapman@bellsouth.net.