6/7/11

I'm so excited!! We went to the doctor yesterday for our 16 week check up though it was a week late due to the holiday and scheduling conflicts so we're actually 17 weeks. We got to hear the baby's heartbeat again and this time I didn't laugh...much. I did giggle while the doc was trying to measure me because it felt weird and tickled a little. When she did finally get the measurement it showed that I'm actually measuring a little larger than what I should be. Which could mean my due date is off or that we're having twins.

The first choice is most likely, but the second one wouldn't be a big surprise. Twins run in my family and we were on fertility drugs so both of those things increase our chances of having twins but when you put them together they really increase our chances then if you add in that I'm over 30 then it really really increases our chances. The doc said, "You've probably been prepared for twins," which we were. We always new it was a possiblity and when we saw the fertility doctor he reminded us that multiples is always a risk with treatment. I guess the only way they can tell for sure is with the ultrasound so we'll find out which of those is true when we go in for our ultrasound in 2 weeks!! 

I can't wait! The heartbeat was pretty amazing, but I think the ultrasound is going to be unbelievable. We can't wait to find out what we're having. I hope there's only one in there, but if there's two that's okay too. If there are two then we've decided we're done because the risk of having twins after having twins once is even higher! Besides I think with twins I'd be way too tired to have any more babies. So if it is twins we're hoping for one of each.

My mom's been wishing twins on us so she'd be really excited to get that news. Though it would probably wear off quickly because she is going to be our babysitter.

In our case the twins would most likely be fraternal. That means that two different eggs were fertilized creating two babies as different as any other siblings. These two babies can be of the same gender or opposite. The reason this is most likely for us is because the fertility drug I was on was supposed to do just that, drop two eggs. That doesn't mean that every time someone uses fertility meds they have twins, everything has to be at the right place at the right time just like any other pregnancy. It just gives the man a higher chance of catching one of the eggs and a chance of getting both.

This doesn't mean that if we have twins they couldn't be identical. Identical twins can happen to anyone at any time. Identical twins result from a fertilized egg dividing into two embryos. They have identical DNA, but different fingerprints. 1 in 250 pregnancies in the U.S. results in identical twins.

This is a fun fact: If a set of identical twins marries a set of identical twins and both couples have children their children's DNA would look like siblings not cousins.

Do you know any twins? How much a like are they?