Fraternal or Identical

After two-and-a-half years, we have found out the true origin of our twins. We were convinced from the day that we found out I was carrying twins that they were fraternal.

"Around two in three sets of twins are fraternal. Two separate eggs are fertilized by two separate sperm, resulting in fraternal or 'dizygotic' (two-cell) twins. These babies will be no more alike than siblings born at separate times. The babies can be either the same sex or different sexes, with the odds roughly equal for each."

 When we had our first scan at 9 weeks (I was very impatient), we were told they were non identical twins, which was the safest combination of twins you could get. So fast forward two and a bit years later and we have just been told that they are IDENTICAL! So it looks a bit like this..

So the boys came from one egg and split very early into two. This means they get their own sac and placenta and will appear fraternal.

The funny thing is, all the people that were like "are you sure they're not identical?" or "well they look very similar", "have you had them tested?" can now say to us "see, I told you so". However that's only based on that they cant tell them apart facially. Yes I agree that they do look very similar, but they do also look very different. Even down to their face shapes.

But, we decided to get a chorionicity scan last week which consists of a swab of the cheek for each of them and they are tested to see if their DNA is the same. It really didn't matter if they were or not, I mean, it doesn't make any difference to anything, but as so many people couldn't tell them apart, we thought it may be worth just checking.

 "If the division into two embryos happens in the first three days after fertilisation, the twins will develop their own placenta and membranes. They will look the same as non-identical twins on a scan."

 So you can see the confusion and we had no reason to doubt this. But as fraternal twins are more common, it was assumed that that's what they were and were happy with that.  So we originally thought our twins were the same as image E. Two eggs fertilized to make two embryos. As it turns out, they are the same as C.

 Anyway, non of this matters at all and we are very very lucky to have our boys.  Im actually really pleased they are identical. 1. it means they are closer than we thought and their bond should be tight for the rest of their lives. 2. Its not a genetic thing, which best of all takes us to 3. my chances of having twins again has been dramatically reduced as  identical twins happen completely spontaneously! Woo hoo!!

Ok, I'm a little bit upset about that. Because if were were to have another a baby, I actually wouldn't mind having twins again. Honestly I wouldn't. I mean look at these faces - special or what!