Stacy Conradt
The Quick 10: Babies on the Brain
by Stacy Conradt - January 5, 2010 - 5:37 PM

q10

Because my husband and I are expecting our first little _flosser, you might say I’ve had babies on the brain lately. While every other pregnant woman in the world is poring over What to Expect When You’re Expecting, I’m absorbing tons of useless trivia that probably isn’t going to serve me very well in the labor and delivery room. Here are a few of those tidbits.

1. Canada is the only country that can account for birth records for almost four centuries (they started in 1621). It’s the first country to keep a systematic archive of such things, despite the fact that other countries have been established for much longer.

duggars2. Pssh, the Duggars’ 19 kids looks like conservative family planning compared to Mrs. Fedor Vassilyev. This Russian lady gave birth to 69 children, which included 16 sets of twins, seven sets of triplets and four sets of quadruplets.
3. So far, the only baby ever born to a president-elect has been JFK Jr., who was born on November 25, 1960, while his dad waited to take office.

4. Speaking of presidents, the first baby to be born in the White House was James Madison Randolph. Nope, he wasn’t an heir of Madison – he was Thomas Jefferson’s grandson.

5. Twins don’t necessarily have to be born together. The longest time span between twin births started on November 11, 1995. One twin was born that day and the other was born 84 days later – February 2, 1996. That would be a great story to tell when you got older – no one would believe that you were a twin with a birthday in a totally different year than your counterpart!

6. On average, a baby needs changed once an hour for the first two months of its life (how often it needs changed and how often you end up changing it are probably two different things).

baby7. You might recall the 19-pound baby (pictured) born in Indonesia in fall of 2009. I certainly do – he was born right around the time we discovered I was pregnant and I was completely horrified. However, he’s not the biggest baby on record – that honor goes to the baby boy belonging to Canadian Anna Bates and it occurred in 1879. Baby Bates tipped the scales at 23 pounds and 12 ounces. Anna herself was 7’5”, so perhaps a nearly 24-pound baby isn’t that bad (who am I kidding?).

8. The first baby hospital in the U.S. didn’t open until 1887. The New York-based facility had just eight beds.

9. It usually takes babies some time to grow teeth, but sometimes they come out with a tooth or two already formed. However, the youngest baby to grow teeth had eight of them when he was born six weeks early in 1970.

10. The first official daycare opened in Paris in 1844. That’s pretty progressive!

Any baby tidbits you care to share? I’m all ears! And if you’re looking for more, most of these were gleaned from Fairy Kisses and Stork Bites by Kenneth and Karen Brown. It’s a fun read for the trivia-inclined.

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Comments (33)

  1. Identical twins don’t necessarily have to be the same sex – on very rare occasions identical twins cab be boy/girl.

    posted by RobertSeattle on 1-5-2010 at 6:01 pm

  2. Thanks for sharing! I too am expecting my first and these tid-bits of random baby info. are far more interesting than all the books you’re \supposed\ to read about babies. (And here’s hoping for NOT a 19 OR 24 lb. baby! Yikes!)

    posted by Daphne on 1-5-2010 at 6:15 pm

  3. I couldn’t find anything useful in “What To Expect When You’re Expecting” because I wasn’t having any of the problems listed and I was diabetic so the diet advice didn’t apply. The best book I had was “The Birth Book” by Dr Sears and also “The Last 24 Hrs” or something like that about JUST labor and delivery.

    Definitely read up on your options for labor and delivery because I wasn’t able to have a labor and delivery I wanted or hoped to have but knowing my options regarding pain medication, etc really helped the whole thing be less stressful (especially since I was induced and told at 8a that I was going to be induced after lunch; that was fun!).

    posted by Sarah in CA on 1-5-2010 at 6:19 pm

  4. Oh yeah, and “I’ll Never Have Sex With You Again!” by Irene Zutell was a hysterical distraction from reading all the baby/birth books, and stress of realizing, “OMG I’m going to be having a baby!!!”, haah.

    posted by Sarah in CA on 1-5-2010 at 6:22 pm

  5. Um, I hate to take issue with you, but it really doesn’t seem all that farfetched for one twin to be born in a different year than the other year. What about twins born on December 31 and January 1?

