Everything that you've ever wanted to know about being pregnant with twins
Ever since the world found out that we are having twins, we have been asked so many questions about twin pregnancy. We don't mind answering these questions, we are just as fascinated with twins as the rest of the world. Anyway, I thought that I would put together a list of twin fun facts. Maybe every questions that you've had the burning desire to ask will be answered!
-Fraternal twins occur because the mother released two eggs during ovulation. So it really doesn't matter if dad has twins running on his side of the family or not, he can only pass on the gene to his offspring. Mom on the other hand is responsible. In our case, the only twins that we know of are my great aunt's twin boys. This is what we assume.....my grandfather and great aunt got the twin gene from one of their parents. My grandfather passed this gene onto my dad. My dad passed it onto me. Since males can only pass on the gene, that is why twins never happened with any of their children. And then, low and behold, since I got the twin gene from my dad and since I'm female, I got the twins! Now, we don't really know for sure if this happened, but that is the only reason we have. There are not a lot of twins running in the family. At first it seemed kind of random, and still does a little bit. But I guess there was always the twin gene, there just weren't a lot of girls that got the twin gene. Oh and my great aunt was the only girl in her family.....which is why she was the only one of her siblings to have twins. AND, my great aunt only had boys, so again, her boys could not have twins unless the mother of their children carried the gene for twins. Genes are so fascinating and weird!
-Fraternal twin girls are twice as likely to have twins than singleton girls. So, I will have to make sure that my girls know this when they are making the decision to have babies or not. I assume that Georgia will also be more likely to have twins since I could have passed on this twin gene to her as well. Since we have all girls, there could be lots more twins.....this twin gene has just been waiting patiently for some girls and I guess I am the lucky one to have the girls and the twins!
-Identical twins are random and do not run in families. Only fraternal twins (that were not conceived with fertility assistance) are hereditary. I guess some families do have several sets of identical twins, but from what I've read it's just luck.
-The genetic trait from fraternal twins does NOT skip a generation. That is just an old wives tale. Since males only pass on the gene, it's easy to see why people thought this was true. In our case it skipped several generations before it showed up again. And this time twins could happen in the next generation since we have all girls.
-Women in their 30s are more likely to have twins. Yep, that's me....in my 30s!
-Twins grow at the same rate as singleton babies. So right now, I am 24 weeks pregnant. My babies are not smaller because they are twins. They are pretty much the same size as other babies at 24 weeks. The reason that twins deliver at smaller weights is because they are usually born earlier than singleton babies. If I was able to carry the twins to 40 weeks or so, I would have two babies with "normal" weights. Now Georgia was 9lbs 3oz, I grow em BIG! I don't want two 9 pounders in there, so I'm shooting for 6lbs +.
-Average twin birth weight is 5.5lbs. Teeny tiny little things!
-According the the March of Dimes 60% of all twins are born prematurely. The average twin pregnancy last 35 weeks. My OB is hoping that I making to 38 weeks. Anyway you look at it, this pregnancy is winding down pretty fast. These weeks are going to fly by! I hope that we can get everything done that I want to get done.
So there are just a few things that you may or may not have known about twins. Keep following this blog to hear about our wild ride!
-Fraternal twins occur because the mother released two eggs during ovulation. So it really doesn't matter if dad has twins running on his side of the family or not, he can only pass on the gene to his offspring. Mom on the other hand is responsible. In our case, the only twins that we know of are my great aunt's twin boys. This is what we assume.....my grandfather and great aunt got the twin gene from one of their parents. My grandfather passed this gene onto my dad. My dad passed it onto me. Since males can only pass on the gene, that is why twins never happened with any of their children. And then, low and behold, since I got the twin gene from my dad and since I'm female, I got the twins! Now, we don't really know for sure if this happened, but that is the only reason we have. There are not a lot of twins running in the family. At first it seemed kind of random, and still does a little bit. But I guess there was always the twin gene, there just weren't a lot of girls that got the twin gene. Oh and my great aunt was the only girl in her family.....which is why she was the only one of her siblings to have twins. AND, my great aunt only had boys, so again, her boys could not have twins unless the mother of their children carried the gene for twins. Genes are so fascinating and weird!
-Fraternal twin girls are twice as likely to have twins than singleton girls. So, I will have to make sure that my girls know this when they are making the decision to have babies or not. I assume that Georgia will also be more likely to have twins since I could have passed on this twin gene to her as well. Since we have all girls, there could be lots more twins.....this twin gene has just been waiting patiently for some girls and I guess I am the lucky one to have the girls and the twins!
-Identical twins are random and do not run in families. Only fraternal twins (that were not conceived with fertility assistance) are hereditary. I guess some families do have several sets of identical twins, but from what I've read it's just luck.
-The genetic trait from fraternal twins does NOT skip a generation. That is just an old wives tale. Since males only pass on the gene, it's easy to see why people thought this was true. In our case it skipped several generations before it showed up again. And this time twins could happen in the next generation since we have all girls.
-Women in their 30s are more likely to have twins. Yep, that's me....in my 30s!
-Twins grow at the same rate as singleton babies. So right now, I am 24 weeks pregnant. My babies are not smaller because they are twins. They are pretty much the same size as other babies at 24 weeks. The reason that twins deliver at smaller weights is because they are usually born earlier than singleton babies. If I was able to carry the twins to 40 weeks or so, I would have two babies with "normal" weights. Now Georgia was 9lbs 3oz, I grow em BIG! I don't want two 9 pounders in there, so I'm shooting for 6lbs +.
-Average twin birth weight is 5.5lbs. Teeny tiny little things!
-According the the March of Dimes 60% of all twins are born prematurely. The average twin pregnancy last 35 weeks. My OB is hoping that I making to 38 weeks. Anyway you look at it, this pregnancy is winding down pretty fast. These weeks are going to fly by! I hope that we can get everything done that I want to get done.
23 weeks 6 days pregnant with twin girls.
So there are just a few things that you may or may not have known about twins. Keep following this blog to hear about our wild ride!
Also learned -- identical twins can have separate sacs and placentas in some cases. So even though it is extremely unlikely, it is possible that we are having identical twins. I sure hope not.
ReplyDeleteat my last ultrasound, the tech said that there is like a 2% chance of our twins being identical.....i guess it's that rare for identical twins to share separate sacs and placentas. also ours have a very prominent membrane between their sacs. i guess that identical twins probably wouldn't have that either. but anything is possible!!!
ReplyDeleteI don't think I could handle identical twins! Way too confusing. :)
ReplyDeletei agree....we are really hoping they aren't identical!
ReplyDelete