Having Twins

PANDA_IHB

New member
Do you or someone you know have twins? What has your experience been like raising them and do you have to buy double of everything? Can you buy one big baby bed and draw a line in between or do you need to buy two seperate baby beds? Just curious?



I've heard that having twins is a serious pain in the short-term, but a tremendous blessing in the long term.
 
Whew...! i saw that there was already a topic on Twins Group under Parenting, but not related to the topic i started.



Hmmm. so here are some other questions i am curious about. What percentage of the babies born are twins compared to a single born? Are having twins more common among caucasian couples than it is with Asians?
 
[quote author="PANDA" date=1253402148]Whew...! i saw that there was already a topic on Twins Group under Parenting, but not related to the topic i started.



Hmmm. so here are some other questions i am curious about. What percentage of the babies born are twins compared to a single born? Are having twins more common among caucasian couples than it is with Asians?</blockquote>


IIRC, the likelihood of having twins naturally is often determined by genetics (i.e., those from families with twins are more likely to have twins themselves). I think twins (or multiple births) have become more common due to the increase in fertility treatments that pop multiple eggs at the same time or due to invitro which fertilizes multiple eggs expecting some percentage of them to fail.
 
[quote author="EvaLSeraphim" date=1253403968][quote author="PANDA" date=1253402148]Whew...! i saw that there was already a topic on Twins Group under Parenting, but not related to the topic i started.



Hmmm. so here are some other questions i am curious about. What percentage of the babies born are twins compared to a single born? Are having twins more common among caucasian couples than it is with Asians?</blockquote>


IIRC, the likelihood of having twins naturally is often determined by genetics (i.e., those from families with twins are more likely to have twins themselves). I think twins (or multiple births) have become more common due to the increase in fertility treatments that pop multiple eggs at the same time or due to invitro which fertilizes multiple eggs expecting some percentage of them to fail.</blockquote>


Would you say that this type of genetics ("having twins") come from the men or the woman's side?
 
No idea. I just remember that when Julia Roberts had her twins the stories indicated that it was not surprising since there were many sets of twins in her extended family. {And I am way embarrassed to admit that I read or remembered that.}
 
In my family the youngest daughter has been twins for the last 5 generations without skipping one. I had a twin brother but he died, so did my mother, my grandmother, her mother etc.



My younger brother has twin boys and no you cant just buy one bed, they start to purposely annoy each other before they are even 6 months old, shoving their hands in each others faces, accidentally slapping, grabbing each others noses, sticking their fingers in each others mouths etc.



Its twice the work in my opinion, one cries because hes hungry and the other one starts to cry because the first one is making such a racket.



My nephews are now 6 years old and things are a lot easier for my brother and his wife but the first couple of years were really hard on them.
 
[quote author="GraceOMalley" date=1253406185]Its twice the work in my opinion, one cries because hes hungry and the other one starts to cry because the first one is making such a racket. </blockquote>


It would be twice the work if you just had two crying babies. The sympathy racket makes it exponental 2^2=4 times more work. This theroy is scalable to multiples as:



x = number of births

z = incremental increase in work



or



x^x=z



Triplets = nine fold increase in work.

Quads = sixteen fold increase in work.



Jon and Kate time? Consider joining a circus!
 
Spontaneous fraternal twins are more common in Caucasians that Asians. It varies a lot between different Caucasian ethnic groups and I expect between Asian ethnic groups too. It's an adaptive trait, and the frequency of twinning varies with historical chances of having more surviving offspring from twins than from singletons. Identical twins are substantially rarer, and similar in rates in all ethnic groups. I have no idea whether there are differences in multiple birth rates with fertility treatment.



The rate in Caucasions is about 2%. The responsible gene affects the mother.
 
[quote author="no_vaseline" date=1253407102][quote author="GraceOMalley" date=1253406185]Its twice the work in my opinion, one cries because hes hungry and the other one starts to cry because the first one is making such a racket. </blockquote>


It would be twice the work if you just had two crying babies. The sympathy racket makes it exponental 2^2=4 times more work. This theroy is scalable to multiples as:



x = number of births

z = incremental increase in work



or



x^x=z



Triplets = nine fold increase in work.

