How do you tell your twins apart!?

I have identical twin boys, they are only 3 days old, and now that the swelling is going down, they are starting to look more and more "alike". How did you distiguish between your identical twins in those early days? I feel like a bad mom that I really cant tell them apart!

 

i dont have ID, mine are b/g lol but i did notice as they got a little older they have different cries, different "talking" sounds, etc.

 

Incredibly, they looked the LEAST alike in the beginning for us. I had no problems then. NOW.. forget it.. they look EXACTLY alike down to the last 30 lbs 2 oz! LOL!

We had velcro hospital bands that we kept on one ankle for the first month or two just so EVERYONE KNEW who they were feeding etc. I know of others who painted a toe nail or fingernail.

I never mixed them up in the early days, tho.

Congratulations!! Hold on tight! Oh and they definitely had the same cries, voice, EVERYTHING and still do. I have never once been able to tell who was crying, whining etc. They sound absolutely positively identical! (That's the most similar, I think!)

 

I have identical twin girls and I can tell them apart because of there face shape right now one has a long narrow face and the other has a rounder face. I also have there toes painted. I usually put Hailey on the left so her whole left toe nails are painted blue and Hannah is always on the right so I painted hers red all of the right toes. It does get harded the older they get. I can't tell either who is who by the cries. My hubby can't tell them apart.

 

QUOTE(cvaughn @ Dec 5 2008, 06:49 AM) [snapback]1098443[/snapback]
I have identical twin girls and I can tell them apart because of there face shape right now one has a long narrow face and the other has a rounder face. I also have there toes painted. I usually put Hailey on the left so her whole left toe nails are painted blue and Hannah is always on the right so I painted hers red all of the right toes. It does get harded the older they get. I can't tell either who is who by the cries. My hubby can't tell them apart.

My ID girls are the same way!! Audrey has a round face and Ella has the oval face.

I know I'm weird, but I was so worried about mixing them up, that before we left the hospital, I took a sharpie and put their initial on the bottom of their feet. I noticed the head shape difference about a week after we got home, but kept up the marker on their feet for everyone else's sake. I am so messy that I dared not even try the fingernail paint, it would have been a disaster. Now Audrey had gotten a strawberry mark on her ribs so we quit marking them. (it mostly rubs off about every 3 days, and alcohol will take it completely off). DH and I can tell them apart, but family still struggles. We are contemplating having their ears pierced and having different colored studs put in, but am nervous about going through with it.

 

Mine also are looking more alike the older they get. But, what we did for the daycare was paint their big toe on the right foot (one blue, one green).

QUOTE(ginagwen @ Dec 5 2008, 09:18 AM) [snapback]1098472[/snapback]
My ID girls are the same way!! Audrey has a round face and Ella has the oval face.


Me too, except mine are boys.

 

When we brought the boys home (they are ID), I was so nervous that I would mix them up. Every morning, I would get them dressed in different colors and repeat to myself over and over who had what color on. I also had color coded swaddle blankets for them at night time since they shared a crib.

My boys actually had different stork bites which was the easiest way to tell them apart. Now that they are 8 months, I don't think they look alike at all anymore. LOL

Look over your babes...anything that YOU can notice to tell them apart? One itsy bitsy difference on my boys is on their left ears...in their cartalidge...ones is perfectly round, and the others has a little "bite" mark out of it.

Don't stress. You WILL be able to tell your babies apart. If you have to dress them in different colors for now then do it.

 

My IDs had TTTS, so one is smaller than the other.

In the early days, the donor was paler than the recipient. That's disappeared now though.

Personally, I was a bit disappointed that I could tell them apart so easily! I feel a little cheated, LOL!

 

Ours have a pretty big weight difference (over a pound), so that made it easier if you had both them next to each other. We also try to dress Andrew in bluer clothing (blue rhymes with Andrew, so that helped!) to tell from across the room. We're not sure if they're ID or not (I have my suspicions), but I have a heck of a time trying to tell them apart in pictures sometimes. We have to tag the pictures on the computer right away, or else it's really hard to know!

For example:
Will and Andy

They look about the same size (and you can't see the hugeness of Will's head), and the only way I know 100% for sure which is which is the clothing.

 

with my girls it wasn't a problem at first because they were 1.5 lbs different and Danika had had half of her head shaved at the hospital because of IVs - but as they're getting older & Riley's closing the weight gap we've had to do a few other things. for example, Riley always wears the lighter coloured shirt & pink socks. Danika always wears the darker coloured shirt & yellow socks. we've also found a couple of other physical differences - Riley has a stork bite on the side of her head, Danika only has them on the back. Danika has a small birth mark on her chest, Riley doesn't. we also have a round & oval face - Riley is round (yeah for alliteration!) and Danika is oval. if it had been more of a problem when they were little i would have gone with painted toe nails.

