These two sets of twins are doubly special - they are also quads.
Ivf tots Andrew and Sienna were born to Karen Wesolowski, and Sophia and Alex to lesbian partner Martha Padgett. All four babies were conceived from Martha's eggs.
Just as unusually both gave birth on the same day. They opted for the double IVF as Karen, 42, had suffered three years of failures. Once Martha, 38, had her eggs fertilised with donor sperm, each woman got two embryos to boost their chances.
Martha, a nurse who already has a 10-year-old daughter, said: "We just wanted one baby. But when the doctor said we were both pregnant, we could hardly contain ourselves."
The couple, of Riverside, California, got a bigger shock when they learnt within a month how many tots were on the way.
Martha said: "We knew from research we'd done that there was a chance but we laughed it off. Once we heard four heartbeats we thought, 'Oh my God, we're going to have quads!' We couldn't believe it."
The final amazing coincidence came as both gave birth within 22 hours of each other. The non-identical tots, a year old next month, are all healthy.
Karen said: "We have four babies who are all brothers and sisters. Our family is complete." Keith Reed of the UK Twins and Multiple Births Association admitted: "This is very unusual."
Baby boom
The odds of having a multiple birth without IVF is just two per cent. But with IVF the risk rockets to 25 per cent.
Large family
The largest surviving multiple birth is the McCaughey septuplets born in Iowa, USA, in 1997 to Kenny and Bobbi.
Wednesday, 30 July 2008
Tuesday, 29 July 2008
evening telegraph - triplets bowling them over
At just eight years old the Hicks triplets are already taking on all-comers on the bowling green.
Katie, Matthew and Oliver Hicks have become a regular fixture at Irchester Bowls Club since taking up the sport five years ago and are now able to compete officially as full members.And although the game is one normally associated with older players, the youngsters are a popular sight for club members.The trio's grandmother Janet Mears said: "When they were in their prams we used to take them down to watch the bowling and they loved it right from the word go."They wanted to try it when they were toddlers. The bowlers down there gave them small bowls but they were a bit too big for their hands."We have just bought them a set of bowls designed for children of their age. Everybody down at the club loves talking to them, and I think it is nice that they are getting involved with the older generation in this way."The Evening Telegraph first reported on the triplets in 2003, when they were three years old and just as enthusiastic about the game as they are now.Mum Claire Hicks said: "The triplets have always gone down to the club with my dad. They are very keen to do it properly when they are old enough."They are really good kids, most of the time, and it's nice that they can do this together."Katie said: "I enjoy bowling. "I like my turquoise ball, and it is good fun with my brothers."The children are not the only young fans of bowls. Last week the Evening Telegraph reported that pupils from Brooke Weston CTC in Corby were invited to try the game by members of the Stewarts & Lloyds Bowling Club in Occupation Road. The taster has seen many of the pupils pledge to take up the game as a hobby.Tony Alcock MBE, chief executive of Bowls England, said: "It is absolutely great to hear that these children are enjoying bowling so much."Many young people are playing the sport these days and there are a lot of opportunities for young people."I have been at the All England Under 18s Ladies Final in Leamington Spa, and one day I hope to see the triplets at similar events."
The full article contains 394 words and appears in n/a newspaper.
