"Irish" Twins!!
By pooh1623
@pooh1623 (192)
United States
June 7, 2007 4:28pm CST
I am curious if anyone has heard of this term and how many moms or dads have "Irish" twins? For those of you who never heard of this it is when you have children very close together, within 15 months of each other. My boys are 55 weeks apart to the day.
2 people like this
5 responses
@Zorrogirl (1502)
• South Africa
8 Jun 07
i have heard about it. a friend of mine had her children 9 months apart. thats pushing it a bit. my moms friend had the strangest pregnancy. her children is 4 months apart. when she fell pregnant, one of her ovaries didnt stop producing eggs, so she conceived again while pregnant. the doctors had a hard time with her. each had a birthsack. it was also noted in south african medical phenomenons. she had a ceasarian to prevent contractions. and the boy was born 4 months later.
2 people like this
@Zorrogirl (1502)
• South Africa
8 Jun 07
yes. both are very healthy and very smart. she did carry both to term. and it was 28 years ago. they are medical doctors.both of them. they were sponsored by the university.
1 person likes this
@squaretile (3778)
• Singapore
19 Jun 07
interesting - I've not heard of this term till you mentioned it. I guess it makes sense cos it's almost like having twins. But why Irish? Is it a reference to the continuous children that the irish used to have?
I'm thinking that in today's context the Irish are having less children, just like all others in the developed world. Ironically in Italy even though they are catholic the birth rates are the lowest in europe.
How is it like having children so close to each other? do you feel like you didn't get a proper rest in between or do you feel that it's great cos you can get the growing up portions all over and done with in one sitting?
@pooh1623 (192)
• United States
20 Jun 07
Yeah to tell you the truth I do not know why they are called that, but that is what someone told me. There are definitely advantages to having them close together like as you stated I get the growing up portions over and done with, like the bottles and the potty training and that stuff, but then it could have its disadvantages since they will more than likely argue over friends and toys once they get older. I don't feel that I have lost any rest, I feel as if I gained a lot of respect from others when they find out what I have accomplished with my boys.
1 person likes this
@PunkyMcPunk (1477)
• Canada
20 Jun 07
I laughed right out loud at this one! Thank you, I am at work and I needed this!
My grandparents (McCabe) of course were Irish from the Island (moved to Canada) and they had 17 children. My gran had a child every year for 17 years!! She lost 2 shortly after birth so there were only 15 that lived but I completely understand about Irish twins!
1 person likes this
@shaggin (74987)
• United States
2 Mar 12
It can acutally be very bad for our bodies to have children born so close together. Mine were earlier then I wanted. I wanted my kids to be 5 years apart but they are only 3 1/2 years apart. It was a good enough age gap though. I dont think I could have handled having irish twins. My sister and I were irish twins we are only 14 months apart.
@katsmeow1213 (28716)
• United States
14 Mar 12
I hate that term, Irish twins. I have a set of real twins, born within 10 minutes of each other, and people would constantly say "I know how you feel, mine were born 10 months apart". No, you don't know how I feel. Having a 10 month old and an infant is far different from having 2 infants. At least the 10 month old can hold it's own bottle so you're not trying to feed 2 babies at once. A 10 month old can entertain itself for a few minutes, and sleeps fairly well at night instead of having 2 babies up all night and all day!
My youngest 2 are also 18 months apart.. so I know both sides of the spectrum here. There were some challenges to having a toddler and an infant at the same time, but it still wasn't as challenging as having real twins.
