5 Things Thursday: TWINS!

So, are you guys “twinned out” yet?

Because you know I’m not!

I’m still waking up in the morning, looking down at my belly, and thinking, “There are TWO baby girls in there. Holy Snikers!”

So…given my pleas to God to spare me from the horrors of multiples (calm down, mamas of multiples; I’m just making a point), it’s fair to say that I haven’t exactly done a whole lot of twin research.

After all, if it’s good enough for the ostrich to stick her head in the sand every time she’s scared of something, it’s good enough for me!

But now, I’m all about it!

So, I thought I might share 5 fun tidbits about twins that you might or might not already know:

1. Only 3 in every 1,000 births are identical twins, and, while fraternal twins run in the family, identical twins are the result of NOT two fertilized eggs (as in the case of fraternals) but one that splits after fertilization, thus making the occurrence of identical twins completely random (if you believe in random, that is).

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{I totally want this pic of my girls}

2. Although twins are usually broken down into two categories—fraternal and identical—there are apparently five other varieties, including

• a) those conceived as a result of heteropaternal superfecundation (a fancy way of saying that two sperm from two different instances of whoopee fertilized two separate eggs at separate times…we hope. Could be the same father or could be different—YIKES! Now that’s complicated),
• b) “half-identical” twins (who inherit identical genes from their mother but non-identical from the father…don’t ask me how),
• c) mirror image twins (which means that when they face each other, any markings such as moles, hair swirls, or birthmarks will be in mirror image to each other—one on the right, one of the left—COOL!),
• d) mixed chromosome twins (which occurs when fertilized fraternal twin eggs fuse, resulting in the babies having either more than one red blood type or more than one chromosome type, such as XXY),
• e) twins conceived by superfetation (which, most simply put, means there was already a baby in Mama’s belly when an egg from another cycle came along, got fertilized, and then implanted in the uterus as well, resulting in two babies in the tummy who have widely different gestational developments—Good grief! I didn’t even want to know some of this was possible).

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{Because, really, how could I pass this up? They’re smiling!}

3. 22% of twins are left-handed (as opposed to 10% of the general population), and while they do share the same DNA, identical twins have unique fingerprints (okay, so I guess that was two fun facts, but they were kind of related, right?).

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4. Twin pregnancies are considered full term at 36 weeks and 3 days…which could conceivably (ha!) mean that I have less than 4 months left. Holy Snikers (again)!!

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5. Twins do not have to be born on the same day, and the longest recorded gap between births is 85 days. (I think this falls into the the “things I didn’t want to know were possible” category as well).

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{Apparently, this kiddo is ticked that her bro/sis beat her to the punch!}

P.S. Oh! And an absolutely fascinating little bonus tidbit that I’m sure you’re just dying to know: supposedly Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen are actually fraternal rather than identical twins.

(Yeah, I’m not seeing it, even if their hair is dyed different colors}

P.P.S. I gleaned my super-informative “twins facts” from here, here, and here.

So, c’mon moms of multiples…what other awe-inspiring facts can you share with us to expand our range of twin trivia?

 

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