Katie, Matthew and Oliver Hicks have become a regular fixture at Irchester Bowls Club since taking up the sport five years ago and are now able to compete officially as full members.And although the game is one normally associated with older players, the youngsters are a popular sight for club members.The trio's grandmother Janet Mears said: "When they were in their prams we used to take them down to watch the bowling and they loved it right from the word go."They wanted to try it when they were toddlers. The bowlers down there gave them small bowls but they were a bit too big for their hands."We have just bought them a set of bowls designed for children of their age. Everybody down at the club loves talking to them, and I think it is nice that they are getting involved with the older generation in this way."The Evening Telegraph first reported on the triplets in 2003, when they were three years old and just as enthusiastic about the game as they are now.Mum Claire Hicks said: "The triplets have always gone down to the club with my dad. They are very keen to do it properly when they are old enough."They are really good kids, most of the time, and it's nice that they can do this together."Katie said: "I enjoy bowling. "I like my turquoise ball, and it is good fun with my brothers."The children are not the only young fans of bowls. Last week the Evening Telegraph reported that pupils from Brooke Weston CTC in Corby were invited to try the game by members of the Stewarts & Lloyds Bowling Club in Occupation Road. The taster has seen many of the pupils pledge to take up the game as a hobby.Tony Alcock MBE, chief executive of Bowls England, said: "It is absolutely great to hear that these children are enjoying bowling so much."Many young people are playing the sport these days and there are a lot of opportunities for young people."I have been at the All England Under 18s Ladies Final in Leamington Spa, and one day I hope to see the triplets at similar events."
The full article contains 394 words and appears in n/a newspaper.
irishtimes - Double trouble
Getting two for the price of one means twice the challenge, and the birth is only the beginning
THEY MAY not be average parents in any other way, but film star couple Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt must have been very relieved to leave the hospital in Nice 10 days ago with two healthy babies. Getting two for the price of one inevitably increases the risks during pregnancy and delivery; twins are more likely to be premature and have a low birth weight.
But once the medical complications are behind you, the challenge of raising two children in tandem is just beginning. And only those who have gone through the experience of multiple births really know what it is like.
It’s hardly surprising then that Jolie and Pitt have reportedly been looking for advice from other parents in Hollywood circles who have had twins, such as Julia Roberts and Danny Moder, who have a son and a daughter, Phinnaeus and Hazel, now three.
At least celebrity couples are not short of helping hands. The latest additions to the Pitt-Jolie family, Knox Leon and Vivienne Marcheline, are likely to have at least one nanny each. With another four children in the household – birth daughter, Shiloh, who was born in Namibia in 2006, and three adopted children: Cambodian-born son Maddox, daughter Zahara from Ethiopia and Pax from Vietnam – there is plenty of work for an entire childcare team.
However, no matter how wealthy you are, early months with twins are tough. The hired help can only do so much. Jolie was reported to have breastfed Shiloh, but feeding twins is exhausting.
Charlotte O’Brien (41), the mother of twin girls Emilie and Lucy, managed it for six weeks and was then relieved to switch to bottles. “It’s too demanding with two of them, they don’t feed at the same time.”
But Corrinna Moore (37), whose twins boys, Cormac and Aran, were born six weeks early and spent 12 days in special care, says the hospital helped her by starting a routine where they were fed at the same time. “I don’t know if, left to my own devices, I would have achieved such a fine-tuned routine.”
When she left Queen Charlotte’s Hospital in London, where she was living at the time, she continued to do what she had been advised – when one woke to feed, she woke the other and put one to each breast at the same time.
“Otherwise you wouldn’t have a minute to yourself.”
Their tummies were so small, they were feeding every one-and-a-half hours so even nursing them simultaneously was a pretty constant business.
“One day I was determined to get out of the house,” Moore recalls. “But by the time I had them fed, then the bag packed and was out the door, they started to cry: they needed feeding again. I sat down and cried too.
“You can’t breastfeed twins in public. You need your couch and your feeding pillows.”
As for any parent of a new-born, it’s the feeding and the sleeping which are the biggest issues in the first few months – but with twins it’s undoubtedly at least double the trouble.
“I will never forget those first six months of no sleep at all,” says O’Brien. She and her husband, Ashley, look back and say “how did we do it?”.
“Emilie never slept through until she was a year old. At one stage she was waking every half hour. For the first eight weeks they were together in the same room. Then we put them in separate bedrooms and that was the first night Lucy slept through.”
Out of sheer exhaustion, the couple hired a night nurse three times a week for a while, which was a life-saver for them. The moment she came in the door, the nurse took charge of the babies and sent the O’Briens straight to bed. Those were the months of physical slog but now, with the girls aged two-and-a-half, there’s a whole new set of challenges.
