Twins

So I have continued to read and it appears that one of two things has caused twins...hyper-ovulation, or spontaneous identical twins.  Incase you missed it before identical twins are always spontaneous and there is no known cause for them.  Below is an exerpt I read today:

"Because hyper-ovulation (releasing two or more eggs at one time) can be inherited, it is common to have several sets of fraternal twins throughout many generations in one family. These fraternal twins are generally considered hereditary.


It's a common misconception that twins only come down through the mother's side. This only holds true when the father is the one with twins in the family or is a twin himself and he is also the one trying to conceive twins. To put it a bit more simply, the male only provides the sperm, whereas, the female is the one who either ovulates two eggs (fraternal twins) or one egg that splits (identical twins). That's why a woman can still inherit the hyper-ovulation gene from a grandmother, aunt, etc. on her father's side. But her father would not have had any hereditary chance of having twins himself when he had his child/children.

An added reason for having fraternal twins is the age of the mother at conception. The chance of fraternal twins is more prevalent in women 35 years of age and older. And yet another growing cause of fraternal twins is the use of fertility treatments. If you are undergoing these treatments, your doctor will have already informed you of the possibility of a multiple birth."

Some interesting factors that are related to twining:

"Height & Weight-Some more recent studies have concluded that the fraternal twinning rate increases substantially in obese women, as well as women with an above average height. Although the reasons are not completely clear thers is some sort of correlation.

Eating Dairy Products-Another study done a few years ago has shown that women who consume dairy products, as opposed to those who don't seem to be five times more likely to get pregnant with twins. Probably linked to the insulin-like growth factor (IGF).

Already Having A Set Of Twins-It seems that women who have already had a set of fraternal twins are a bit more likely to have another set of twins as opposed to a woman who has only had singletons. This may be linked to the hyper-ovulation gene. "  *This last one seems like a really good reason to stop having children...or win the lottery.

So whose ready for Elizabeth to have a baby?  I am ready for her to roll the dice!

Easter Egg Hunt

Jake turned 2 this month so to celebrate we went to Jake's house for an Easter Egg Hunt.  Riley had a great time.  Angela showed him the ropes and he had honed his egg hunting skills in no time!

Let's try this poll, now...

Girl/Boy, Boy/Boy, or Girl/Girl...what do you think???

The easiest way to figure out if these twins are fraternal or not would be to discover that we are having one girl and one boy.  What do you think?  See the poll on the side and vote. 

Yesterday, Michael came downstairs and said, "You are having two girls."  He said he had dreamed it and was pretty certain God was delivering the message to him to say, "Get over it!"  I asked later on how certain he was that they were both girls and he said he was 85% certain. 

I personally think he had the dream just because so many people have commented on how it would be "karma" for Michael to get twin girls (thank you carolyn, jason and tracy) or poetic justice.  To further understand why they feel this way, see an email below, back from when we were pregnant with Riley.  He sent this to his sisters.  (I left the spelling as Michael originally did it)

"Ow and metioned to God after you ask for the baby to be born healthy and the mother to come through everything okay, ask that it be a boy. Just if you can fit it in there, obviously not as important as the other request, but just in case God is feeling extra generious."

**Note, if you want to vote on what you think we are having, you have to be signed in, just as if you were leaving a comment. 

Is it wrong to wish triplets on my friends??

What do you think?  You are probably wondering if you are the friend I am wishing it on?  I have actually narrowed that wish down to a couple people...still wondering if it is you?  I will settle for another set of twins if that makes you feel better!  The first time I went through pregnancy I had several dear friends going through it all at the same time and one of my best friends had a 1 year old (my god-daughter) so I had alot of guidance...now this time around I have friends who are pregnant with me...but I really want someone else to be learning about multiples...so they can teach me! 

I am honestly to tired to sit and read when I get home from work, so I have only gotten about 60 pages into my multiples book, and Gie Gie is super busy trying to get settled into their new house that they are in the process of buying...not to mention all of the sewing she has to get done!  We recently realized that we only have one Christening gown!  So now she is working on trying to get another one created to go with the one she made before my cousin Caroline was born.  She has her work cut out for her!

