Early this year, Durangoan Emily McCollum and her husband, Josh, got some surprising news: They were expecting twins. Again.
On Wednesday, the couple welcomed a baby girl, Reagan, and her twin brother, Hudson, into the world at Mercy Regional Medical Center.
“Our initial reaction was just like, ‘How? How did this happen again?’” said Emily McCollum. “It took about a day to sink in, and of course, we’re extremely happy.”
McCollum’s double sets of twins was perplexing even to her doctors: “They just said, what are the chances?”
According to Healthresearchfunding.org, fraternal twins, which are more common than identical, occur in one out of 90 births, and a woman’s chance of having a set of twins quadruples after the first pair.
Studies show a number of factors increase the likelihood of having multiples, including age, race, heredity and previous number of pregnancies.
The two new additions to the McCollum household join a nearly 3-year-old pair of fraternal twins, a boy and girl. McCollum said her toddlers, who met their new siblings Wednesday, are excited.
“We’re all excited and nervous,” McCollum said. “I mean, we’ve had twins before. We know we can do it. It will just be different this time with two toddlers.”
