Friday, February 09, 2007

By Golly, they could be TWINS!


Okay, people always look at me like I'm nuts when I say this--but we honestly don't know if these two bubs are identical or fraternal. "What????" you gasp. Yes. When you have twins, you'll find out that there are only TWO surefire ways to know whether you have ID twins or fraternals. To you folks out there saying, "Well surely boy/girl twins are ALWAYS fraternal!" I say, "Ha!" There are actually instances when there CAN be boy/girl ID twins. It's a whole extra chromosome falling off thing that you don't really want to go into...

Unless you have an amnio (which I didn't), or have their little cheekies swabbed for DNA (which isn't neccessary, so therefore not provided at the hospital), you just don't know for sure. People will say, "Well, were they in two sacs, or..?" That's a gray area, as well. There was a membrane between them that was evident on the sonogram, but they could have been in two separate sacs (chorion), or that may just have been the sacs within the sac (amnion). My doctor didn't say, "Hey, look! Two sacs!" It was more about whisking them through the window to the NICU that counting the sacs. Placentas can fuse, the list goes on....

So, we left it at that. We figured that, if we were in doubt, we'd have them tested later. We could definitely tell them apart in infancy, and even now. But again, they also have the same hair/eye color, same exact skin tone, and look more and more alike each day. ID twins don't always look EXACTLY alike, as some traits are inherited from Mom after the egg has split. While they have the same DNA, one might be taller, or sound different. There are really several factors involved.
However, now that we are starting to take note of how much they DO look alike, our curiousity is getting the better of us. We're considering shelling out the 150 smackers to put the debate to rest, once and for all!

1 comment:

Amy said...

Wow, didn't know boy/girl could be identical...interesting!
They sure do alike! I am betting on identical! They are certainly adorable...we know that for sure! :-)