Inquiring Minds Want to Know If...

As an educator, I've always believed curiosity to be a wonderful thing. Once I became pregnant with twins and now a mother of twins, my view of curiosity has been altered. It all began with the simple first questions that are asked of all pregnant women, "How far along are you?", "Is this your first?", "Do you know what you're having?" When I would reply with "Twins" the onslaught of questions would then continue, some becoming more personal in nature. I suppose my mood at the time had much to do with the response I would give to these inquiring minds, but I found myself growing more amused and a tad sarcastic as time passed. So here are my most or rather least favourite questions asked or comments made when random strangers learned I was expecting twins.

Them: "Twins!! Wow, were you surprised?"
Me: Absolutely not, I planned it."

Them: "Did you have IVF?" (in vitro fertilization)
Me: "No, I had SEX."
(To which their response was usually one of shock...but hey, you asked.)

Them: "Twins, are they real?"
Me: "As opposed to?"

Them: "Wow, Twins! Did you have help?"
Me: "Yes, my husband played a vital role"

However, the most frequently asked question by far was "Does it run in your family?" The answer to this question is no. While my grandfather had twin sisters, this is completely irrelevant because Molly and Abigail are identical twins. My learning curve of twin knowledge has been rather steep this past year and that knowledge includes the fact that identical twins are NOT genetic and can happen to anyone. Fraternal twins on the other hand are often genetic (passed through the maternal side of the family) or can occur as a result of in vitro fertilization due to the fact that two eggs are implanted in the mother. Throughout our entire pregnancy we had frequent visits to the St. Catharines General for nonstress tests and ultrasounds. At each ultrasound we would inquire how many placentas were visible. One placenta would mean the girls were identical, two would mean they were fraternal. It wasn't until my placenta was sent away for testing that it was determined that my pregnancy was monochorionic-diamniotic meaning that I had one placenta and two amniotic sacs, therefore the girls were IDENTICAL.

Now as the girls and I meet different people in public the questions continue! Here are a few of the more common ones:
"Are they twins?"
"Are they identical?"
"Does it run in your family?"
"Are you breast feeding?" (yup, strangers asking this.)

But the question that everyone wants to know is "Are they sleeping through the night?"

Sigh....

I guess it depends on your definition of "sleeping through the night". The literature I've been reading defines sleeping through the night as a stretch of sleep lasting six hours or longer. We have longer stretches of sleep but sadly we still have the odd middle of the morning feed around 4:30am or so. A few times this week I have been surprised to wake up feeling resting around 7:30am let's hope this a growing trend! Fingers crossed as the girls continue to grow, they will continue to sleep!! They did however give me a great Birthday present of sleeping in until 7:30am! Just awesome!