identical or fraternal...

so after my girls were born, my doc came into my room and told me that the surgeon told HER that my girls are identical, because there was only one placenta. my girls really don't look alike (at certain angles they do, but... ), they even have different shaped heads. my doc and i think there were two placentas that fused together. anyone else experience this?

also, my doc told me that if in fact they ARE fraternal, there is a 60% chance i could have twins again... boy oh boy...

 

maybe you should get them tested down the road!

 

My girls are identical and had different shaped heads for a while because of the position in the womb. They even looked quite different in the beginning. I eventually got them tested because I had to know for sure. The older they get the more alike they look.

 

I think a lot of people presume monozygotic twins always look like photocopies of each other and their own parents struggle to tell them apart but it's just not true. Differences in head shape are common and parents can pick up on the slightest difference.

Our guys were unquestionably di/di and we looked them over and pronounced them fraternal based on appearance. As they got older, they started to look more and more alike and we finally tested at 15 months. They are ID.

So at almost 2 months, it doesn't surprise me at all that you would have doubts. Whether you should test or not really depends on your financial situation and your ability to handle waiting. It drove me bonkers not knowing for certain but DH was firmly against testing and it took me a long time to bring him around.

 

QUOTE(kstar @ Dec 14 2007, 12:07 AM) [snapback]533182[/snapback]
My girls are identical and had different shaped heads for a while because of the position in the womb. They even looked quite different in the beginning. I eventually got them tested because I had to know for sure. The older they get the more alike they look.


ditto. My girls looked nothing alike in the beginning, one was breech & one was lodged head down for the majority of the pregnancy. Like kstar said, position can make such a difference, especially in head shape.

 

Danielle,

When I read your birth story and saw baby pics, I thought they looked identical .

 

okay, yeah, ivana was lodged head down for the majority of the pregnancy,and her head is narrower (now i feel bad for her! lol) . and aren't random twin pregnancies usually identical anyway? (there is no history of twins in my family) maybe i'm wrong...
i do have to say that when they're sleeping in their carseats, they look almost exacctly alike...

 

also, right now, marina looks just like me and ivana looks just like DH. that's also why i assumed they had to be fraternal... but i guess we'll have to wait and see!

 

If they look really different down the road (say a year), you can pretty much assume they are frat, but otherwise, get them tested. I would be cool to know anyway!

 

I would get them tested. I was told frats b/c they had separate sacs and placentas. After birth though they looked a lot alike. But they both have different shaped faces. Alivea has a round face like me, and Kaytlin has an oval face like her daddy. I can tell them apart easily and most everyone that sees them regularly can too but strangers and distant family members have no clue who is who. We had them tested at 4 months, and they are ID. So just b/c they are ID, doesnt mean they have to look EXACTLY alike, but similiar is good enough.

 

We were told over and over that our girls are id. They said they were mono/di and even the pathology report suggested TTTS which is only possible with id twins. We also had an amnio done that confirmed them id, but I don't remember hearing that specifically, my husband says he does. My girls hardly look anything alike. I think their eyes are different and their heads are different. There is a 3lb difference between them which I'm sure makes a huge difference. I look at them everyday and doubt they are id. It's reassuring to hear everyone else's stories about their id twins looking nothing alike and then start to get similar.

 

I'm surprised that more hospitals don't do tests like the hospital where I delivered. Maybe that's because it's a specialty hospital where all they do is deal with babies and that's it? At birth there appeared to only be 1 placenta so they sent it to pathology for testing, and also tested the girls. Before I was released I got reports from both my doctor and the pedi. My doctor told me there were in fact 2 placentas fused together even though it appeared at birth to only be one, and based on the two placentas it was a 90% chance my girls were id. Then the pedi did a blood test, and it came back id. We knew they were identical though before we got the results, even my husband and I can't tell them apart most of the time. The only distinguishing characteristic is Amelia has a patch of dark hair on the top of her head that is thicker than Lily's, that's it. If they have hats on even I can't tell who is who!

 

Mine are identical, no dna test but we had one placenta and ttts. We also have a three lbs difference so they look differen.t Morgan is fuller in her face and all over but if you take away the baby chubb and look at their features they are looking more and more alike. This is at 4 months.

 

My girls are identical and have very different head shapes. One was head down and protected by my pelvis and has a very round head and the other was transverse and her plates were overlapped for a few weeks after she was born ... she still has a narrower head and a more oval face than her sister. They look more and more alike as they get older though. They were mo/di and we had them tested b/c they were in a brain development research study and they tested them for that. They were 99.99% identical.

I did a lot of research on this and apparently monochorionic twins are always identical whether they are monochorionic/monoamniotic or monochorionic/diamniotic. Twins CAN be in separate sacs and still be identical if they separated within the first 2 days of conception. So, not all "dichorionic/diamniotic" twins are fraternal. It is very rare to have di/di identical ... but possible. This research also said that it is possible to have B/G monozygotic twins ... that if the egg that split to make them had 3 sets of chromosomes ... say XXY and somewhere in the science it split to XX and XY. Interesting ... my sister had a baby that had 3 sets of chromosomes but did not split to twins so she had a stillbirth (years and years ago). It would have been cool if she would have had twins! This was all from a show on The National Geographic Channel called In the Womb: Multiples. It was really interesting to watch!

 

QUOTE
It is very rare to have di/di identical ... but possible


Actually, it's not rare at all. About 30% of identicals are di/di.

 

My boys also don't look very much alike but it is basically because of head shape. Cameron had his head down in my pelvis for the last few months whereas Evan was up in my ribcage. So Cameron has a narrower face than Evan (see my avatar Cameron on left). I'm thinking that once they get some hair it will probably be very difficult to tell them apart.

 

I have di/di identical girls. We had them tested. My whole pregnancy they told me mo/di. One placenta and a very thin membrane, but when they sent of the placenta the results came back that there was two placentas and two sacks. Ours still looked very much alike. Their is no twins in my family and it was a very big shock to us. My girls also have a different head shape. ONe is thinier & one is rounder but all the same features. Do yours have the same blood type? That is one of the indicators.. I think some more is eye color & hair color. My guess is that they are identical. Good luck and hope you kind find out. I just went back and found pics of your girls and they really look identical to me.

Missy

 

QUOTE(ddancerd1 @ Dec 13 2007, 06:45 PM) [snapback]533153[/snapback]
also, my doc told me that if in fact they ARE fraternal, there is a 60% chance i could have twins again... boy oh boy...


This is alot higher than previous stats that I've heard. I've heard that your chances of twins again are between 1 in 8 and 1 in 5. So somewhere between 12 and 20%...not 60. I've never heard a stat that high.

Anyone else know what the chances are of having twins again if you have frats?

Cary

 

My girls are ID although lots of people think they aren't; we had (undiagnosed) TTTS so it seems like there is little chance they aren't. They were pronounced mono-di very early wth a very thin membrane and also have very different head shape, also probably from womb placement (although they were both breech for a long time and til delivery; they kept having daily Cervical Step Class!)

The head shape makes a huge difference; D's is much rounder and she has chubbier cheeks,and at one point was 2lbs heavier than T.

But as they get older they look more and more alike, and in hats the differences disappear so strangers can't tell them apart. It will be interesting to see what happens as they get older.