December 12, 2005

I'm still having a hard time coming to terms with this news. I spend a lot of time staring at the ultrasound photos. It's mind boggling.

Don't get me wrong -- Todd and I are thrilled by this blessing and are ecstatic that God has chosen US for this very special mission. But wow...

The more I ready about identical twins, the more I realize how unlikely it is that we have conceived them. It seems that the universal, rounded-off number is about four in every thousand births are identicals. But if you add in some extra variables, the number goes up.

1. White women are the least likely to conceived identicals. Women of African descent are the most likely.
2. Women starting in their mid-to-late 30s into their 40s are more likely to conceive identicals than women in their 20s and early 30s. I am 29 now and will be 30 when the twinkies are born
3. The more pregnancies you've had the more likely you are to get twins. I've had only one.
4. Women in the United States are pretty unlikely to conceive identical twins. There's some debate on who has the highest rate, but it's definitely not the good ol' US of A.

And, contrary to popular belief, identical twins do not run in families. There's nothing genetic about it.

Fraternal twins are genetic. You could have a genetic propensity to ovulate more than one egg in a cycle and conceive two unique babies.

But a zygote that freakishly decides to divide itself into two separate babies is a fluke and something that has nothing to do with the mother or the father's families.

So there's my lesson on identical twins. There is still a small chance these are fraternal twins, but according to Veronica, our sonographer, it's more than likely that it's identical. One embryonic sac = identical twins.

Blessings.