So I first said we know that these twins are fraternal, I was wrong.  They are most likely fraternal, but we cannot know that for sure yet.  I first said multiples do not run in our families, and then we thought maybe their was a link, but now we are back to there not being a link!  It is all very confusing.  So below I am going to share some info I stole off another mothers blog who has fraternal twins.  Her research matches up with what I have read so far:

-The average woman has a 3% chance of having twins, this is a 1 in 89 chance.  (There is magic math involved here...I know this makes no sense but it is what i have read)

-Most likely these twins are fraternal because they are in seperate sacs with seperate placentas.  Identical twins are more likely to have shared placentas or sacs depending on when the egg splits.  However, if the egg splits in the first three days while it is traveling down the falopian tube then you can have seperate sacs, so at this point we cannot know for sure!

-Fraternal twins are hereditary.  Identical are not. 

-Identical twins are a complete fluke and doctors do not fully understand why it happens.

-The fraternal twin gene can be passed down to children either by the father or the mother.  However, a man carrying the gene cannot effect the outcome of his own children being multiples. 

-The fraternal twin gene does not skip a generation.  If a woman is a fraternal twin, she's more likely to have fraternal twins. 

Now this last little bit I am stealing from another blog, and I am going to be reading more on it, because I do not fall into either of these categories as far as we can figure. 

-In order for a woman to get pregnant with fraternal twins, she would have to have the gene somewhere in her family (in most cases).  Otherwise, it would most likely be due to fertility treatments.  The gene, or the fertility treatments cause a woman to produce excess amounts of FSH, the follicle stimulating hormone, therefore allowing her to release 2 or more eggs at a time. 

For those of you who heard me say that we found out multiples do run in the family...I was wrong.  Two of Grandmary's syblings did have multiples, one a set of identical triplets, and another a set of twins.  However, these were both brothers of hers and therefore the multiple gene was in the mother who is not a blood relative of mine.  So I am still just a random 3 percenter. 

Anybody know anything else they want to teach me about twins?  Anything above sound incorrect?  And I promise to post some pictures soon, so Michael don't bother with your snarky comments!

A Day Out with Thomas April

Yesterday, Michael and I took Riley to Calera for "A Day Out with Thomas".  Riley now considers himself to be quite the world traveler having been to the famous and imaginary Island of Sodor.  For those of you who are not aware the Island of Sodor is where Thomas the Tank Engine and all of his other engine friends live and work.  We met the McElroys there and the kids had a blast.  Below are some of the pictures from our outing. 

On Tuesday

I did not feel well on Monday night, so I got in the bed early, but could not sleep.  I woke up at 4:30 in the morning for probably the 3^rd or 4^th time and went to the bathroom.  I discovered I was bleeding and it looked pretty heavy to me.  I did not call the doctor bc I knew there was nothing they could do if the pregnancy was failing.  SO I laid in the bed and waited and waited until I could call my boss and the doctor at a reasonable hour.  I stayed in the bed all morning and then got in to see the doctor at 1:00.  We did an ultrasound and I did not want to look at the screen, then the tech said, “we have two heartbeats…” so I looked.  Both babies were doing great, Baby B had a growth spurt and was measuring 11 weeks and 5 days, just like Baby A.  Baby B’s heartbeat was 173, and Baby A’s heartbeat was 180.  She checked everything out and found no reason for the bleed on the ultrasound, and then we saw the doctor.  The doctor did an exam and he said the bleed, wherever it was, had stopped.  So he told me to go home and lay low for the rest of the day, but said I could go back to work the next day.  I have had no other problems.  I ended up going ahead and getting the Rho-gam shot, since there was blood involved.  He said that I needed to take it easy for the next two weeks and that I could keep up my normal activities for now.  So I am still free to go on my next sales trip and work as usual for now. 

Beautiful Weather this weekend...