    posted by Teg on 1-5-2010 at 6:34 pm

  6. I agree with Teg. My wife and I just had twin girls born Dec. 16th (11:05pm) and 17th (12:24am). Different birthdays is easy, bit still highly statistically improbable, as most twins are born 15-20 minutes apart (and c-sections are ussually like 90 seconds). Different years… just a lot more improbable.

    posted by Matt on 1-5-2010 at 7:12 pm

  7. Another interesting thing about twins… you can have “half” identical twins. Fraternal twins are conceived when two eggs are released, and each fertilized by a separate sperm. Identical twins occur when the sperm fertilizes the egg, and then it splits. But, what if one egg splits, and those identical eggs are fertilized separately? Half identical twins!

    Congratulations on the pregnancy! BTW… when you push the baby out, you’re likely to poop, too. Just thought you should know! ;-)

    posted by Lisa on 1-5-2010 at 7:49 pm

  8. “What about twins born on December 31 and January 1?”

    This just happened last week in the Chicagoland area.

    posted by Paul on 1-5-2010 at 8:49 pm

  9. In my endocrinology and behavior class we learned that babies, and women who are breast-feeding, emit a pheromone that acts as an aphrodisiac on women. This finding was apparently a surprising one for the scientific community, but seeing that every time I hold a baby, I am overwhelmed by the impractical urge to *own a baby*, it didn’t surprise me very much!

    posted by Lynnie on 1-6-2010 at 2:08 am

  10. That’s really interesting, Lynnie. My sister just had a baby and every time I see her I start to think about wanting a baby. That’s odd for me, being horrified at the thought of being pregnant. It’s all starting to make sense. =)

    posted by Christina on 1-6-2010 at 8:10 am

  11. Maybe that aphrodisiac comment has something to do with age…because I definitely see babies as a mood killer at this point in my life…not ready for one to accidentally pop out, haha

    posted by Nicole on 1-6-2010 at 8:13 am

  12. those twins born on new years eve and new years day in Chicago were born in two different decades.

    I think it would be wild to have twins with one being born on leap day.

    posted by jen on 1-6-2010 at 9:00 am

  13. i think the wild thing about the twins being born in different years is that one was born in November ’95 and the other in February ’96. three months apart!

    i totally believe breastfeeding has happy hormones…it always relaxed me and i loved it!

    posted by erica on 1-6-2010 at 10:26 am

  14. I had a tooth when I was born, but it fell out some weeks later. I have always thought it is a funny story to tell because people don’t believe in it !

    posted by pixiebelle on 1-6-2010 at 10:36 am

  15. I’m a little skeptical about Mrs. Vassilyev. I’d be skeptical if it happened today, but it makes it even worse that this supposedly happened in the 1700s without modern medicine.

    A quick google search shows I’m not the only skeptic.
    http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2160715/mrs_feodor_vassilyev_most_prolific.html?cat=9

    I’m surprised that this story is so quickly accepted as fact by a website/magazine dedicated to thought and knowledge. A little incredulity couldn’t hurt, you know?

    posted by Ryan on 1-6-2010 at 11:13 am

  16. Lisa, there is no such thing as half identical twins. An egg cannot split until it’s been fertilized. However, you can have triplets and have 2 identical twins and one fraternal twin.

    posted by tinkerschnitzel on 1-6-2010 at 11:16 am

  17. Tampa General just had a set of twins with one being the last baby of 09 and one the first of 10. So I quess the first one can brag about being a year older but the seocnd one would get all the first baby of the year presents.

    posted by Mary on 1-6-2010 at 11:54 am

  18. Not a twins story, but a woman in my hometown had her first son on January 1 and then her second son December 31 of the same year. I cannot remember the year, though. Always thought this was odd.

    posted by Ann Marie on 1-6-2010 at 12:28 pm

  19. Interesting article the woman who had 69 children how in the world did she manage.

    posted by Kari on 1-6-2010 at 1:50 pm

  20. tinkerschnitzel, look up “Polar Body Twins”. I was actually studying that last semester. :D

    I explained in very simply in the comment, and it still is just a hypothesis. Semi-identical twins have been confirmed, but polar body twinning is just they main theory behind it.

    posted by Lisa on 1-6-2010 at 2:34 pm

  21. what about the woman who got pregnant while she was pregnant? it’s a condition called superfemation. it usually happens in animals, but it happened to her!

