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Kateri and Jay Schwandt, the Michigan couple who have 12 sons, are expecting another child. Will baby number 13 mark the end of their all-boy streak?

The couple says they’re not holding their breath.

“I just don’t think it’s in the cards,” Jay told WXMI recently of their daughter-bearing odds.

Last year, the Schwandts made headlines when their 12th child -- Tucker -- was born. The couple said at the time that though they'd been hoping for a girl, they were thrilled when their “perfect baby” was born.

“If we were to have a girl, I think we would go into shock,” Kateri, 39, told Grand Rapids Press after announcing her most recent pregnancy. “It would probably be disbelief.”

Although the odds seem stacked against them, Jay says he would love to have a daughter if he had a choice in the matter.

“I’ve experienced all the boy stuff,” he told the Grand Rapids Press. “As long as we are having all these children, it would be really neat to experience the other side.”

Kateri, however, seems slightly more hesitant.

“Why change things up?” she said to WXMI. “At this point, at this stage in the game, a little girl, we’d have to re-learn everything.”

The Schwandts’ 12 sons range in age from 15 months to 22 years. Kateri, who “loves being pregnant,” has said that juggling such a huge family can be challenging at times, but the family makes it work by sharing the load.

Baby number 13 is expected on May 9, WXMI reports. The couple says they plan to follow their tradition of not finding out the baby’s gender until he or she is born.

According to CNN, the odds of a couple having 13 sons in a row is about 1 in 8,000. That, says the news outlet, is about the same odds as having natural triplets.

Guardsman Bass wrote:Now all they need is for their seventh son to have seven sons.

Purple wrote:

Guardsman Bass wrote:Now all they need is for their seventh son to have seven sons.

What is up with that anyway? I know that there is some sort of legend or belief about it but I can't find any references as to just what the hell that is.

fordlltwm wrote:

Purple wrote:

Guardsman Bass wrote:Now all they need is for their seventh son to have seven sons.

What is up with that anyway? I know that there is some sort of legend or belief about it but I can't find any references as to just what the hell that is.

This by any chance?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seventh_so ... eventh_son

dragon wrote:Kateri, who “loves being pregnant,” has said that juggling such a huge family can be challenging at times

Guardsman Bass wrote:Now all they need is for their seventh son to have seven sons.

Starglider wrote:

dragon wrote:Kateri, who “loves being pregnant,” has said that juggling such a huge family can be challenging at times

This sentiment is now being selected for very heavily, because (in most of the world) the most significant determining factors for how many viable offspring a human has are now (a) how many kids they want and (b) how early they start.

Nova Andromeda wrote:True, however the rapid pace of technological development suggests there will not be much time before the 'rules' change again. We'll accidentally and destroy ourselves or most of us at any rate,

...the powerful will achieve and be able to maintain a lock on their control (i.e., popular uprisings/revolutions become basically impossible)...

...someone accidentally and we end up with an AGI...

...medical advances reshape the equation you imply above, etc.

Nova Andromeda wrote:Care to guess at where the probabilities are flowing the most strongly currently? It is all very muddy to me, but I fear actively hostile intelligence the most (either technologically assisted human or AGI). I do hope uncaring AGI is significantly more likely as that would be a much better end. Not too much hope we'll get our act together the end result will approximate 'fair'.

Guardsman Bass wrote:You'd need "the desire to have lots of kids" to be something with a hereditary component for it to be selected, otherwise it's just a rare social behavior in a societ where most people have 0-2 children.

Simon_Jester wrote:

Guardsman Bass wrote:You'd need "the desire to have lots of kids" to be something with a hereditary component for it to be selected, otherwise it's just a rare social behavior in a societ where most people have 0-2 children.

Put this way.
IF there is a hereditary component to actively desiring to have kids (or, specifically, a desire to be pregnant in women)... then that desire is being strongly selected for as we speak.
If such a trait hasn't almost totally taken over the human population within 10-15 generations under modern conditions, I suspect it means that there is no hereditary component to it.