32 Twins

Mirror Twins

After five years of marriage, Mary and I still had no children. At first precautions were taken against pregnancy, but when we thought it was time we ceased precautions, and still nothing resulted. Medical tests showed that it was possible but unlikely.

One day in Brazil, I felt a tight painful knot in my ribcage, and I was sure it was cancer. It was a week before I could get to a doctor; I stopped smoking in the interim. The doctor made an appointment for an X-ray to be taken the following week. Then it was another week before I could get back to the doctor to see the results. The pain had gone away, and the X-ray showed negative for cancer. After a month without smoking, I had no desire to restart. Shortly after that Mary became pregnant. Was it the water? Well, I think it was the smoking that was sterilizing my sperm. Once I was free of that inadvertent birth control, I was fertile. Smoking was later determined to cause male infertility validating my theory.

The pregnancy in Brazil started out normally. We found a good obstetrician and after a few checks, we established that the due date was mid-September. It seemed that by that time my Fulbright would have expired, and we would be back in the United States for the delivery.

The pregnancy progressed normally, and Mary became huge. People would ask “how many?” but the doctor said, “One big boy.” We chose to listen to the doctor.

On the evening of the 31st of July, Mary began to have some contractions. This was too early; we did not think this was the real thing! Then, her water broke! I thought she had peed the bed, but it did not smell like pee. We had to get her to the hospital!

Where was the hospital? I was in a panic. This was supposed to wait until we were back in the States! I jumped in the car to find the hospital and to ask for advice. I decided to leave Mary at the house since I did not think bouncing around in the car would be good for her. I finally found the maternity hospital and described what was going on. Their question was “Where is she? “Oh my god this is the real thing; she is in labor.”  I sped back to the house. Mary was still having contractions and I loaded her up in the Volkswagen bug and returned to the hospital.

The labor seemed to slow down about then and after several hours, our doctor decided that a cesarean was going to be necessary. They took Mary off to the delivery room from which I was excluded. I sat in the waiting room, exhausted, it was already August 1st. I was quite frantic, but helpless, I could do nothing but wait.

Finally at about five in the morning, the nurse came scurrying out with a bundle and headed for the nursery Could that be a baby in there? Is that my baby? She could have said something! I waited a few minutes more and before I could get back to check, another nurse came out with another bundle and headed for the nursery! This was becoming common place. Finally, the doctor came out and held up two fingers and said “Duas mininas” (two girls). The doctor also had decided to perform a cesarean section because of the difficulty that Mary was having with the delivery.

We had a girl’s name picked out which was Susan Elizabeth Bein. An obvious solution was to separate the name and we were able to honor their grandmothers by naming them Susan Helen Bein and Elizabeth Jean Bein.

Being premature babies, Susan (born at 8:33 AM), weighing 3.3 pounds and Elizabeth (born at 8:35AM) weighing 2.9 pounds, in their vulnerable state they were kept in the hospital. Susan was released one day later, and Elizabeth stayed ten days longer. The Doctor thought Elizabeth would not survive, and we were not allowed to see her because she was quarantined. We decided to give her final rites and brought the bishop. With a splash of holy water, she suddenly gave a vigorous cry and came alive! realizing that her loved ones were there for her. The nurses said that was the first time they heard that from her. Ten days later the doctor let us take her home.

Fortunately, Susan was already nursing, and Mary’s milk was well established so that when we brought Elizabeth home, she was able to adapt to the breast immediately. They both began gaining weight rapidly and when they were up to six pounds, we decided that Mary should fly back with them to Colorado to stay with my parents until December while I stayed to finish my research.                       Susan above and Elizabeth below.  Photo by Rick

It is often said when you have twins, the work for two together would be less than raising two spread out over time. Not true. I believe that the complexity of raising children is the square of the size of the litter. One child squared would be one, while two children together result in the stress of four, and three children would carry the complications of nine and so on.

As it turned out Susan and Elizabeth are mirror twins. That is as if one of them looks in the mirror, she would see her twin. One would be left brain thinking and the other right brained. Most notable is that Elizabeth is right-handed, and Susan is left-handed. At one year of age, they needed surgery to correct their cross-eyed condition, the left eye on one and the right on the other. With them, their personalities developed their problem solving right and left.

Mirror image twins are monozygotic twins that form from a single fertilized egg. When the split occurs late, more than a week after conception – the twins can develop reverse asymmetric features. This term is not really a type of twin, just a way to describe their physical features. For example, they may be right- and left-handed, have birthmarks on opposite sides of their body, or have hair whorls that swirl in opposite directions. In theory, if the twins faced each other, they would appear to be exact reflections of each other.

Rick Bein holding twins one year of age. It was hard to find them both nice at the same time. Photos 1973 &1978 by Rick Bein

Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. Map from the Perry Castaneda collection. http://legacy.lib.utexas.edu/maps/cia16/brazil_sm_brazil_2016.gif public domain.

Once we were back in the States, we were told that that because the twins were born via cesarean, that in future births must be by cesarean. We did not have any more children for a while but during our three year stay in Khartoum Sudan, there was no such regulation. Mary became pregnant and our third child was born in 1977 by normal delivery.

Leila was a full-term delivery and the doctor asked me to be in the delivery room and as Mary labored, I waited nervously. There were no other medical people in the room and when Leila came out, he placed the slimy little one into my arms. She was quite beautiful and actually smiled at me! I participated with the nurses in giving her, her first bath. She was quite comfortable in the 85-degree ambient temperature. We named her Leila, an Arabic name meaning “night” but to the contrary she was born at 10 in the morning. Furthermore, her smiling attitude has stayed with her all these years but here contrariness has continued.                               

Leila was born in Khartoum. Ten-year-old twins with younger sister, Leila. Photo by Rick Bein. Map: “Nubia region today.”  April 17, 2005. Author:  Mark Dingemanse. Released under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 license. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nubia_today.png

Alex, born in 1978 was our first American, born in Indianapolis one month after our arrival. The only dramatic part of this birth was that Mary was starting to have contractions late at night and we got into the old Volkswagen van, but it would not start because the battery was dead! What do we do now? I knew if we could get the vehicle moving slightly, I could pop the clutch and the engine would start. A little push would do it, but who was going to push. No was around and guess who had to push. You guessed it. Mary in between contractions pushed enough to get it moving. I often thought that push prepared her for the pushing she was going to have to do at the hospital! Unlike the African hospital, they would not allow me in the delivery room.

Alex showing off a mushroom

Alex a curious kid, was an explorer who was willing try anything! Of course, he got in trouble a lot, but scolding did not affect him. He would try the same thing again when no one was looking. Most people need experience to grow intellectually and, true to form, Alex is highly intelligent. Even then he was a survivor who laughed a lot. Laughter has carried him though life. Also, he was the one who embraced swimming which I introduced to all of my children. He became a powerful swimmer and entered many competitions. The US Naval Academy provided him a full University swimming scholarship.

Kristen, number five was born five years later, was also a Hoosier. A quiet child who was an observer, learned a lot from her siblings and learned a lot from their mistakes. She worked hard and seemed to know what needed to be done without asking. She honored me when she was in art class in Junior High School by creating a clay bust of my head which she gave me at Christmas! Furthermore, she adopted my discipline by majoring in Geography at Indiana University.

Kristen created this a clay bust of my head.