This year’s end brings news of an added bundle of joy for a UK family that was already expecting identical triplets When Gill Holden, 35, went to the radiologist for her regular prenatal check-up, she was in for a shock when she was informed that the expectant mother had not three but four babies inside her womb – all conceived without the use of fertility treatments!

Gill, who already has an eight year old daughter Abbie with partner Marc Hanley, is over the moon with the news. But the family is also nervous, emotional and excited about the new arrivals and the amount of work they would bring with themselves. They have already planned to sell-off their two bedroom home but stay close to family.

Marc who is a self-employed painter and a decorator by profession said that they were getting prepared for the quadruplets and had already got four Moses basket and loads of nappies and wipes from the local Asda. Even Abbie is looking forward to becoming a big sister.

Doctors believe that conceiving natural quadruplets is a very rare phenomenon with chances being one in 500,000.

In Gill’s case, there are three identical baby girls and a non-identical sister and once they are delivered they will still need hospital care for at least a month. Gill who has already quite her job as a welfare assistant heading to her doctor’s advice, expects to give birth at St Mary’s Hospital in Manchester in February and medics hope that she is at least 32 weeks and the babies weigh 3lbs each before they help her give birth by caesarean section. – Atula, staff writer

Related Articles:

• Illinois Couple Beats The Odds, Expecting Identical Triplets
• Mother-in-Law Midwife Steps In To Help Deliver Her Triplet Grandchildren
• Identical Triplets Born at 33 weeks, on Third Anniversary
  

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I had the absolute delight today of doing another session with the Keith family today, but this time we added in Scott and Sennu, and her folks from Finland, and her sister Saina and husband Mike and their kiddos in Hopkinton NH. The weather report wasn’t looking too promising for this weekend, but other than a little bit of snow flurries, I had no complaints. The winter weather definitely provides a challenge when doing family photos. Things you could normally use to sit on, are covered in snow, or inaccessible because of the snow. My favorite shots of the day were the ones where everyone was just having fun and playing in the snow. When doing a session with kids, time is of the essence as they get bored rather quickly, and then look out! Surprisingly, the little kiddos held out much longer than the older ones did today! I was told little Braeden was shy, but I think I made a new best friend today! He had a blast sledding and I got some fun shots of him really enjoying himself. His younger brother Noah doesn’t really like the cold, so even though he was easily bribed through out the session with candy, he could not be bribed to take a sled ride down the hill! I think my favorite shots of him are the priceless expression of joy he gets as Saina bribes him for the first time with a candy cane. He loves his sweets, and they seemed to work every time we needed him to do something. I have to say this is one of my favorite families to photograph, the kids are always a joy and make me laugh. I am already looking forward to my next session with them! Enjoy this little sneek peek! Larger gallery here

This is amazing!!! Well done to the four of them!!! … This is the type of positive story i love to post!

Today I had the absolutely delightful experience of a portrait session with a set of quadruplets and their little sister Abby. The kids were so much fun, and had me laughing most of the session. They are home schooled and we were having such a great time doing pictures indoors that their mom decided to let them have the day off from school. You can just imagine how disappointed they were at that announcement! I had to do some group pictures for the LEAP pre-school at my church, of which Abby is a part, so we began the session indoors with a backdrop. I left the foot for my flash at home so I couldn’t use it with my zumbrella. Fortunately there was a tremendous amount of natural light coming in the windows behind me, and it was quite beautiful actually. I was so pleased with the pictures I was getting I asked their mom, Maria if she wanted to take them to Rollins park just down the street to do more photos in a more natural setting, and she was all for it. The kids never tired of getting their pictures taken and I probably could have stayed with them another 2 hours if I had the time! They certainly made my first experience with quadruplets a blast, and I am looking forward to doing other sessions with them in the future!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yE6PNps5N9I

This short clip always picks me up when I’m feeling low, pretty sure it’ll work for you too!

