Possibility of Twins?

Ok it has already been said, but I just to reinforce the facts:
1. Fraternal twins can be genetic on the woman's side only (has nothing to do with the man). What is genetic is the propensity to release two eggs each month when you ovulate.

2. The older you are, the more likely you are to have identical twins, not fraternal.

3. I had idential twins 20 months ago and I was sick the entire pregnancy (mainy at night), but this is not a great indicator as my friend isnow pregnant with twins and has not had any sickness at all.

In the case of multiples your HCG levels multiply at a higher rate than with singletons, yes.

If you suspect that you may be carrying multiples you can ask for blood work to be done every other day to watch the rise of HCG levels to determine the chance of carrying multiples.

Also, they have determined in recent years that carrying multiples has less to do with actual genetics and more to do with chance and mutiple pregnancies. The more times pregnant, the higher the chance that you will have a multiple pregnancy. I do not know if I believe this or not.

I myself have GB twins. I admit freely they are a result of fertility drugs that were taken due to the urgency of needed to get pregnant "now or never" due to internal issues that required I have a hysterectomy to fix.

I do not know what to tell you to give you more or less hope...but, good luck!!! ;-)

Don't get your hpoes up too much. I just delivered my 6th child and also have twins on both sides of the family. I had no luck with twins, but delivered a beautiful baby girl which made our family even 3 boys and 3 girls. Hopefully you'll have better luck. Hang in there and good luck!!!!

If twins tend to run in your family (even extended), you have more of a chance of having twins. This does not apply to identical twins, however, only fraternal. Identical twins happen when the egg randomly splits; a fluke of nature. Every woman has had a different experience but I wouldn't go off of more nausea to determine if it is twins or not. It is true that women tend to be more nauseous with twins but not always. I was nauseous when pregnant with my first child but never threw up. I was incredibly ill and constantly throwing up when pregnant with identical twins. When I had my daughter, I was almost as sick as I was with the twins. Then there is a friend of mine who is pregnant with fraternal twins. She has had a good pregnancy with little nausea. It's nearly impossible to determine if you have twins until the ultrasound. They can usually tell very early on. Although you are still young, our pregnancies tend to become more difficult as we have more children and as we age. That has certainly held true for me and most of my girlfriends. Lastly, some researchers believe that when a man and women are both predispositioned to having twins there is a higher likelihood that they will have twins. Although, I'm pretty sure I read this applies only to identical twins only. Good luck to you and your U/S will give you answers soon enough.

I don't have twins but I've heard that a lot of people who have them don't have the genetics in their families. But I've heard fertility drugs work almost every time...but sometimes they end up with 8 babies..lol. I would take what god has given you in this pregnancy! And I hope hope hope for your sake!! that it's what you pray for!! Good luck!

I'm echoing other responses when I say fraternal twins are typically genetic and identical are spontaneous. Here are a few sites with more info for you:

http://multiples.about.com/od/funfacts/Fun_Facts_Statisti...

http://www.greatbabyproducts.com/Twins_s/129.htm

http://www.babyzone.com/baby/nurturing/multiples/photos_t...

I believe it does skip a generation and i think also there is a higher chance if your mother or maternal grandmother was or had twins. hope this helps, congrats, and good luck!

Identical twins (formed when one fertilized egg splits into two embryos) are not genetic, despite what most people think. They are a 'fluke' that happens in about one in 1000 pregnancies (I'm not sure about my numbers, but that is the stat that I seem to remember). I know this b/c my first pregnancy was identical twin boys, which we sadly lost in the 5th month of the pregnancy. The loss was a direct result of the fact that it was a twin pregnancy (had nothing to do with me or my body). I went on to have 3 singleton pregnancies which resulted in my beautiful, healthy daughters. Fraternal twins (resulting from the fertilization of two eggs) do tend to be genetic (run in families) and can arise from the use of fertility drugs, which can cause a woman to produce more than one egg in a cycle. The level of HCG (pregnancy hormone) is typically higher at the beginning of a multiple pregnancy than it is in a singleton pregnancy. I was definitely more nauseous and tired with my twins than I was with any of my girls. I wouldn't wish for twins just because the risks are so much higher and I can tell you from experience that losing a baby (or two) late in pregnancy is devastating. Get an ultrasound as soon as you can to see what is going on. My best wishes to you for a happy, healthy pregnancy.