Quads = sixteen fold increase in work.



Jon and Kate time? Consider joining a circus!</blockquote>




Blargle. Seriously they have a child army. And while I think that Jon is acting the douche lately I also dont blame him the man hasnt had his nuts attached to his body since he got married. Im pretty sure she kept them in a jar.
 
I am an identical twin. We are alike in so many ways aside from the physical aspect of it.



My parents will tell me we were and still are a handful- but my sister and I are truly best friends.
 
[quote author="Nude" date=1253442471]I can't believe no one has asked...



Are you expecting twins, Panda?</blockquote>


No one asked because I think he has previously asked about just about every possible scenario involving someone having a child and then told us that no, he and his wife were not expecting. It would be funny if just this one time, it was actually happening.
 
Besides the work... I would love to have/have had twins.



I'm not sure how twins feel about that as I've heard stories of the conflicts between siblings so close in age/appearance/etc but personally it would have been nice to grow up with someone the exact same age as myself.



JonKate is a little overboard but even with all the hassles... a big family would be fun. Especially if you get the help/money that they get... but I guess not even that can keep the marriage together (what a waste).
 
[quote author="irvine_home_owner" date=1253575014]Besides the work... I would love to have/have had twins.



I'm not sure how twins feel about that as I've heard stories of the conflicts between siblings so close in age/appearance/etc but personally it would have been nice to grow up with someone the exact same age as myself.



JonKate is a little overboard but even with all the hassles... a big family would be fun. Especially if you get the help/money that they get... but I guess not even that can keep the marriage together (what a waste).</blockquote>


Totally Agree! What would be really cool is to have one boy twin and one girl twin. That way you can see a male resemblance of yourself and a female resemblance of yourself all at the same time.
 
[quote author="PANDA" date=1253587077]That way you can see a [...] female resemblance of yourself...</blockquote>
I would feel bad if a twin sister looked like me... she would get chased out of the city with torches.
 
[quote author="PANDA" date=1253587077]

Totally Agree! What would be really cool is to have one boy twin and one girl twin. That way you can see a male resemblance of yourself and a female resemblance of yourself all at the same time.</blockquote>


Twin frequency can be as high as 10% in some population. In Africa, for example, where one of these population groups exists, one or more of the birth is often killed as soon as the delivery is finished due to connotation with the devil. There is one fertility doctor that are doing commerical in asian tv and he is showing many of his successful patients having multiply births. Other than that, multiple birth is pretty rare, relatively speaking for all east asian population.



Now, as to the twin girl/boy, they are three cases if I can name them all. 1, single egg splited into two, different sperm. 2, different egg, different sperm, and 3, egg fertilized with one sperm, split into two, and dispite having the same gene (XX, XY, or XXY), one developed into a male, while the other developed into a female. The first two types usually look very different. Is the rare identical twin described in the last type what you have in mind?



If I want to see a different version of myself, I will just dress up differently. ;)
 
I have actually never known or met any twins in my lifetime. Although I do remember there were these really cute twin girls in High School (they didn't look exactly like each other and each one had a different style) and I always wondered how cool it would be to have dated both of those twins but alas they both had boyfriends when I was not dating someone.
 
[quote author="PANDA" date=1253587077][quote author="irvine_home_owner" date=1253575014]Besides the work... I would love to have/have had twins.



I'm not sure how twins feel about that as I've heard stories of the conflicts between siblings so close in age/appearance/etc but personally it would have been nice to grow up with someone the exact same age as myself.



JonKate is a little overboard but even with all the hassles... a big family would be fun. Especially if you get the help/money that they get... but I guess not even that can keep the marriage together (what a waste).</blockquote>


Totally Agree! What would be really cool is to have one boy twin and one girl twin. That way you can see a male resemblance of yourself and a female resemblance of yourself all at the same time.</blockquote>


So why the questions on twins? You expecting baby Pandas? I thought Pandas were notoriously bad for mating and that is one of the reasons they are dying off
 
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