The documentary “Multitude of Multiples” will air on The Learning Channel (TLC) on Sunday, August 30, at 7 p.m. (and again at 10 p.m.). It’s channel 49 on Time Warner Cable and 250 on AT&T U-Verse. A family from San Antonio who delivered quadruplets at Methodist Hospital will be featured along with families in other cities having five and six babies. 

The Tabb Trio, Logan, Landon and Leila, will be on TLC Sunday night.

Last spring, the Discovery Channel contacted Methodist Healthcare about a documentary featuring a couple expecting quads and planning to deliver at Methodist Hospital . The day before the babies were to be delivered by C-section, Kevin and Jennifer Tabb found out one of the babies would be stillborn.

 A Discovery crew had already been following them at home and to doctors’ appointments for weeks. While deeply saddened by the loss of Baby Ella, the couple still wanted to share their journey and let others know that multiple births carry many risks for moms and babies. The babies were delivered by Dr. Bryan Cox on Good Friday. Logan, Landon and Leila took up residence in the NICU for several weeks. Dr. Alex Kenton was interviewed in the NICU immediately following the births. 

The parents are very grateful for the care and love they received from the staff in Antepartum, Labor & Delivery OR, and the NICU. One of the grandmothers traveled from Chicago for the delivery and told me she had been full of worry and fear as she made her way to San Antonio. When she entered the hospital and found out our mission is “Serving Humanity to Honor God,” she grew confident that the babies were truly in God’s hands.

– SA Health

By Francis Allan L. Angelo

AFTER a mother in San Enrique, Iloilo delivered all-girl quadruplets, another woman on Capiz gave birth to triplets early Monday morning.

Josephine Badoles, 39, of Brgy. Butacal, Panay, Capiz gave birth to three boys at their village through the help of a midwife.

But the triplets were confined at the Roxas Memorial Provincial Hospital because they are suffering from pneumonia aside from being underweight.

Badoles, who already has three children, said she did not expect to give birth to triplets because she did not feel anything unusual. She also did not undergo ultrasound examination during her pregnancy.

Badoles also sought financial help via Bombo Radyo for her children because they cannot foot the hospital bills.

Earlier, Rosalyn Agrabio, 30, of Brgy. Abaca in San Enrique, Iloilo gave birth to all-girl quadruplets via caesarean section last August 11 at the Western Visayas Medical Center.

Agrabio said she named her daughters Mary Antoinette, Mary Rose, Diana Rose and Sheena Marie.

Agrabio said expected triplets but were surprised when four baby girls came out from her womb.

One thing I’ve learned over the past 2 years is how important it is to open up. Yes there must be a balance, but you can’t hold everything in, it is destructive and detrimental to yourself if you do that.

I’ve seen and learned how important it is to share your story with others, and how at times people you never expected to can relate to you.

I am a quadruplet, born on Christmas day. That is all I’ve ever known. Knowing my story, I am so incredibly grateful for the gift of life, I think about it a lot more probably than the average person. This is why I am so very adamant about being pro-life.

I know that I am blessed to have the life, health, family and friends and absolutely all that I have. I can’t even begin to explain to you how grateful and at the same time how undeserving I feel of all of this.

My mom had 4 miscarriages before she was successful by the grace of God and conceived the four of us. Doctors had talked to her about selective reduction to increase the success and health of all involved and to possibly carry the babies full term and not risk losing all 4. My mother, the amazing woman that she is relied on God to see my family through and chose to keep all 4 babies. God gave her each of us and she wasn’t going to take the life of any away. Hearing my mom tell this story almost always brings tears to my eyes, thinking about it makes me want to cry right now.

We were born at 29 weeks [a full term labor is 40 weeks] My mom was on bed rest for over 10 weeks, and wanted so badly to at least carry us until 32 weeks. Our weights ranged from 2 lbs 5 oz – 2 lbs 9 oz. I was the heaviest….. not very heavy. We were born in Houston, Tx. My parents at the time were living in Brownsville, Tx. I have an older sister who was 8 at the time. My father and sister flew up to Houston on the first flight they could Christmas morning. [I'm skipping out on details to this story because I feel like I'd never finish] I never knew this part of the story until last night, but the very first time my dad had the opportunity to see us was as the media followed. I don’t know how my dad was able to do that. Not knowing what to expect, the fear, the worry, the uncertainty, the unconditional love, the joy, the relief… all of these mixed emotions to be shared in front of cameras and reporters. I couldn’t imagine.

