41-year-old Karen Rodger and her husband 44-year-old Colin said they were “over the moon” when asked how it felt to welcome their third set of twins to the world. Karen had an inkling when she was pregnant for the first time that she may be having twins but had no idea that it would occur with her second and third pregnancies.
The couple have defied the incredible odds of 88,000 to one for them to have produced three sets of healthy, non-identical twins. In an interview with The Guardian, Karen said in response to the new additions to the family “I keep waiting for the hormonal dip,” and adding “But it never comes. I’m elated.”
Karen and Colin beat the astounding odds of 88,000 to one and had three sets of twins!
Karen and Collin thought they were done with bearing twins after having Lewis and Kyle who are 14 and then having Finn and Jude who are 12 two years later. She said “We’d never have imagined it could happen again”.She was, however, certain that she wasn’t finished with childbearing just yet because she recalled a tiny voice inside her saying so.
After giving birth to four boys, was Karen yearning for a daughter? That wasn’t the case as she says “I didn’t just want a daughter, I wanted another baby. I knew it wasn’t very likely to be a daughter – after four of them, I thought we could probably only make boys.” The couple were elated when they found that Karen was pregnant yet again just after she turned forty.
This pregnancy was no walk in the park though because just as soon as she discovered she was expecting, she noticed complications and thought that she had miscarried. Her doctor advised her to get a scan but she had to do it alone because her husband had work commitments. She says, “He felt awful about not being able to come with me, but I said I’d be fine: whatever happened, I’d cope.”
She knew she wanted another baby after having four of her boys but never expected that her third pregnancy would result in twins as well
Colin later related the incident saying “There I was, in the middle of this meeting when I got a text from Karen. I think I’d texted something like: ‘Is everything OK?’ And she texted back: ‘Yes, and it looks like it’s twins.’ I said something like ‘that’s not funny’, excused myself from the meeting and went outside to phone her. And she said it was really true, that the scan operator thought that, though it was early days, it was going to be two babies again.”
“Then I had to go back into the meeting and sit there, in total shock, without being able to tell anyone. Although part of me was actually laughing inside: because I was thinking to myself, why did we ever think it would be any different?”
The couple met over twenty years ago, fell in love and got married. Karen was soon expecting their first child but she was experiencing extreme morning sickness. When they went in for the first scan, she realized the reason for it was because she was expecting twins. The second time Karen got pregnant, she experienced the same symptoms but didn’t think that she was expecting twins again. She said “When I went for my scan, it was the same operator as the first time round, and when she said it was another set I said ‘very funny’. But she said it’s not a joke. Colin was in complete denial; he just couldn’t take it in.”
When the couple decided they wanted to try for one more child, they never considered that it would again be twins because three twin conceptions are extremely rare. Karen says “And, of course, no one even imagined I’d be having another baby at all, let alone twins – the older boys were so big, and people would have assumed childbearing was behind me.”
Since the boys are older, they are excited to lend a hand and help take care of their baby sisters in any way they can
When it was confirmed, the first people the couple told were their boys, Kyle recalled “They brought us all down to the sitting room and told us to sit down. And I thought, this is going to be a big row about how untidy the house is. I was sitting there expecting to get shouted at, and suddenly Dad said: ‘Mum’s pregnant, and it’s two.’ We all sat there in total silence: none of us knew what to say. And then eventually I said: ‘Well, I’m definitely never going to get my own bedroom now.”
After having two sets of boys, the couple was convinced that they were expecting another set of boys with this pregnancy. “The obstetrician lifted Rowan out and held her up for us to see,” said Colin. “And I said: ‘There are some bits missing.’ And she said, ‘No, it’s a girl,'”
“I was absolutely stunned. Then two minutes later they held Isla up and I could see straight away she was another girl. Karen and I were in shock for at least the first 15 minutes. It’s a lot to take in after four boys.”
According to Karen “I wasn’t sure how I was going to cope with all the pink – it’s very different after 14 years of boys’ stuff. I’m getting my head round the idea that they’ll be borrowing my makeup and sparkly shoes.”
Karen and Colin consider themselves veterans in raising twins at this point. Colin said “We know how exhausting the early weeks are when you’ve got two babies, but we also know we’ll come through it and things will move on.”
“We’ve got a huge amount of help – both sets of grandparents are very supportive, and I’d even say that we wouldn’t be in this position, with all these children, if it hadn’t been for them being right behind us,” he adds.
