Contrary to what they told you in high school health class, it is possible. The technical term is superfetation; getting pregnant when you are already pregnant. Now, they weren't precisely lying to you when they said that. It is a statistical impossibility, or rather it is so rare as not to show up as even a blip on the medical radar.
When we lived as transplants in North Carolina, they never made any provisions for snow. Each winter it would snow, usually just one day, and it was always a huge surprise. Each year we heard about the awful weather, and how this never happened here. Each year schools closed with great drama and people literally panicked about the weather. My northern born husband pointed out (with some amusement) that one day a year may be less than half a percent and therefore statistically improbable, however, if it happens then one should make allowances.
Now, in all fairness, superfetation is much more unlikely than that. We are talking more on the range of fire from heaven: a phenomenon recorded three times in medieval manuscripts. http://abob.libs.uga.edu/bobk/ccc/cc081597.html Frankly it just doesn't happen very often, but statistically impossible doesn't mean impossible, just very improbable. Now why do I spend all this time on a subject which I am sure you have never considered in your wildest dreams? Well, I hadn't either before May 2006. I had never heard of it, nor considered the possibility that they were wrong in my health class.
I have always had a difficult time staying pregnant. Getting pregnant was no problem, but staying pregnant seemed impossible. I had many miscarriages before we sought professional help. The reproductive endocrinologist said that I reacted to hormones differently than anyone with whom he had ever had dealings. That did not bother me at the time. With the aid of fertility drugs I was able to conceive and carry my sweet daughter. About the same time we were also able to adopt our beloved foster daughter.
For many in this world, two is enough. I have never understood that logic. I am one of eleven living children, and quite frankly, I loved it. My husband is from a small family of only six children. We planned and hoped for a large family.
When the time came for us to think about our next child, I decided to try a more natural approach. I was disgusted by the years wasted with the RE and all the tests and procedures that I had endured to have my firstborn child. I knew there had to be a better way.
The years with the RE were not wasted. I learned two salient facts; first, that a problem with estrogen can cause a problem with progesterone (the problem that I knew I had even before visiting the RE) and that blurb about me handling hormones differently.
I started on a natural regimen. I quit all foods with hormones as the growth hormones are basically an artificial estrogen. That was a rough switch. They are in all milk and meat products that are commercially available. I had to go to natural and organic products. After that switch, I did a series of three cleanses to get rid of all the foreign hormones from my body. Then I took some herbs to balance my hormones.
Sure enough, I got pregnant only a month or so after starting that. Now I knew that my hormones were not totally stable. Twice I had short bleeding episodes within 24 hours of accidentally eating something with the growth hormones. I spent a lot of time praying for the welfare of my unborn children.
Yes, children. I have always been able to sense my babies presence from the moment of conception (a skill honed by fifteen painful miscarriages.) It is a sense of otherness, a spiritual connection. I felt them come. I knew that there were two, one boy and one girl.
After my 14th week, I felt I could relax somewhat. I was out of the crucial first trimester when my body was supposed to make the hormones, and now the placenta was in charge of making enough progesterone to prevent miscarriages. At the same time, my dear husband got a job so we went to the grocery store to celebrate. I picked some juice that was on sale. After first reading the label carefully to make sure that it was 100% juice, I grabbed several bottles. Hey, it was on sale!
At home, we opened and drank some juice. I thought it tasted a little peculiar, similar to some of my herbal tisanes, but I really didn't think anything of it until I started cramping and bleeding almost immediately. After I started bleeding I checked the bottle of juice. It was Langers Cranberry Raspberry 100. I had read the ingredients carefully to be sure, but that was the Cranberry 100. The label for the Cran/Rasp looked the same, was the same brand, same label, so I assumed that it was the same. I couldn't have been more wrong.
In some flavors of their 100 juice line Langers, in their criminal irresponsibility, has inserted herbs. These herbs are herbs that follow certain current fads and trends with no regard to their incredible powers. They list the herbs in the middle of the vitamins and minerals so that they are not at all distinguishable to a cursory inspection. The Cran/Rasp to my horror contained ginseng and gingko biloba- both herbs that are strictly forbidden during pregnancy...
It was the ginseng that caused the bleeding. It took me less than five minutes on the internet to discover that not only was it forbidden to pregnant women because of its hormonal properties, but that there were incidents of vaginal bleeding connected to its use. Now I was facing the possible deaths of my children due to Langers desire to follow the trends.
For eight long days I lay in terror, fearing for the little lives that I could sense inside of me praying every waking moment that they would not be taken, that their placentas would be strong enough to resist the imbecilic irresponsibility of the juice makers. For eight days and nights I gushed blood, bleeding for all the world like a regular, if heavy, period. I was blessed, though. No tissue came out and I didn't lose my precious babies.