It is a miracle and by the grace of God that we were born as healthy as we were. My sister did have to have open heart surgery as a new born baby, not even 5 lbs, but that is her story. I had to have tubes put in my lungs to help me breathe, I still have that scar, and that scar makes me so thankful. We spent the first several months in the hospital. My sister and I the longest. My brothers were born in perfect health. I am astonished. Thankful. and many other emotions I can’t even begin to describe to you.

The gift of life is one of the most beautiful most astonishing experiences ever. I personally have not had the joy of experiencing that, but hearing stories like mine, and knowing that God is creating new life over and over astonishes me. For Christ sets each and every one of us apart, and has in mind His good, perfect and unfailing will set aside. For God knows us perfectly before we were even in the womb. I wish I could reach more people and share the importance of honoring life. Many women struggle with the inability to conceive a child. Many take it for granted. The decision to have a child must be taken with great consideration, prayer, and trust in the Lord. My prayer is that women wouldn’t turn to abortions but would turn to adoption. My prayer is that people would be smarter in the actions they take and the decisions they make.

It is not our right to take a life.

I look at the joy of two very important women in my life who are embracing and celebrating pregnancy. That is so incredibly beautiful. My cousin and her husband, who are expecting twin boys in November astounds me, absolutely stunning. She has such a powerful testimony in patience and trust in God through these two baby boys. My older sister, and her husband, also are blessed in expecting in March. The joy of welcoming these babies into the world is so exciting and so astounding. I can’t wait to share my incredible powerful and loving almighty father with them. They will also teach me.

I thank God each day for these babies, and pray for protection over them and their families. I am so thankful that over the years God has opened my eyes to this amazing opportunity. The funny thing is, in high school if you would’ve asked me if I wanted kids I would have had a very quick short response of  ”NO.” Now someday after I’m married, I would be more than happy, honored, and thrilled to have a family. I already feel so undeserving of all these blessings in life, but the opportunity to be an aunt, a sister, a daughter, and someday hopefully a wife and a mother, is so incredible.

Rejoice with me in the gift of life. It may not be easy, but it’s worth it.

GOD is so loving, so astounding, so personal.

I have so much more to say but I can barely keep my eyes open sitting in this hotel room, so I shall end this here. Letting go of my frustrations, and things that are heavy on my heart, and surrendering them to my King, my Father, My Lord. I pray for peace. I pray for your love Father. I thank you for my life. I’d never want it any other way!

Just saw on the news that Nina, aSiberian tiger at a German zoo, recently gave birth to quadruplets … what cuties!

Today’s CSOTD (Creative Something of the Day):

Strange Babe

1981.  Bicol

Habang hinihintay ni Panday ang panganganak ng kanyang asawa sa ospital, may kasabay siyang tatlong lalake sa waiting area.  Lumabas ang nurse at sinabihan ang unang lalake “Sir twins po anak ninyo”.  Nagulat ang lalake dahil sa Twin Corporate Center daw siya nagtatrabaho.  Makalipas ang limang minuto, lumabas ulit ang nurse at sinabihan ang isa pang lalake “Sir, triplets po ang anak ninyo”.  Nagulat din at natuwa ang lalake dahil sa Tree Sisters Bakery daw siya nagtatrabaho.  Lumabas ulit ang nurse at bago pa nagsalita ay inunahan na siya ng pangatlong lalake “Sa Four Walls Cafeteria ako nagtatrabaho, ibig sabihin may quadruplets ako!” at totoo nga.  Ang saya ng tatlo nagtatalunan pa sila.  Si Panday na ang kasunod.  Bago pa lumabas ang nurse ay namutla at tuluyang nagfaint siya.  Noong nagising siya tinanung siya ng tatlong lalake kung anong problema. “Sa 7-11 ako nagtatrabaho” sagot ni Panday.