 

At birth Nathan was red and Seth was pail… so side by side… easy… apart… my DH messed up a TON… and he felt so guilty each time… my older son can only now guess who I am holding because Nathan eats better, and now weighs 2 pounds more… so his face is rounder and Seth’s is not as filled out and gives the appearance that it is longer… probably why everyone say Seth looks like me ( I have a looonnnggg face) and Nathan looks like older DS… but they are ID… I saw a thing on TV once that the closer to conception the egg splits the more chances id look different as they age… slight height difference, weight difference… the further from conception the more they will look alike, but also when you run the risk of conjoined and such…

Seth got blue toe nail polish on his big toe for the grandparents in the early days...

 

I sometimes wish I had IDs b/c I feel like I missed out on some of the twin-ness of having twins since I have b/g.. lol.

I just wanted to say that my SIL has IDs and she has said that they have always been able to tell them apart. She finds it odd that I, as a twin mom, cant tell her twins apart. . ? I know there are differences and if Im around for several hours I will know which is which, but I actually dont see them very often, so I dont remember which one has the more slanty eyes (which is the only real difference I can see, unless they are dressed differently).. each time I go over there. Once she tells me then I will be ok, but I know IF I had had IDs I would have kept a hospital bracelet or some other form of identification on them..

 

I was worried about getting mine mixed up b/c they have looked identical from the minute they entered the world! Before we even left the hospital I had someone bring me some fingernail polish and we painted Amelia's big toenail red. We also got a roll of the hospital tape and made several name tags for each baby - they always had name tags on. I'll see if I can find a few pictures of my girls with the red toe and name tags.

In this pic you can see Amelia's red toe and the name tags.

Name tags

I could not tell my girls apart for at least the first month - I only started being able to tell them apart as I got to know their personalities and now they make different facial expressions. If I see them side by side I can tell who is who - but if I'm only looking at one of them I can not tell.

 

QUOTE(2plusbgtwins @ Dec 5 2008, 02:36 PM) [snapback]1099030[/snapback]
... but I know IF I had had IDs I would have kept a hospital bracelet or some other form of identification on them..


we did that but after a bath it was ruined and you couldn't read it... and DH was BIG on bathing them...

 

owen is 12 oz lighter than jacob. so that helps. jacob's head is rounder but owen's head seems to be rounding out so that's not as useful anymore. they also have slightly different coloring, but that only helps if they're directly side by side. i see details in their faces that i think look very different but every now and then when DH is changing one of them i'll say, "hand me jacob when you're done" and he'll laugh and say, "this is owen, mother of the year." he laughs but he's made the same mistake.

they looked less alike at first but as they grow they're looking more and more alike. we initially painted their toenails, one was blue and the other was green (i did research ahead of time and found a company that makes nail polish without phthalates and formaldehyde). we also kept the hospital anklets on them for about a week.

it's okay to be intimidated and give yourself a few clues.

 

QUOTE(cvaughn @ Dec 5 2008, 07:49 AM) [snapback]1098443[/snapback]
I have identical twin girls and I can tell them apart because of there face shape right now one has a long narrow face and the other has a rounder face. I also have there toes painted. I usually put Hailey on the left so her whole left toe nails are painted blue and Hannah is always on the right so I painted hers red all of the right toes. It does get harded the older they get. I can't tell either who is who by the cries. My hubby can't tell them apart.


Same here too!! :lol: They are completely IDENTICAL.. except for the shape of their head. Rose is a little longer and narrower and Alyssa's got a more rounded head. They both even have a vein across the bridge of their nose - which I just found out [like two weeks ago] that one goes to the left and the other goes to the right. Their cries are different though - Thank God.

We were 90% sure they were going to be ID. I kept thinking what a horrible mother I'd feel like if I were to mix the two up! I just hope their beauty marks are different as they get older! ^_^

 

Hailey came home from the hospital first and we painted a toe nail because we were worried about getting them mixed up when they were no longer in cribs clearly marked at the hospital... lol. But there was a 1 lb weight difference and we were able to tell (amazing how much a pound shows on a tiny baby!) Now there head shapes are a little different and we can just tell. I can also tell their cries/facial expressions apart. Then Hailey got teeth first and everybody thought, "oh good, there's something different..." Now they both have 2 bottom teeth. People who know them well and see them often can also tell them apart most of the time. We kept the toenail painted for daycare purposes and put different colored socks on them. It will get easier, just mark them in some way for now, lol.

 

Our boys are ID and E wears green an D wears blue. When they are naked with only a diaper we have to look real close cause D's face is a little rounder and E frowns when you get in his face. lol D has a booboo under his eye and E has a scratch on his hairline so its easy to tell for now.

 

I have a harder time telling them apart NOW than when they were first born ! The 2 lb difference seemed alot more significant back then than now too. But we were worried about it at first and decided one would be baby red and baby blue.

 

I remember crying in the hospital because I did not know who was who!!! This coming from someone who thought they were fraternal until they were two years old minus the first week! After the first week, I could totally tell but every once in a while, I would have to take a double take. But mine had different head shapes and one had toticollis so that made it really easy.

 

Painting the toe/finger nail of one or name bracelets etc.. we mixed ours up sometimes in the middle of the night and they are fraternal lol