Identical surprise

On our quest to become mommies (or a Bernal Heights stereotype), we ended up doing IVF (that's in vitro fertilization for those of you au naturale baby-makers). To maximize our chances, we put not one but two embryos back. Here's a picture of our 3-day-old embryos, 9 cells each. Baby's (ok, babies') first picture!


When we got the wonderful news 2 weeks later that Christine was pregnant, the nurse also told us that her hormone levels were high, perhaps indicating twins. We knew going in that twins were a possibility, but we assumed that they would be fraternal twins. After all, we're reasonably good at math and figured that two minus zero equals two. Several ultrasounds later, it looked like our math skills were being tested.


As it turns out, two minus one equals two, at least when one divides. That's right, folks, we're having identical twins, which happens in about 4 out of every 1000 births. We always knew our kids would be special, and they're proving us right before the first trimester is over!