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Wednesday, August 28, 2013

And Without Further Ado...


we are having identical girls!!

From the very beginning of this pregnancy I have had a SUPER strong feeling that this baby was a girl, and an earlier ultrasound gave us reason to suspect that these two might be girls, so finding out that we're having two girls was just as we had hoped and imagined.  But the identical part?  We had an ultrasound specifically to confirm that the babies were di/di (meaning each had their own placenta) which means that almost always, the babies are fraternal.

But at the end of our ultrasound, the sonographer just casually asked, "And who told you these babies are di/di?"  What followed were phone calls to the radiology center that performed our other ultrasound, a consultation with the head radiologist, and the revelation that our babies are in fact sharing a placenta, evidence that they are definitely identical. Woo hoo! These girls seem to get a hoot out of these little surprises they keep giving us.  

We told our families this weekend with strawberry cake, and we all feel just as happy as baby Grace looks in that last picture.   There is something so magical about identical babies!  I seriously have no idea how we will keep track of them, and Ben is already sure that at some point we will mistakenly switch them (hey, if it happens an even number of times, we're good as new).   The girls claim this is "just as we hoped," since now each of them can have a matching baby (how to explain that newborn twins aren't exactly like new babydolls from the store?  no clue).  And Hugo is beaming from the knowledge that he will continue to be the one special boy.  Which he does so well, but also means he sometimes tries to rough house with my leg out of lack of boys to play with.  This kid needs a nice male cousin to wrestle with (hint hint, sister who makes very cute babies).

So, did anyone guess right?

8 comments:

Melissa H-K said...

Jonathan and I say, "Ooooh!!!!" You're going to have so much fun! And so will they!

Irene said...

Hint duly noted. We're so excited for you and your family!

Beth said...

I've read that sometimes the hospital puts different colored nail polish on a big toe of each to keep them straight :)

Rosie said...

Hooray!!! You just let me know when you're ready for the newborn clothes - Elizabeth was QUITE the puker, so we have a LOT of newborn things :)

Is it definitely one placenta and not two that are fused? I don't know how they'd be able to tell until delivery anyway...

I read a study that said identical twins *can* sometimes run on the dad's side, so maybe Ben can still claim excessive virility ;)

Adele said...

Nail polish is a great idea! We've also heard different colored earrings, but I'm afraid we would have a minor revolution on our hands if our big girls (no pierced ears) realized the babies had earrings. :-)

Adele said...

Rosie, yes, they're quite sure: they spent a long time looking for and discussing a twin peak (more on that here: http://radiology.rsna.org/content/220/1/68.full.pdf)
which, both on our 20 week and 12 ultrasound, they couldn't find.

Although, I must admit, given the number of surprises these babies have given us, I would not be surprised in the least if they proved everyone wrong. :-)

I'll pass that along to Ben: although I am pretty sure he's claiming the virility factor regardless of the twin type.

What's Cookin? said...

Oh my, how exciting!!

You and my sister will both have 4 girls and one boy with identical twin girls as children numbers 4 and 5- I'm sure she'd love to share experiences if you should ever want to. Congrats!!

Adele said...

Cara, that's crazy! Of course I would love to talk to her... I remembered she had identical twin girls, but I didn't realize our other kids were so similar.