“They are very strong willed, strong personalities,” O’Brien says of the two fair-haired girls as they confidently explore the home of the Moores who live near them in Dalkey, Co Dublin.
“But they are very different and have been since birth. Emilie is quite demanding; Lucy is quieter and will sit and do things on her own.
“They both want to be with me. It’s very hard when there’s two children, one grabbing at each leg, and you can’t explain why you can’t pick them up at the same time. The moment they started to walk, it became difficult.
“They have no sense of danger and I have only one pair of hands. If I go anywhere, they inevitably want to go off in opposite directions. I do use reins but they don’t like them, they like the freedom.
“I went to Imaginosity which is quite big, with open spaces and four floors. Within five minutes I had lost one of them. It is a bit uncomfortable if you lose one,” she says wryly.
Moore laughs and says with her twins now aged six-and-a-half, she had forgotten what that was like. She recalls losing Cormac in Kew Gardens one day but at least she had a friend with her who could mind Aran while she ran “like a headless chicken” looking for the missing boy, thoughts of abductors and ponds racing through her mind before she found him happily playing hide-and-seek with her.
Like O’Brien, Moore’s twins were her first children, but she has gone on to have two more, two-year-old Lorcan and baby Aoife who was born last month. “In terms of practicalities, having one child at a time is easier,” she says. “But once you get twins to about two or three, it is easier than having a second child 18 months behind.
“I am glad I had the twins first. With subsequent children, the twins are so focused on each other they don’t care who comes after them. The sibling rivalry is for each other.”
Although both mothers emphasise that their twin children are very different individuals, in each case their rate of development has been remarkably similar.
“At 16 months, they started walking the same day, within 20 minutes of each other,” says O’Brien. “Emilie stood up, she was the first born; the other one watched her and then stood up too. I couldn’t believe it!”
“Aran and Cormac both crawled, stood and walked on the same days,” says Moore.
Before the girls started to speak recognisable words, they developed their own language for communicating with each other.
“They were quite definitely conversing and I would not understand a word. I found it amazing. They still do it in the mornings and the evenings; you can hear them chatting away in their room.”
The next milestone is toilet training. “I have bought two potties and from next week I am going to see where it takes me,” says O’Brien.
Moore did it with one potty with Cormac and Aran, encouraging them to pee into it at the same time, but that’s boys for you.
From age three onwards, the emotional issues can become more apparent as they start to socialise. Moore says it was only when the boys started playschool, and found people getting confused about who was who, that they started to be aware of being twins.
She and her husband Richard have been careful not to lump them together, by not dressing them the same or by calling them “the twins”. Although not identical, it is hard to tell them apart. Luckily they support different football teams, so spot a Liverpool shirt and you can be sure it’s Cormac, while for Aran it’s all Man Utd.
Emilie and Lucy wear the same clothes out of choice. “Initially everybody gave me matching outfits but now they won’t wear different clothes,” explains O’Brien. “If one has a spillage and I have to change her, I have to change the other one too.”
While the girls will be starting playschool in September, the boys are already two years into their primary education in separate classes. All the received wisdom is to separate single-sex twins at school if possible, says Moore, especially boys as they are so competitive.
“They had started bickering and we felt they needed individual attention. It has been brilliant. Separating them has diluted the competition.”
For all their talk about the practical problems in raising twins, and their shared guilt about the lack of one-on-one attention they can give, both mothers stress the joy as well.
“It is special, no doubt about it,” says O’Brien. “For me it’s an instant family; they’re company for each other which I am pretty sure will continue.”
Moore agrees: “You get double the pain but more than double the love back.”
THEY MAY not be average parents in any other way, but film star couple Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt must have been very relieved to leave the hospital in Nice 10 days ago with two healthy babies. Getting two for the price of one inevitably increases the risks during pregnancy and delivery; twins are more likely to be premature and have a low birth weight.