Had a weird dream where I was looking after a group of kids, and we lined up to see these great displays in glass counters at a market. The line snaked for blocks, and was rather long. While looking at some of the displays, I saw “[Sara H.'s last name in capitals] PORN” on a big sign. Of course, I wanted to shield the kids’ eyes from this! When we got to our destination, I quickly distracted the kids with some water slides. After this, we were transported to a big blue house under cover of night. There was a kids’ party going on, complete with party hats / cake / adorable kids with curly hair / quadruplets / twins. It was very fun!

My mom was also there, and eventually she got really intrusive and annoying. Eric, Steph, and I discussed what to do out of her hearing. We drove her to a forest on the pretense of “just going for a drive” (it helped that we saw a farmhouse with cows and pigs who could travel through time and fill voids in books) and left her there! My sister told me to keep a close eye on the ugly green car we’d chosen until she’d walked Mom into the forest a little ways. When she came back, she told me that I had to drive! Man, I was nervous, since I didn’t know how to drive! It was a bit scary, and I kept worrying about crashing into the trees since the car didn’t have auto-pilot. She encouraged me, and I finally made it to the blue house as a white-knuckle driver. Once we returned, Uncle Joel asked me whether I needed a ride with him and Auntie Cissy to another destination, this one in Richmond. I told him that I didn’t, since we’d taken three cars there, including Eric’s grey beater. The dream ended when we were picking our own mushrooms as dawn broke.

Interesting – not sure what the triggers were, except my mom’s questions and my asking Uncle Joel / Auntie Cissy about the dark purple / dark blue choir robe samples yesterday. Finally, a change from the white ones they’ve been using for at least fifteen years!

The new banner at the top are the Caldarera Quadruplets of Little Rock, AR. Jason Caldarera, Jase Caldarera, Mike Caldarera and Jasondra Caldarera.

This has definitely been the year of the multiple birth.

Legendary multiple birth hospital, Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center delivered four sets of quads in a six week period.

The hospital became a household name after it’s staff delivered and grew the Masche Sextuplets and the Wilkinson Quintuplets.

Three of those couples introduced their quads to Today’s Meredith Vieira on Wednesday and talked about the challenges and joys of multiple births.

“It’s amazing and it’s exciting and it’s very tiring and better than anything we expected,” Dafna Noury told Vieira from Las Vegas, where she and her husband Eli Zohar have been dealing with the joys of sleep deprivation for the nearly two weeks since they brought their four infants home from Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center in Phoenix, which has delivered more sets of quadruplets than any hospital in the country.

Quadruplets are actually a very rare occurance, but not if you’re at the Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center in Phoenix, Arizona where four sets of quadruplets have been delivered within a six-week period — born to stable and responsible couples with the means to support the children and no desire for publicity.

“It’s amazing and it’s exciting and it’s very tiring and better than anything we expected,” Dafna Noury said in Las Vegas, where she and her husband Eli Zohar have been dealing with the joys of sleep deprivation for the nearly two weeks since they brought their four infants home from Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center in Phoenix, which has delivered more sets of quadruplets than any hospital in the country.

The other two couples Sharmeen and Imran Mussani and Kami and Nick Lambe are still in Phoenix while their healthy quads continue to be cared for in the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). “Get your rest as much as you can before then, because you’re going to be busy — very busy,” Zohar said as he cradled one of his brood.

Dr. John Elliott, the hospital’s director of maternal fetal medicine, specializes in multiple births and has delivered nearly 100 sets of quads at the hospital. It was his reputation that drew three of the four couples to Arizona from Michigan, Louisiana and Las Vegas to seek his help in starting or adding to their families. (The fourth couple lives near Phoenix in Gilbert, Ariz.)