When i was pregnant with my twins i was nauseous all day long for 6 weeks straight every day!!!! Good luck!!

There are not any twins in the family and we had identical girls. The Dr said that identical are random. I actually threw up everyday from week 5 until week 13. Not fun... But having twins is awesome! Good luck! :) Let us all know.

I have heard exactly what Sheila said: fraternal twins are genetic, identical just happen. It's your family history that will affect it, not your husband's (though your husband's will pass on to your daughters, making them more likely with both of you having twins in the family).

Multiples do often cause stronger pregnancy symptoms, but so do subsequent pregnancies sometimes. No two pregnancies - even with the same woman - are the same!!!

Good luck!

You are more likely to have multiples if you have a family history. It usually skips a generation. (If your parents or aunts/uncles are multiples, you have the highest probability) I've known a couple of people that had twins out of the blue as well.
Fertility treatments will up the chance too, but I'm not sure that they would give treatments in the hopes of multiples.
I wish you the best of luck!

Fraternal twins are genetic; that is the ability of your body to produce two eggs at the same time. Identical twins are not genetic as, in this case, the egg splits. The splitting of the egg just happens.

The ability to have twins or not is dependent on your side of the family, not your husband's. His genetics have no play in whether or not your body produces multiple eggs in a single month.

I've heard the skipping a generation theory before but in my mother's side of the family, that is not true. My mother is a fraternal twin. Two of her sisters had fraternal twins. One of my sisters carried twins but lost one. So we might have had twins every generation on my mother's side of the family.

I do know that the older you are, the more likely it is that you will have twins, hence that is why you will see a lot of families who have a single older child and then twins. My mother has 3 older sisters, then she and her twin sister were born, and then she has a younger sister. My sister had 3 boys, then carried twin boys. My mother's oldest sister had 10 children, then delivered twins after which she had 2 more children. My mother's second oldest sister had 7 children before having her twins which were the babies in her family. I suppose if you have enough children, you may eventually carry twins.

Congrats on the new arrival! How exciting. You never know, it could be twins! I also have 4 (girls) and am expecting #5! My pastor's wife told me her midwife told her that third and/or fifth babies tend to be 'unusual.' With my fifth pregnancy I can certainly vouch for that- I also thought I was having twins (was praying for it!) and had more/earlier symptoms as well. There were two sacks, but sadly only one baby developed. Maybe next time! My pregnancy really has been very different with this one, though. I had preterm labor with my first four and took medications to keep them in longer (they were still all born early and were all breech.) This one had NO preterm labor, is head down and just about OVER DUE! Oh- and it's a boy after 4 girls! LOL Very different experience...

As for things you can do to increase chance of twins:

My husband's father's family and my father's family both have twins. It's my understanding, though, that it needs to come from your mother's side. My mother's side has twins, but none of them have survived to term (I have lost two, one with my first pregnancy and one with my fifth.)

If you ovulate more then one egg at a time you can have twins. This is where fertility drugs can help. With this pregnancy I ovulated several days apart from each other, and perhaps the twins were conceived several days apart (but one didn't develop properly.) In the future, if you are 'trying' to get pregnant, chart your cycle, and after ovulating (and sex) continue charting and you may find yourself ovulate a second time very soon after the first. This has happened to me more then once. Have sex again and you MIGHT get twins!

Wishing you the best with all your littles.

S., SAHM to 4 girls ages 6 yo (1-23) 5 yo (2-22) 3 yo (5-4) 1 YO (3-30) and expecting our first boy any day!

There does NOT have to be a genetic component for conceiving fraternal twins. There does tend to be one, but there doesn't have to be one. I am currently pregnant with boy/girl twins and there are no twins in my family anywhere. I have read in my research that the more kids you have your chances of having twins goes up. And the chances go up with women over the age of 35. Also, I did not have any worse morning sickness with these than I did with our son. I had very little with both pregnancies, so that's not really an indicator; but they do say that the hormone levels will be higher, which can make some women sicker.

However it turns out, congratulations and good luck!!!