But once the medical complications are behind you, the challenge of raising two children in tandem is just beginning. And only those who have gone through the experience of multiple births really know what it is like.
It’s hardly surprising then that Jolie and Pitt have reportedly been looking for advice from other parents in Hollywood circles who have had twins, such as Julia Roberts and Danny Moder, who have a son and a daughter, Phinnaeus and Hazel, now three.
At least celebrity couples are not short of helping hands. The latest additions to the Pitt-Jolie family, Knox Leon and Vivienne Marcheline, are likely to have at least one nanny each. With another four children in the household – birth daughter, Shiloh, who was born in Namibia in 2006, and three adopted children: Cambodian-born son Maddox, daughter Zahara from Ethiopia and Pax from Vietnam – there is plenty of work for an entire childcare team.
However, no matter how wealthy you are, early months with twins are tough. The hired help can only do so much. Jolie was reported to have breastfed Shiloh, but feeding twins is exhausting.
Charlotte O’Brien (41), the mother of twin girls Emilie and Lucy, managed it for six weeks and was then relieved to switch to bottles. “It’s too demanding with two of them, they don’t feed at the same time.”
But Corrinna Moore (37), whose twins boys, Cormac and Aran, were born six weeks early and spent 12 days in special care, says the hospital helped her by starting a routine where they were fed at the same time. “I don’t know if, left to my own devices, I would have achieved such a fine-tuned routine.”
When she left Queen Charlotte’s Hospital in London, where she was living at the time, she continued to do what she had been advised – when one woke to feed, she woke the other and put one to each breast at the same time.
“Otherwise you wouldn’t have a minute to yourself.”
Their tummies were so small, they were feeding every one-and-a-half hours so even nursing them simultaneously was a pretty constant business.
“One day I was determined to get out of the house,” Moore recalls. “But by the time I had them fed, then the bag packed and was out the door, they started to cry: they needed feeding again. I sat down and cried too.
“You can’t breastfeed twins in public. You need your couch and your feeding pillows.”
As for any parent of a new-born, it’s the feeding and the sleeping which are the biggest issues in the first few months – but with twins it’s undoubtedly at least double the trouble.
“I will never forget those first six months of no sleep at all,” says O’Brien. She and her husband, Ashley, look back and say “how did we do it?”.
“Emilie never slept through until she was a year old. At one stage she was waking every half hour. For the first eight weeks they were together in the same room. Then we put them in separate bedrooms and that was the first night Lucy slept through.”
Out of sheer exhaustion, the couple hired a night nurse three times a week for a while, which was a life-saver for them. The moment she came in the door, the nurse took charge of the babies and sent the O’Briens straight to bed. Those were the months of physical slog but now, with the girls aged two-and-a-half, there’s a whole new set of challenges.
“They are very strong willed, strong personalities,” O’Brien says of the two fair-haired girls as they confidently explore the home of the Moores who live near them in Dalkey, Co Dublin.
“But they are very different and have been since birth. Emilie is quite demanding; Lucy is quieter and will sit and do things on her own.
“They both want to be with me. It’s very hard when there’s two children, one grabbing at each leg, and you can’t explain why you can’t pick them up at the same time. The moment they started to walk, it became difficult.
“They have no sense of danger and I have only one pair of hands. If I go anywhere, they inevitably want to go off in opposite directions. I do use reins but they don’t like them, they like the freedom.
“I went to Imaginosity which is quite big, with open spaces and four floors. Within five minutes I had lost one of them. It is a bit uncomfortable if you lose one,” she says wryly.
Moore laughs and says with her twins now aged six-and-a-half, she had forgotten what that was like. She recalls losing Cormac in Kew Gardens one day but at least she had a friend with her who could mind Aran while she ran “like a headless chicken” looking for the missing boy, thoughts of abductors and ponds racing through her mind before she found him happily playing hide-and-seek with her.