Dafna Noury and Eli Zohar have been married for 13 years and had been trying to start a family for eight years before resorting to Elliott and in vitro fertilization. In her first cycle, Noury had four embryos implanted and none of them took. She and Zohar went back for another try and again had four embryos implanted. This time all of them took, and on Jan. 27, Noury gave birth to her quads: Jet Adam, Sky Michael, Max Ethan and Aurelia Elizabeth. Jet and Sky’s names reflect Zohar’s career as a professional pilot. Originally from Israel, Zohar has served in the military, but, his wife said, “This is harder than anything he did before.”

The couple live in Las Vegas and transferred the babies to a hospital in that city after birth for insurance reasons. During the final weeks before she delivered, Noury camped out in an RV outside the hospital so that she could be there when her time arrived. Zohar flew in every week to visit. Just before her due date, Noury’s placental membrane ruptured and she underwent an emergency C-section. Zohar was still an hour away on a flight, but hospital staff videotaped the delivery so he could see it later. The quads have been home for more than a week, and Noury is getting helping hands from her brother and sister-in-law who live nearby as well as from friends who stop by when they can. Even with that much help, they’re looking into hiring a baby nurse so they can get some rest.

Sharmeen and Imran Mussani had been having difficulty starting a family, partly because Sharmeen had had an ectopic pregnancy that resulted in the removal of one of her fallopian tubes. The couple were contemplating in vitro fertilization more than three years ago when Sharmeen became pregnant with a son, Shayaan, who is now 2½. The couple tried for a year to conceive a sibling for Shayaan with no success. They went to a fertility clinic and implanted four embryos, all of which took. “We were told to expect one or two,” Imran told Vieira. “When we were told we had four, my wife went into a laughing fit — she couldn’t believe it.”

On Feb. 4, Sharmeen gave birth by C-section to three boys, Mehran, Iffaam and Ramiz, and one girl, Nourya. The infants weighed between 2 pounds, 8 ounces and 4 pounds, 3 ounces. The couple live in Brownstown, Mich., and are still making plans for bringing the infants home when they are released from the hospital. Sharmeen is particularly eager to get home. She has been living in Phoenix since October and hasn’t been home for more than four months. Two of the four are due to be released from the hospital in the next few days. Imran said their older son keeps asking when he can see his new siblings. “He’s in for a shock when they all come home,” the proud father laughed.

Kami and Nick Lambe of Baton Rouge, La., had just two embryos implanted in their in vitro procedure. They were delighted when an early ultrasound revealed that both had taken. But during another ultrasound at eight weeks, their obstetrician said he had news for them: One of the embryos had split twice and Kami was now carrying four fetuses, including identical triplets. Nick said he was excited from the moment he heard the news and joked that he wanted his own reality show: “Pimp My Quads.” But Kami took a bit longer to come around to the idea of carrying four fetuses. “My initial reaction was fear for the babies’ health, because I knew about the risks,” she said. “But it didn’t take long for me to get over that and get excited.”

Kami delivered the four infants — daughter Sloan Olivia and sons Rocco Dean, Madden Jax and Jagger Cole — on Feb. 12. All weighed between 2 pounds, 5 ounces and 2 pounds, 11 ounces. The Lambes still can’t tell the boys apart and have resorted to color codes to distinguish one from another. Rocco is blue, Madden red and Jagger green — the colors extend from blankets and clothing down to a toenail on each.

The Lambe quads will be 2 weeks old on Thursday and are expected to spend another six weeks in the NICU unit in Phoenix before they are allowed to go home. The Lambes said they still don’t know how they’re going to transport the infants to Louisiana. In the meantime, they said they’re getting all the sleep they can.

A fourth couple, Kami and Jason Crisanti, welcomed quads into the world at the hospital on Dec. 29. The Crisantis, who live just outside of Phoenix in Gilbert, have two other children, Maya, 7 and Jace, 4. Unlike the other three couples, the Crisantis did not implant embryos but underwent artificial insemination, which resulted in the four infants. The Crisantis chose privacy for their family instead of doing interviews.

