Twins, Again! Multiple Multiples Are More Common Than You’d Think

After struggling with infertility, assisted reproduction, and a tough pregnancy with identical twin daughters, Leisa Mullins and her husband were ready to count their blessings. "I had actually gone in to my doctor to schedule a tubal ligation," says Mullins, who lives in Ohio. "We thought, 'we're so lucky, we've got our two healthy girls, we'll stop there.'"

But the Mullinses hadn't counted high enough. At her tubal consult, Mullins learned she was unexpectedly pregnant. Soon after, an ultrasound revealed a second set of twins. Fifteen months after delivering her first set, Mullins and her husband had two more little girls.

Jennifer Herrold has a family history of twins. However, after her first set—identical boys—she never imagined she'd have another. "We figured, 'what are the chances?'" says Herrold, of Georgia, whose twins were all conceived without the use of assisted reproduction.

When Herrold became pregnant again, she requested an ultrasound at eight weeks gestation. "I just wanted to confirm it was a singleton pregnancy and not a multiple pregnancy," says Herrold. She had noticed she was larger than expected, but told herself it was due to having been pregnant once before. "As we got our first look at the monitor, my husband was just laughing and I repeatedly uttered a superlative!" says Herrold. "We just could not believe it. I was in shock."