Like O’Brien, Moore’s twins were her first children, but she has gone on to have two more, two-year-old Lorcan and baby Aoife who was born last month. “In terms of practicalities, having one child at a time is easier,” she says. “But once you get twins to about two or three, it is easier than having a second child 18 months behind.
“I am glad I had the twins first. With subsequent children, the twins are so focused on each other they don’t care who comes after them. The sibling rivalry is for each other.”
Although both mothers emphasise that their twin children are very different individuals, in each case their rate of development has been remarkably similar.
“At 16 months, they started walking the same day, within 20 minutes of each other,” says O’Brien. “Emilie stood up, she was the first born; the other one watched her and then stood up too. I couldn’t believe it!”
“Aran and Cormac both crawled, stood and walked on the same days,” says Moore.
Before the girls started to speak recognisable words, they developed their own language for communicating with each other.
“They were quite definitely conversing and I would not understand a word. I found it amazing. They still do it in the mornings and the evenings; you can hear them chatting away in their room.”
The next milestone is toilet training. “I have bought two potties and from next week I am going to see where it takes me,” says O’Brien.
Moore did it with one potty with Cormac and Aran, encouraging them to pee into it at the same time, but that’s boys for you.
From age three onwards, the emotional issues can become more apparent as they start to socialise. Moore says it was only when the boys started playschool, and found people getting confused about who was who, that they started to be aware of being twins.
She and her husband Richard have been careful not to lump them together, by not dressing them the same or by calling them “the twins”. Although not identical, it is hard to tell them apart. Luckily they support different football teams, so spot a Liverpool shirt and you can be sure it’s Cormac, while for Aran it’s all Man Utd.
Emilie and Lucy wear the same clothes out of choice. “Initially everybody gave me matching outfits but now they won’t wear different clothes,” explains O’Brien. “If one has a spillage and I have to change her, I have to change the other one too.”
While the girls will be starting playschool in September, the boys are already two years into their primary education in separate classes. All the received wisdom is to separate single-sex twins at school if possible, says Moore, especially boys as they are so competitive.
“They had started bickering and we felt they needed individual attention. It has been brilliant. Separating them has diluted the competition.”
For all their talk about the practical problems in raising twins, and their shared guilt about the lack of one-on-one attention they can give, both mothers stress the joy as well.
“It is special, no doubt about it,” says O’Brien. “For me it’s an instant family; they’re company for each other which I am pretty sure will continue.”
Moore agrees: “You get double the pain but more than double the love back.”
irishtimes - Twin support: from first-hand experience
PARENTS OF twins are adamant that people who have had only single babies "just don't get" what it's like to have two at the same time. So hearing about first-hand experience of twins is invaluable.
The Irish Multiple Birth Association (IMBA), which is run by volunteers, holds information meetings and is in the process of setting up local twin clubs. There's already one in Naas, Co Kildare, and in Galway, with others planned for north and south Dublin from the autumn.
"This time last year I would love to have gone along to such a group and met other expectant parents," says Siobhan Cullen, the mother of 10-month-old twins Albha and Caoimhe, as well as Donnacha who is two and a half.
"I called the IMBA when I was pregnant as it was the only place I could find information in an Irish context. Everybody's experience is different so it's helpful to talk to other mothers who have been through it, rather than get just one perspective."
Getting twins into a routine is key, she says. But that's easier said than done with two very different babies. It took her and her husband, Sylvester, four or five months before they got them into a routine.
Now she is a committee member of the IMBA, which is based in Carmichael House, Dublin 7. Most of the callers to its helpline are people expecting twins, who have queries about practical issues such as breastfeeding, co-sleeping, the best buggy, what financial support is available when you're having to buy two of many things.
Thanks to the tireless campaigning of Mairead Hilliard in the 1990s, the child allowance for each twin is 150 per cent of the standard rate.