Ever since Dr. Michael Kamrava’s name was announced on NBC’s Dateline special about his patient, Nadya Suleman who gave birth to octuplets after he implanted her with six embryos, he has been under scrutiny. Due to his lack of following guidelines set forth regarding embryo implantation by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, his career has been in the hot seat. But now, he might loose his medical license after a second patient of his has announced she’s expecting quadruplets — four babies when she really only wanted one. It is reported that Dr. Kamrava transferred at least seven embryos to this woman age 49. Now she’s five months pregnant with quadruplets and hospitalized at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center.

In fertility medicine, any pregnancy greater than twins is considered a poor outcome because of the danger it poses to the mother and the babies. Quadruplet births are rare, with an average of 14 sets born in California each year, according to state records. “Historically, we have been very hesitant to regulate anything close to procreation from parents making judgments about how many children they will have and when,” said Kirk O. Hanson, ethics professor and executive director of the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University.

The woman in the latest case arrived recently at Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles for unspecified treatment but was transferred last week to County-USC Medical Center because she lacks insurance. Doctors placed her on bed rest until the birth of the babies, which could be two or three months from now.

The California Medical Board has said it is looking into the octuplets’ case to determine whether a doctor may have violated any standards of care. The American Society for Reproductive Medicine, which has guidelines limiting the number of embryos that can be transferred depending on the woman’s age and other circumstances, said it is also examining the doctor’s practice. No laws govern this issue. The guidelines allow for the transfer of more embryos in older women. But in this case, the woman was using embryos made from eggs donated by a woman in her late 20s — which fertility specialists said increased the possibility of a multiple birth.

“I do think it is concerning, and dangerous, especially to the mother. She is close to 50. When women get to be that age, our fear is the cardiovascular complications, such as stroke or heart attack. That’s how serious this is,” said Dr. John Jain, a fertility specialist with knowledge of the case.

Reached by telephone, the woman did not confirm that Kamrava is her doctor. However, The Times has verified the information through several independent sources. She said her doctors urged her not to talk to the media because she is already dealing with a high-risk pregnancy and doesn’t need more stress. “Please respect my privacy,” she said, adding that her circumstances are much different from Suleman’s.

The woman has three grown children from a previous marriage but wanted another child with her second husband, who is in his early 30s and doesn’t have any children, sources said. She works as an apartment manager; her husband is a contractor. She started fertility treatments seeking one baby, but after becoming pregnant with quadruplets, declined medical advice to reduce the number of fetuses, the sources said.

Kamrava could not be reached for comment and has declined previous interview requests. A woman who answered the phone at his West Coast IVF Clinic said: “If [a] mother wants to bring four kids, so what?” Doctors at County-USC and Good Samaritan Hospital also declined to comment, citing patient confidentiality.

Suleman said in an interview with NBC that her doctor transferred six embryos. She gave birth Jan. 26, and although the births were initially celebrated as a medical miracle, public opinion quickly turned when it was discovered that Suleman had six other children, was a single mother and was relying on some public assistance, including food stamps and Social Security benefits.

Get religious party favors for your baby’s baptism.

Less than three weeks after their birth, the mother of the quaduplets has set up a website…

http://www.thenadyasulemanfamily.com/

Having spent the last week recording videos and interviews, stating how “torn” she is wanting to be both at the hospital with her new borns and at home with her other 6 children, she can be forgiven for the simplistic site design.

It has two options – leave a comment or make a donation!

Only in America… or not??? I was gutted to see the trailer advertising a documentary following the story of Laura Williams from her decision to have her conjoined twins through to the sad deaths of both Hope and Faith. 

It seems that the media can buy anything nowadays…

Here’s a link from Belle. My kids loved this one. Laughter is so contagious.

