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The Twins Tradition
Filed Under: Family History · My Family · family stories · traditions
Filed Under: Family History · My Family · family stories · traditions
When my husband and I were newly married we rented a small apartment in our hometown, Terre Haute, Indiana. Our landlord told us to be prepared to have twins. He said he had rented to quite a few young couples through the years and that each couple who lived there had twins.
The next year I gave birth to one baby girl. My husband called our landlord to give him our news. He was very surprised and probably disappointed to hear that we only had one baby. But he said that he was still confident that we would have twins in the future.
We soon were able to move to a home. Our now former landlord told us to call him as soon as we had our twins. I told him I didn’t think I would ever have twins, but we would let him know if by chance I did. Lo and behold, 14 months later my husband called him to announce that I had given birth to identical twin boys! At the time they were the largest twins to have been born at Union Hospital in Terre Haute (7lbs 2ozs & 7lbs 10ozs).
Identical twins occur in about 1 in 250 births. We soon found out that our twins were also mirror image. This results from a late spilt of the fertilized egg. It is a rather rare happening in humans. So my boys are a rare breed in many outstanding ways!
But what mattered most to our former landlord was that we had not broken the tradition! He said we could thank his apartment for our twins. I’m not sure about that, but I am very thankful for my twin boys and my two daughters who thoughtfully came one at a time.
I hope to hear from anyone who had larger twins or ones that are mirror image.
January 10th, 2008 at 10:30 am
How old are your twins? Mine are not identical, and I had them with my 2nd pregnancy. Their oldest sister was still in diapers when they were born.
It was like having triplets for me. I stayed in my nightgown most of the time during those breast milk feeding days! They were born 5 wks prematurely and weighed 5.10oz and 6.9 oz. They came early due to a virus(coughing) that remained with me for 3 months.
Everytime I would cough, a contraction would occur. Perhaps, this was a good thing, because there wasn’t much room inside. I was bedded down for a month or so.
I had them naturally as there wasn’t time to think of my comfort. The doctor caught one while he was still trying to put his surgical glove on. To this day, the one who came out first, still calls herself the older sister (by 3 minutes).
January 22nd, 2008 at 1:45 pm
Dear Rosalinda,
Thanks for your comment. My twins are 37 years old. Their older sister was 14 months old when they were born so I can relate to your circumstances. Mine are 4 minutes apart. One was head first, the other feet first so the doctor flipped the one coming the wrong way. It was a successful “flip” but not much fun. Mine were natural also.