As a mother of twin girls, who are now 25, "I found out triplets had been getting double payments since 1965," she explains and she thought it unfair there was nothing extra for twins. She wrote to newspapers, encouraged people to lobby their TDs, and badgered a succession of government ministers, until increased payments were announced in the budget speech of December 1997.
Hilliard also set up the first support group, Parents of Twins Ireland, and still runs a helpline today from her home in Lucan, Co Dublin.
Social welfare grants of €635 are also paid at the birth of twins, at age four and again at age 12.
The number of twin births in the Republic is rising, as women increasingly delay motherhood, and fertility treatment becomes more widespread.
Some 937 sets of twins were born live in the Republic in 2005, along with 13 sets of triplets and one set of quadruplets, according to the Central Statistics Office. This is equivalent to a rate of 15.5 sets of twins born live per 1,000 pregnancies, compared to 10.5 in 1985.
"I was in Blanchardstown Shopping Centre the other day and I walked past seven sets of twins in about 15 minutes," says Sarah Harris, public relations officer for IMBA and the mother of twins, Elle and Annaleigh, who turned one last Saturday, as well as three-year-old Jodi.
Living in Swords, she is helping to set up the north Dublin twin group which is due to start in the autumn but does not have a venue yet. The south Dublin group will have its first meeting in Marley Grange Parish Centre on October 1st.
The association will be guided by what members want, but as well as offering social contact, Harris says they are hoping to invite professionals to speak on multiple birth topics such as nutrition, education, psychological development, etc.
"Our website is being revamped," she adds, "our services expanded and our events and clubs will be a real benefit to parents and their children in the years ahead."
The Irish Multiple Birth Association (IMBA), which is run by volunteers, holds information meetings and is in the process of setting up local twin clubs. There's already one in Naas, Co Kildare, and in Galway, with others planned for north and south Dublin from the autumn.
"This time last year I would love to have gone along to such a group and met other expectant parents," says Siobhan Cullen, the mother of 10-month-old twins Albha and Caoimhe, as well as Donnacha who is two and a half.
"I called the IMBA when I was pregnant as it was the only place I could find information in an Irish context. Everybody's experience is different so it's helpful to talk to other mothers who have been through it, rather than get just one perspective."
Getting twins into a routine is key, she says. But that's easier said than done with two very different babies. It took her and her husband, Sylvester, four or five months before they got them into a routine.
Now she is a committee member of the IMBA, which is based in Carmichael House, Dublin 7. Most of the callers to its helpline are people expecting twins, who have queries about practical issues such as breastfeeding, co-sleeping, the best buggy, what financial support is available when you're having to buy two of many things.
Thanks to the tireless campaigning of Mairead Hilliard in the 1990s, the child allowance for each twin is 150 per cent of the standard rate.
As a mother of twin girls, who are now 25, "I found out triplets had been getting double payments since 1965," she explains and she thought it unfair there was nothing extra for twins. She wrote to newspapers, encouraged people to lobby their TDs, and badgered a succession of government ministers, until increased payments were announced in the budget speech of December 1997.
Hilliard also set up the first support group, Parents of Twins Ireland, and still runs a helpline today from her home in Lucan, Co Dublin.
Social welfare grants of €635 are also paid at the birth of twins, at age four and again at age 12.
The number of twin births in the Republic is rising, as women increasingly delay motherhood, and fertility treatment becomes more widespread.
Some 937 sets of twins were born live in the Republic in 2005, along with 13 sets of triplets and one set of quadruplets, according to the Central Statistics Office. This is equivalent to a rate of 15.5 sets of twins born live per 1,000 pregnancies, compared to 10.5 in 1985.
"I was in Blanchardstown Shopping Centre the other day and I walked past seven sets of twins in about 15 minutes," says Sarah Harris, public relations officer for IMBA and the mother of twins, Elle and Annaleigh, who turned one last Saturday, as well as three-year-old Jodi.
Living in Swords, she is helping to set up the north Dublin twin group which is due to start in the autumn but does not have a venue yet. The south Dublin group will have its first meeting in Marley Grange Parish Centre on October 1st.