There was one rather unexpected side effect. Fourteen days after the bleeding started, I ovulated again and conceived two sweet boys; fraternal twins due 14 weeks after their siblings.
When we lived as transplants in North Carolina, they never made any provisions for snow. Each winter it would snow, usually just one day, and it was always a huge surprise. Each year we heard about the awful weather, and how this never happened here. Each year schools closed with great drama and people literally panicked about the weather. My northern born husband pointed out (with some amusement) that one day a year may be less than half a percent and therefore statistically improbable, however, if it happens then one should make allowances.
Now, in all fairness, superfetation is much more unlikely than that. We are talking more on the range of fire from heaven: a phenomenon recorded three times in medieval manuscripts. http://abob.libs.uga.edu/bobk/ccc/cc081597.html Frankly it just doesn't happen very often, but statistically impossible doesn't mean impossible, just very improbable. Now why do I spend all this time on a subject which I am sure you have never considered in your wildest dreams? Well, I hadn't either before May 2006. I had never heard of it, nor considered the possibility that they were wrong in my health class.
I have always had a difficult time staying pregnant. Getting pregnant was no problem, but staying pregnant seemed impossible. I had many miscarriages before we sought professional help. The reproductive endocrinologist said that I reacted to hormones differently than anyone with whom he had ever had dealings. That did not bother me at the time. With the aid of fertility drugs I was able to conceive and carry my sweet daughter. About the same time we were also able to adopt our beloved foster daughter.
For many in this world, two is enough. I have never understood that logic. I am one of eleven living children, and quite frankly, I loved it. My husband is from a small family of only six children. We planned and hoped for a large family.
When the time came for us to think about our next child, I decided to try a more natural approach. I was disgusted by the years wasted with the RE and all the tests and procedures that I had endured to have my firstborn child. I knew there had to be a better way.
The years with the RE were not wasted. I learned two salient facts; first, that a problem with estrogen can cause a problem with progesterone (the problem that I knew I had even before visiting the RE) and that blurb about me handling hormones differently.
I started on a natural regimen. I quit all foods with hormones as the growth hormones are basically an artificial estrogen. That was a rough switch. They are in all milk and meat products that are commercially available. I had to go to natural and organic products. After that switch, I did a series of three cleanses to get rid of all the foreign hormones from my body. Then I took some herbs to balance my hormones.
Sure enough, I got pregnant only a month or so after starting that. Now I knew that my hormones were not totally stable. Twice I had short bleeding episodes within 24 hours of accidentally eating something with the growth hormones. I spent a lot of time praying for the welfare of my unborn children.
Yes, children. I have always been able to sense my babies presence from the moment of conception (a skill honed by fifteen painful miscarriages.) It is a sense of otherness, a spiritual connection. I felt them come. I knew that there were two, one boy and one girl.
After my 14th week, I felt I could relax somewhat. I was out of the crucial first trimester when my body was supposed to make the hormones, and now the placenta was in charge of making enough progesterone to prevent miscarriages. At the same time, my dear husband got a job so we went to the grocery store to celebrate. I picked some juice that was on sale. After first reading the label carefully to make sure that it was 100% juice, I grabbed several bottles. Hey, it was on sale!
At home, we opened and drank some juice. I thought it tasted a little peculiar, similar to some of my herbal tisanes, but I really didn't think anything of it until I started cramping and bleeding almost immediately. After I started bleeding I checked the bottle of juice. It was Langers Cranberry Raspberry 100. I had read the ingredients carefully to be sure, but that was the Cranberry 100. The label for the Cran/Rasp looked the same, was the same brand, same label, so I assumed that it was the same. I couldn't have been more wrong.
In some flavors of their 100 juice line Langers, in their criminal irresponsibility, has inserted herbs. These herbs are herbs that follow certain current fads and trends with no regard to their incredible powers. They list the herbs in the middle of the vitamins and minerals so that they are not at all distinguishable to a cursory inspection. The Cran/Rasp to my horror contained ginseng and gingko biloba- both herbs that are strictly forbidden during pregnancy...
It was the ginseng that caused the bleeding. It took me less than five minutes on the internet to discover that not only was it forbidden to pregnant women because of its hormonal properties, but that there were incidents of vaginal bleeding connected to its use. Now I was facing the possible deaths of my children due to Langers desire to follow the trends.
For eight long days I lay in terror, fearing for the little lives that I could sense inside of me praying every waking moment that they would not be taken, that their placentas would be strong enough to resist the imbecilic irresponsibility of the juice makers. For eight days and nights I gushed blood, bleeding for all the world like a regular, if heavy, period. I was blessed, though. No tissue came out and I didn't lose my precious babies.
There was one rather unexpected side effect. Fourteen days after the bleeding started, I ovulated again and conceived two sweet boys; fraternal twins due 14 weeks after their siblings.
posted by Ramona | 9:42 AM
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