Say What?!?!?

OMG are they twins?  Are they identical? Are they fraternal? They look so much alike! They look nothing alike!  How do you not know?  ----Yup, those are the same questions I get asked on a regular daily basis.  If that wasn't exhausting enough, I hated not being able to give an answer.  Sometimes I would just say no they're fraternal just to shut people up, but honestly the "not" knowing was eating me alive.  As a mother, how did I not know what my little girls are? I know I always make fun of people for asking me so many silly twin questions but the truth of the matter is I don't really blame them.  Before I found out I was pregnant with twins, I didn't know anything about it either.  I, too, was ignorant about the subject.  So before I can jump into the whole finding out thing....let me give you a quick lesson on twins lol.

There are three types of twins:

• Mono/mono - This means both babies share a sac AND a placenta, therefore they are identical.  This means that they come from one egg. Identical twins can only be the same sex; girls or boys.  Boy/girl twins are NEVER identical.
•  mono/di-  This means the babies are in separate sacs but share the same placenta.  This also means the babies are identical unless they had different placentas but ended up fussing together.  In that case, they babies can be fraternal.  Yes, I know, a bit confusing.
• di/di- This means the babies are in separate sacs and separate placentas.  This typically means the twins are fraternal, from two different fertilized eggs.  There is however, a 20-30% chance that the babies could be identical.  This means one egg spit in half and separated very early on.

*Identical twins can happen to anyone.  It's a "freak of nature."  The egg splits into two. Your chance of having twins again does not increase.
*Fraternal twins is genetic or happen through fertility drugs.  Two eggs are fertilized.  This is also common in older mothers over 35.  If the twins were conceived naturally, then the chance of having twins again increases quadruples.  Fraternal twins may look similar or different, just like siblings, they just happen to be the same age.

My twins are Di/Di twins.  They didn't share a thing lol. In my head it made sense.  Twins run in my family.  Yup, I thought my body dropped two eggs and boom...TWINS!  I still knew there was that small chance they could be identical.  Once we found out the sex we still couldn't be 100% sure because both babies were girls.  Then we found out that they had the same blood type because Brad and I have the same blood type and therefore all of our children will have the same blood type.  Yup, still no answer. 

Once the babies were born I could tell them apart right away.  Still to this day they look so different to me.  But I also know that they have many similarities: same color eyes, same color hair etc.  So after thinking about it for a very long time, we decided to do the zygosity test. My friend recommended the same place she used to find out what her twins were, Proactive Genetics.  So I went online and bought the zygosity kit. It was so weird because I got really anxious as soon as I bought it. I even started to sweat lol. 

After a few days we finally received the kit with all of the instructions.  We had to do several cheek swabs on two different days. 

 

 

Juliana thought it was so funny to have that in her mouth.  Isabella hated it.  She's like get this thing away from me haha.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After I mailed it, the waiting game begun.  Deep in my heart I always felt my girls were fraternal.  How can my two distinct little girls be identical?  However, a part of me wanted them to be identical so that in the future we could have baby #3 and not worry about having twins again.  Then finally the results came...  I had to wait until Brad came home from the gym to see the results together!

 



Ahhh I didn't have to read this at all.  I could see right away in bold letters...IDENTICAL!!!!  Say What?!?!?! I cried.  I was so happy to finally know.  I was very happy with the results.  I mean how cool...to think that my egg split in half!!!!  Brad must have super sperm haha.  I spent the next few days thanking the girls for splitting lol.  I'm so lucky to be amongst the few to have di/di identical twins.  I'm so blessed that this "freak of nature" happened to me us.  I can't imagine life without my little twins!!!

♥I hear that identical twins share an even stronger bond ♥