38 Weeks, 2 days

I had a really weird dream last night that was at least partially triggered by the fact that before I went to bed, I watched a documentary about this lesbian couple who became pregnant with one of the women’s eggs, which resulted in each of them having two babies. Genetically, quadruplets. They had some really cute kids. It was a very interesting documentary. I love the discovery health channel. I could watch it pretty much 24/7. I like to learn things, especially medical things and so it feeds my need for knowledge. They have a game on their website that I really, really like. It is a pentathlon of baby care activities. My best activity is feeding.

Days Clean: 88

Acronym of the Day

H.O.M. – Higher Order Multiple(s); i.e. triplets, quadruplets, quintuplets, etc.

For any regular person reading this, it will seem so unthinkable.  (And when I say “regular”, I mean someone without HOMs.  Those of us with large multiple births have learned it’s just part of the experience.)  The freaky thing is, on a REGULAR BASIS, people appear in our HOM world who are pretending to have multiples.  I know!  It just sounds too crazy to be true, doesn’t it?  But when another quadruplet mom calls me from across the country and casually says, “That person on your Facebook?  She’s a faker.” it doesn’t outrage me and destroy my trust in the world as it probably should.

A brief education:  if you look over on the right-side widget bar, you’ll see an icon for M.O.S.T.  This stands for Mothers Of SuperTwins.  This is one of the two well-known national multiples groups in the US and is headquartered in New York.  The GrandMasterMom of MOST is Maureen.  Anyone with triplets or more can join, but when you join you are vetted to make sure you qualify for membership.  (Fakers who are reading this can keep moving; I’m not going to be giving any strategies for weeding out the weirdos.  Suffice it to say that with one or two questions, Maureen can usually tell if there’s something hinky going on.)  Doesn’t seem like you’d need to be “checked out”, does it?  What weirdo would lie about this?  Plenty.

I’ve always been interested in psychology, and if I ever go back to school I’m gonna do a research paper on People Who Fake Multiples.  Some of them do it for money and donations.  There was one couple on the news that claimed to have had sextuplets and received large amounts of donations when their Chamber of Commerce solicited on their behalf.  Another sextuplet hoax on the news had gotten all sorts of stuff–a new washer and dryer, gift cards to the grocery store, clothes–when they made announcements in the media that they had had sextuplets.  There was a woman online several years ago who joined some of our conversations asking us to donate baby clothes to her because she was having quads.  She wasn’t.

Other people must do it for the attention.  Whether they’ve told people close to them or are just posing online, they get wide-eyed admiration and wonder from most people, and an instant friendship with the hundreds of real HOM parents around the country and world.  People are constantly asking how the pregnancy is going, when the babies will come home, how the babies are doing, and how the faker is holding up.  Because those of us living the life know how hard (physically and emotionally) it can be, a phony can expect lots of positive reinforcement in the form of encourgement and compliments.  I wonder about this group.  Does their facade indicate a tendency towards mental illness?  Sometimes it’s teenagers who are playing a role.  Does this put them at a higher risk for other dishonest behaviors?

Maybe some people are just bored.  They think the idea of it sounds fun, so they create their own history and situation, like they’re playing a game of The Sims–HOM Edition.  I wonder if these people are really dishonest, or just feel like they’re part of a role playing adventure.  There must be a certain group who are just nuts.  Maybe they convince themselves that it’s true.  That must suck when they get around to their due date.

I can’t write this post without including a brief description of a person most HOM moms are familiar with: the Tummy Man.  Apparently, there is some guy out there who is really turned on by large, pregnant bellies.  (Unfortunately, I’m not married to him.)  From what I’ve been told, he contacts women who are expecting multiples and tells them that he has a wife who is also pregnant!  And, OMG, she’s at the same point in her pregnancy AND expecting the same number/sexes of babies as the woman he’s talking to!  Eventually, he confides that his wife is extremely concerned that her belly is abnormally large/small/stretched/whatever and asks if the new friend would mind sending him a picture of her tummy so that he can compare and help put his wife’s fears to rest.  I’m sure most pregnant woman would feel some sympathy–we all probably deal with some body issues during this time.  I think he’s gotten a nice collection of tummy shots.  Makes you wonder what his mother did to him that this is his sexual fantasy.