The Perks of Having Higher Order Multiples?

In June the world saw it’s first double sextuplet birth. Two mothers, in two separate states, gave birth to sextuplets on June 11th. The Morrisons, a couple in Minnesota gave birth at 20 weeks via c-section. The Masche’s gave birth at 30 weeks and 4 days (this is a very long pregnancy for sextuplets) also via c-section. (On a side note, can you imagine pushing out 6 babies? Really no one can. . .sextuplets are always delivered via c-section.) Sadly for the Morrisons, five of their six sextuplets died. The remaining sextuplet remains in the hospital in critical condition. To … Continue reading →

IVF Babies Are More Sickly

A new study published last week in London in the medical journal Human Reproduction, is warning parents that there are some risks to the baby associated with IVF. Many of the illnesses are common child hood problems and others are more serious. Among several hundred children studied, IVF babies tended to: *males born via IVF have a higher incidence of infertility *spend more time in the hospital *be more likely to suffer from heart defects *be at a higher risk for autism and cerebral palsy *be admitted to the hospital more often and spend more time there *be more prone … Continue reading →

Have Mercy on the Twin Moms!!!

If you’ve ever done this or are guilty of doing it I will state up front that I forgive you. While I realize not all MOMs (mothers of multiples) are like me, I belong to a few forums for twin mommies and I have to tell you that the majority of us. . .well, we are. Especially those of us who are watching twins and other children at the same time. As shocking as it may seem, we don’t love all the attention that comes with taking the twins out in public. In fact, when moms of multiples see each … Continue reading →

Which One is the Aggressive One?

Or insert any other adjective instead of aggressive. Which one is the shy, mean, nice, one? As a mother of twins I hate this question. It necessarily confines me to label one or the other. Equally annoying however, is the tendency to assume that if one is one way, the other must be the opposite. For example, the girls were recently watched and someone asked which one was the aggressive one? That would be Emily. Hands down–Emily is aggressive. She likes to play physically and is most happy being tossed through the air or wrestled to the ground. She instigates … Continue reading →

How Twins Form Their Own Identity

If you’re looking for a scientific explanation for how twins form their own identities, I don’t have one for you. This is only my own thoughts as my twins grow up and become more and more distinctive every day. This blog was prompted by the comment of a very sweet but elderly lady who noted that the girls were dressed too much alike. “Sure they look cute. But they’ll never form their own identities that way,” she admonished. Their Own Identity I used to assert with authority that I wanted my twins to form their own identities. It sounds good. … Continue reading →

Twins: To Dress Alike or Not

One of the first decisions I made when I found out I was pregnant with twins was that I was never going to dress my girls alike. It was important to me for them to establish their own identities, and I believed dressing them differently would help to begin the process. Than came the baby shower. Every gift I received contained two matching items from blankets and sleepers to hats and dresses. They were all adorable. I caved a little. I thought that I could use the outfits on the babies on separate days, but then thought it would be … Continue reading →

Ask a Baby Blogger: Feeding on Demand, Twins and Your Sanity

Question: Did you keep your twins on the same schedule? I’m trying to breastfeed on demand but I am going crazy–I need more sleep! As a mother of twins, I can tell you that EVERYONE who has twins goes through this sleep deprivation and it is hard. I can’t tell you how many mothers I’ve talked to who say, “If there were one baby I could do this. . .but two?” My first piece of advice is do whatever you have to do to get some help. Plenty of mothers of singletons have help for the first month or so. … Continue reading →

Twin Births on the Rise

Since the early 70s, twin births have increased and what was once rare, the multiple births are since increased more than 200 percent in the last three decades. Twin births occur once in every 35 births with significant increases to triplets and more. One reason for this leap in multiple births has been associated with fertility treatments and fertility drugs. Medical intervention is considered the reason for multiple births that result in quadruplets and more. According to the Center for Disease Control, 43% of the births associated with fertility treatments resulted in multiples. Still, are fertility drugs the only reason … Continue reading →

Taming the Green Monster in Twins

I have recently come to the realization that my former “tried and true” techniques for taming jealousy in my other children have come to fall significantly short. There has always been the expectation that the oldest child is required to be slightly more gracious to a younger sibling simply because they are older and are capable of understanding more complex directions. However, Emily’s seventeen minutes of seniority over her sister have no effect on her ability to understand more complex directions. So, I am left with twin girls who will willingly trample each other to get to the object of … Continue reading →

Help!!! My Twins Are Walking

Those of you who have followed my blogs likely know a few things about me: I homeschool, I am an ardent advocate for breastfeeding, and I have twinfants. Twins are, as I’ve said before, exponentially harder than having one at a time. And in our house, it has just gotten even harder. We have jumped the gap between twinfanthood and now we’re into twoddlerhood! It all started when our cute, cuddly, didn’t-roll-anywhere babies started to get the idea that they could see better if they rolled over. This was fine. . .until they figured out that they could roll off. … Continue reading →