Just nine months ago, Liz Cowdin was a busy woman, taking care of 8-month-old twins, four children from her previous marriage and four children from her husband's former union.
Liz and Buck Cowdin's Christmas shopping list read: Lindsey, Melissa, Britani, Jamie, Tyke, Neil, Heather, Kade, plus the twin toddlers Cutler and Yardlee.That's 10 in all.
Then came the news from her physician. Liz Cowdin was pregnant. With another set of twins.
"When he told me I was having more twins, I just got a lump in my throat. And it stayed there for about six months," she said.
Her eldest daughter, Lindsey, burst into tears.
Out of happiness, anger or shock?
"Either or," Lindsey said.
The latest set of fraternal twins, Bridger Beau and Tucker Kit, were born Saturday morning.
"I have a lot to be thankful for. This doesn't happen very often, and we just had a three-day stay in the hospital," Liz Cowdin said. "And they are normal, happy, healthy babies."
Dr. Steve Kammeyer, Cowdin's physician, said there is a one-in-80 chance for a woman to have twins, and a one-in-6,400 chance of having sets of twins in succession.
Cowdin, 40, took no fertility drugs, and neither parent has twins in their extended families.
"It is just pure magic. I wouldn't dare to take fertility pills," she said. "I'm afraid I would have a litter."
The Cowdins are spending a small fortune for diapers, clothes, car seats and cribs.
"We have had to double everything," she said. "Their ages are too close together to use the same things."