Born Hot

I was reading a bedtime story to our little trio about baby farm animals.  On one page, it says, "Baby horse we call a foal.  She could walk the same day she was born."  Yes, I have it memorized.  Why do you ask?  It's one of their favorite books, so I read it to the all.  the.  time.

After the word "born," Freddie always interjects, "Just like Baby Jesus was born!"  Proud of himself to make the connection.  Tonight, I didn't hurry away from his thought.  "Yes, honey, and you know that you were born too."

Surprisingly, he agreed.  "Yes, I's was born."  After a moment's reflection, he added, "I's was hot borned."  It was a hot birth for him?

Intrigued, I turned to Georgie.  "You were born, too.  Was it hot?"

His answer was startling to me.  "I was cold."

Interesting.  See, Fred and George were born with a condition called twin-to-twin transfusion, where their placentas fused together.  Because the blood vessels in the fused placenta ran together, it shunted most of the blood toward one twin and away from the other.  The "donor" twin is often born white and small, as he is anemic.  The "recipient" twin is born big and red, with too much blood.

And thus it was for our twins.  First-out Freddie was our big (more than 7 pounds!)  recipient twin, "hot borned" with too much blood.  Georgie was pale and small, just over 5 pounds.  We had a hard time getting him to perk up and breathe.  Yeah, I'm sure he was cold.  So glad we got to keep them both!

Interesting.