Odds are . . .

Well, I wanted to sit down and write a heavy post about how relationships in my life have changed since Finn's birth and diagnosis, but I'm just too tired - far too little sleep the last few nights.

So instead, here are some interesting facts I thought I'd post:

Odds of spontaneously conceiving twins at age 36 - 1:27 (I was 36 when I spontaneously conceived my twins - no family history, no fertility treatment)

Odds of spontaneously conceiving twins at age 40 - 1:23

Odds of conceiving a baby with DS at age 40 - 1:100 (I was 40 when Finn was conceived)

Interesting to me that I was much more likey to conceive twins than a baby with DS - especially since my odds at age 40 for twins were probably actually greater than 1:23 because once you've had a set of fraternal twins conceived spontaneously, your odds go up to repeat.

I knew when I got pregnant that my "risk" of having a baby with DS was higher than it was when I was younger, but I arrogantly never really entertained the possibility of it happening "to" me (and I use that term loosely, as it implies my being victimized in some way, which I don't believe to be true at this point) - so I never knew the actual odds. Had I known that my chances were 1:100, I wonder how I would have felt. Would it have convinced me to avoid getting pregnant? I really don't know the answer to that. I must say, too, though, that I had no idea that my odds of having another set of twins at age 40 were 1:23 - wow! I was actually far more freaked out about the possibility of having another set of twins than I was about the possibility of having a baby with a chromosomal anomaly - and I didn't even realize how high my odds were! And yet, even with those odds, I didn't have another set of twins. In a way, it's kind of comforting . . . that despite the odds, it's still a pretty random thing, all of this business of conceiving. I've often wondered how scared I would be of having another baby with DS - or another set of twins - if I were to get pregnant again (and I'm not saying I'm going to - really the plan at this point is not to), and I have to say that knowing these statistics, along with my actual occurences, actually gives me some measure of peace of mind.