A little on the birds and the bees...

Though I am not an obstetric gynecologist, I feel I am correct in the fact that I am about to express. All you doc friends--especially you Brian N., please correct me if I am wrong.

I talked to a fellow a couple weeks ago. He is in his 40's I believe. He has a set of twins and I asked him if he was surprised when he found out that his wife was expecting twins. (We sure were! I was halfway through my pregnancy! At least it wasn't like my friend's mom--she had to be put under during the delivery and when she came to, she found out that two babies were waiting for her, not one!) He told me that he wasn't surprised at all. I questioned further, wondering if twins ran in his wife's family. No he said, twins "ran" in his family.

Okay.

I did not correct him, but boy, he should have been SHOCKED that HIS wife had twins! Sorry to pop your bubble guys, but you have NOTHING to do with your wife having or not having twins/multiples. I realized this when I told people I was expecting twins. Many asked if twins ran in my side of the family or my husband's. I thought about it and realized that asking if twins ran in Lee's family was a silly question. Lee is not a blood relation of mine and I have none of his genes in me. If Lee does have a "twin gene" in him, it will be made manifest when (if) our girls have twins, or if Clark or Cal's daughters have twins/multiples. The fact that Lee's brother has twin girls is a mere coincidence. I am not blood related to his brother or his sister-in-law.

A little on multiple "multiple" pregnancies...

I went in for a yearly check-up several weeks ago and the doctors here thought I had a fibroid tumor. That of course made me a little anxious. I have always been "healthy" and even when pregnant have had no complications. After some blood work I was told that the tumor was benign, which was a relief; but still, the thought of a benign tumor wasn't that great either.

My doctor sent me to a specialist to double check the whole tumor thing. The ultrasound technician didn't think it was a fibroid, but wasn't quite sure what it was. The doctor came in and got a good look at the dark spot showing up on the ultrasound screen. It was the remnants of a twin! He showed me a faint line of a spinal cord and something else, but I can't remember.

They also looked at my other baby, which looks healthy and well--a boy, due May 31. It may seem odd and maybe unfeeling to some of you, but the news that I didn't have a tumor and that it was a "vanishing twin", was wonderful. I never saw the twin in baby form. It hasn't completely vanished yet either. It will eventually be reabsorbed, probably into my placenta, or will deliver when baby number FIVE is born.

Wow. Five kids sounds like a lot! I don't know how my mom had 10 or how Lee's mom had seven! My mom tells people she had them one at a time. That is not the case for me. Two twin pregnancies so far...hmm...I wonder if my sisters will have twins too!

I wonder if I'll have triplets next...



Child #1 and child #5 in the same picture.