The association will be guided by what members want, but as well as offering social contact, Harris says they are hoping to invite professionals to speak on multiple birth topics such as nutrition, education, psychological development, etc.
"Our website is being revamped," she adds, "our services expanded and our events and clubs will be a real benefit to parents and their children in the years ahead."
Friday, 25 July 2008
telegraph - Black and white twins a million to one chance
Parents Tracey-Ann and Andrew knew when they were having non-identical twins, they wanted to treat them as individuals.
But when Orlando came out black with lots of dark hair, and Natalia arrived a minute later with blonde hair and blue eyes, they knew they would not have to worry.
Delighted mother Tracey-Ann said: "Right from the start we said we wouldn't treat them as twins. We knew they weren't identical but we want to make sure we call them by their names rather than 'the twins' to keep their individuality.
"Now because they look so different to each other, it will be easier for them to be individuals."
Non-identical twins happen when two eggs are fertilised by two separate sperm.
Although they will share genes from the same parents, the way those genes are expressed will vary.
Orlando and Natalia are now three months old, and Tracey-Ann, 34, says the difference between the two has become even more evident as time has passed.
She said: "I think I was so caught up with the mechanics of having them, that I didn't really think about the difference at first.
"Now Orlando is even darker and Natalia looks nothing like me.
"Thank goodness for Orlando's skin colouring though otherwise I would have gone through all the effort of having them only for them both to look completely unlike me!"
Tracey-Ann is convinced the twins' different colour is due to past generations of mixed race in her family, while 28-year-old Andrew is also half-Italian, and is keen to make sure they grow up to appreciate their multi-racial heritage.
An IT consultant from Bristol, Andrew said: "They're not just one of each, black and white. They're half-Jamaican, one quarter-English and one-quarter Italian."
The chances of it happening are a million to one, although there have been a few cases in the last few years.
A German mixed race couple have just had their own black and white twins earlier this month.
But when Orlando came out black with lots of dark hair, and Natalia arrived a minute later with blonde hair and blue eyes, they knew they would not have to worry.
Delighted mother Tracey-Ann said: "Right from the start we said we wouldn't treat them as twins. We knew they weren't identical but we want to make sure we call them by their names rather than 'the twins' to keep their individuality.
"Now because they look so different to each other, it will be easier for them to be individuals."
Non-identical twins happen when two eggs are fertilised by two separate sperm.
Although they will share genes from the same parents, the way those genes are expressed will vary.
Orlando and Natalia are now three months old, and Tracey-Ann, 34, says the difference between the two has become even more evident as time has passed.
She said: "I think I was so caught up with the mechanics of having them, that I didn't really think about the difference at first.
"Now Orlando is even darker and Natalia looks nothing like me.
"Thank goodness for Orlando's skin colouring though otherwise I would have gone through all the effort of having them only for them both to look completely unlike me!"
Tracey-Ann is convinced the twins' different colour is due to past generations of mixed race in her family, while 28-year-old Andrew is also half-Italian, and is keen to make sure they grow up to appreciate their multi-racial heritage.
An IT consultant from Bristol, Andrew said: "They're not just one of each, black and white. They're half-Jamaican, one quarter-English and one-quarter Italian."
The chances of it happening are a million to one, although there have been a few cases in the last few years.
A German mixed race couple have just had their own black and white twins earlier this month.
Monday, 21 July 2008
this is wiltshire - All good things come in threes
A COUPLE who were told their premature triplets stood little chance of survival are about to welcome home the first of their miracle babies.
Amina and Maher Amawi, of Cumberland Road, Old Walcot, Swindon, went through six rounds of IVF fertility treatment in seven years before Amina finally fell pregnant last October.
But she unexpectedly went into labour while visiting her sister in Luton in March and the triplets were born at 24 weeks, weighing between 1lbs 4ozs and 1lb 8ozs.