    my mom never had any baby books. the closest thing was this novelty coloring book someone gave her when she was pregnant the first time around with me. it’s about the story about finding out you’re pregnant, telling friends and family, adjusting to your growing body, the hospital experience, etc… it’s really cute!

    captcha: bearer criticism

    posted by Elise Rivera on 1-6-2010 at 2:35 pm

  22. Congratulations! :)

    posted by mrs.djs on 1-6-2010 at 3:41 pm

  23. Congrats on your pregnancy, Stacy! I never read “What to Expect When You Are Expecting” but I have found “What to Expect the First Year” really helpful. Best of luck to you and your growing family!

    posted by Lori @ I Can Grow People on 1-6-2010 at 3:45 pm

  24. Congrats on the pregnancy! The only advice I can give is keep a journal right now of daily experiences. It sounds inane, but trust me, looking back on it now, it’s cool to read about where I was physically, emotionally, spiritualy and mentally as I prepared for my own little _flosser! :) BLESSINGS!

    posted by Helenann on 1-6-2010 at 4:02 pm

  25. @ Ann Marie

    I worked with a woman who had two babies in the same year (January and November). I believe it’s called “Irish Twins”, although my Irish ancestors would probably not be impressed by the inference!

    posted by Beth on 1-6-2010 at 4:17 pm

  26. I’m a twin and I have to constantly point this out- identical twins can never, ever by boy-girl. EVER. When a fertilized egg splits it’s a combination of one sperm and one egg- the sperm can only provide one sex chromosome. It would be impossible for one to have a different sex. I’m a girl and I have a twin brother, and for the thousandth time we’re not identical.

    posted by Anne on 1-6-2010 at 7:43 pm

  27. One of my coworkers told me (WISELY!) to read The Baby Whisperer before I gave birth. I’m a real charts and schedules gal, so it was invaluable in preparing me for the kids, and the kids to be functional little people too – I don’t have any probs getting them out and about.

    Don’t knock the What to Expect-ers too much – thanks to the The First Year (checklist again!) I discovered my youngest was stone Deaf, and got going on interventions right away! It was also awesome for diagnosing little ills, as was the Toddler Years.

    all the best! and when you’re ready to stick your head into a gas oven from the colic, just remember the wisdom of the ages: “This Too Shall Pass”.

    posted by Marion on 1-6-2010 at 8:52 pm

  28. On the whole boy-girl identical twin thing, unless my old health ed teacher was lying, there is definately one non identical thing between a boy and a girl. Hence, how the babies got there in the first place.

    A friend of mine has a set of twins male and female and we are amazed at the number of people that ask if they are identical.

    posted by Mike on 1-6-2010 at 10:11 pm

  29. It is EXTREMELY rare, but “identical twins” can be boy-girl. However, the female will have Turner’s Syndrome (instead of XX, female, or XY, male, she’ll be X, female).

    posted by Lisa on 1-6-2010 at 11:44 pm

  30. Grammar police here – “On average, a baby needs changed once an hour for the first two months of its life (how often it needs changed and how often you end up changing it are probably two different things).”

    Is it just me or should that read “a baby needs TO BE changed” or “a baby need CHANGING” to be correct grammar? This is a peeve of mine, along with “axing a question”, AHHHHHH!

    Thanks,
    ~Bethy :)

    posted by Bethy on 1-7-2010 at 5:18 pm

  31. The best advice to give is trust your own self. It may sound impossible but you will automatically grow unknown knowledge when the kid is born. And ignore as much of everyone else’s advice as possible.You and the baby(and your hubs)are individuals after all.

    I got a book called “Your Pregnancy:Week By Week”. I loved it because it put everything into Laman’s terms.

    posted by lisaj6112 on 1-7-2010 at 10:20 pm

  32. Okay, for those of you who are like, “So what if they have twins within a few hours apart. Separate birthdays aren’t all that uncommon.” She is talking about DAYS between the births. 84 freaking days!! That’s almost 3 MONTHS!! That’s not just December 31st and January 1st.

    posted by Madddy on 5-5-2011 at 7:54 pm

  33. Here is what I have to add:

    In 1900, what color was used for boys was PINK!

    posted by mum's mall on 10-12-2011 at 8:14 pm

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