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Two cribs. Two car seats. Two high chairs.

As parents of twins, Jake and Michelle Cook are accustomed to buying in pairs. But just months after sons Hudson and Nolan arrived, the new mom and dad were stunned to learn their purchases soon would double again.

The twins were six months old when Michelle Cook discovered she was pregnant for a second time. Familiar by now with prenatal images, she shot up from the hospital bed with wide eyes during a routine ultrasound.

The screen showed not one, but two babies.

For Michelle Cook, “this was a complete surprise.” She conceived both sets of twins without fertility treatments.

“Are you sitting down?” she asked Jake on the phone.

“Does the kid have an extra arm or an extra leg?” he asked, noting the urgency of his wife's request. Actually, she told him, there were two extra arms and two extra legs.

Twins. Again.

Make that four cribs and four car seats — plus a bigger car to fit a rapidly growing family.

The odds of consecutive twin pregnancies can't quite be pinned down, several experts said.

Fertility expert Dr. Maud Doherty said the odds of conceiving twins naturally are one in 80. Personal history, more than family history, dictates the likelihood of conceiving multiples multiple times, said Doherty, whose practice is located at Methodist Women's Hospital in west Omaha.

“If you did it once,” she explained, “you're more likely than the general population to do it again.”

Others estimate that moms who have already given birth to twins are four times more likely to produce another pair at some point. Producing twins consecutively, though, would be a 1-in-1,600 chance, said Andrew Swift, a statistician at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

“I would be surprised but not shocked if I ever met someone in that situation,” he said.

Cook plans to deliver her new set of twins — boys again — in August at the same place her first were born: Methodist Women's Hospital. Hudson and Nolan were the first twins born there June 21, 2010, just 17 and 19 minutes, respectively, after the hospital opened for business.

That honor earned the twins the undivided attention of nearly a dozen nurses in the neonatal intensive care unit.

On Tuesday, Michelle and Jake returned to the hospital, birthday boys in tow, to visit the nurses and doctors involved with the twins' arrival. The couple stepped into the hospital looking calm and prepared — though that wasn't always the case.

“There's just so much to learn as new parents and then having two on top of it ...” Michelle Cook began, unable to finish her thought before one of the twins caught her attention. Hudson noticed a familiar face coming closer and cracked a wider smile. “You want to go see Doctor Gernhart?” Michelle asked her son. Hudson had spotted his mom's obstetrician.

Meanwhile Nolan, younger than his brother by two minutes, stretched his arms upward as he sat on his dad's lap.

“It's easy to get flustered when there's two of them,” Jake Cook said. “Especially when they're mobile, but we've found a balance.”

They don't have family who live near their home in Glenwood, Iowa, so Jake's mom will travel from Chicago to stay with them after the new twins are born.

Michelle Cook plans to return to work in sales after a 13-week maternity leave. She said she and Jake, who also works in sales, are looking forward to the days when the family schedule no longer will revolve around naps and feeding time.

Those days might someday focus on football schedules instead, she said.

“Let's just hope they don't all want to play quarterback,” she laughed.

Contact the writer: 402-444-1071, katy.healey@owh.com

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