Doctors warned the couple the babies were unlikely to live for more than a few hours and, even if they did, they would all be severely disabled.
Now, against all the odds, the first of the children - Layla, who now weighs 5lb 12ozs - is about to be discharged from Great Western Hospital.
And her siblings, brother Zayn and sister Tara, are likely to follow within weeks.
Amina, 31, said: "We know we have got our work cut out, but we are so excited for our babies to come home and for us to finally be a family.
"Nothing much has seemed real for the past few months. We've been on an emotional rollercoaster I can't even begin to describe.
"But the scariest parts are hopefully over now, and we have our children. We are determined to be the best parents we can be."
Maher, 36, a BT engineer, added: "The biggest shock was the size of them when they were born. Tara was the smallest - her head was the size of an egg and her whole body fitted into the palm of my hand.
"The first 10 days were the most critical and we had to take things hour by hour, then day by day, then week by week.
"We were elated, but it was terrifying at the same time."
A low point came when Zayn suffered a severe bleed on both sides of his brain at three days old. Medics said he was badly brain damaged, that he would never be able to walk and would probably be blind.
They recommended switching off his life support machine, but Amina and Maher refused.
"Call it a mother's instinct, but I believe he will be fine. Yes, he will have issues, and he will never be 100 per cent.
"But I am staying positive. An eye doctor has already told us he has some sight, and he can grip our fingers. We have even seen him holding up his own head."
In their four months of life, all three babies have undergone heart operations to close a valve. Zayn has also had a device fitted in his skull to drain off fluid.
Layla and Tara will both need oxygen for a while after coming home, and are expected to develop more slowly than full-term babies. Otherwise, no other health problems have yet been detected.
"Only time will tell if they have any other problems, but they have already overcome so much to be here," said Amina.
"They are real fighters. We can't wait for them to come home."
Amina and Maher Amawi, of Cumberland Road, Old Walcot, Swindon, went through six rounds of IVF fertility treatment in seven years before Amina finally fell pregnant last October.
But she unexpectedly went into labour while visiting her sister in Luton in March and the triplets were born at 24 weeks, weighing between 1lbs 4ozs and 1lb 8ozs.
Doctors warned the couple the babies were unlikely to live for more than a few hours and, even if they did, they would all be severely disabled.
Now, against all the odds, the first of the children - Layla, who now weighs 5lb 12ozs - is about to be discharged from Great Western Hospital.
And her siblings, brother Zayn and sister Tara, are likely to follow within weeks.
Amina, 31, said: "We know we have got our work cut out, but we are so excited for our babies to come home and for us to finally be a family.
"Nothing much has seemed real for the past few months. We've been on an emotional rollercoaster I can't even begin to describe.
"But the scariest parts are hopefully over now, and we have our children. We are determined to be the best parents we can be."
Maher, 36, a BT engineer, added: "The biggest shock was the size of them when they were born. Tara was the smallest - her head was the size of an egg and her whole body fitted into the palm of my hand.
"The first 10 days were the most critical and we had to take things hour by hour, then day by day, then week by week.
"We were elated, but it was terrifying at the same time."
A low point came when Zayn suffered a severe bleed on both sides of his brain at three days old. Medics said he was badly brain damaged, that he would never be able to walk and would probably be blind.
They recommended switching off his life support machine, but Amina and Maher refused.
"Call it a mother's instinct, but I believe he will be fine. Yes, he will have issues, and he will never be 100 per cent.
"But I am staying positive. An eye doctor has already told us he has some sight, and he can grip our fingers. We have even seen him holding up his own head."
In their four months of life, all three babies have undergone heart operations to close a valve. Zayn has also had a device fitted in his skull to drain off fluid.
Layla and Tara will both need oxygen for a while after coming home, and are expected to develop more slowly than full-term babies. Otherwise, no other health problems have yet been detected.
"Only time will tell if they have any other problems, but they have already overcome so much to be here," said Amina.
"They are real fighters. We can't wait for them to come home."
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