Big Families

I was reflecting today on big families. This is almost definitely my last pregnancy (because of my high-risk status) though we have talked about the possibility of adopting at some point. Four kids is "big" by today's standards, but it wasn't always, and it certainly seems small compared to the octuplet mom with 14 children under age 7.

Do you know who holds the record for giving birth to the most children? Acually, her name isn't known, but she was married to Feodor Vassilyev in the 1700s. She had 27 pregnancies, all with multiples: 16 sets of twins, 7 sets of triplets, and 4 sets of quads, 69 in total of which 67 survived to adulthood. Now that's a big family! I guess I can handle 4 after all.