Twin Talk

I found out very early after James and Cameron were born that the flow of questions would be never ending. No matter where we went people loved to ask questions about them. "Are they twins? Duh! ~ Are they identical? Yes ~ How do you keep yourself sane? I don't. ~ Do twins run in your family? Yes, but identical twins are not genetic." The torrent of questions is endless but for the most part we enjoy answering them all. We love to hear from people who have twins of their own as well and now that the boys are older I find myself asking my own questions of those people with older twins. "Please tell me, does it get better? ~ Will they ever stop fighting? ~ Will I ever be able to take them anywhere without dirt smudges and scratch marks?" The answers I get are most often all yes but occasionally I get a NO to a question or two. So, overall I have faith in a peaceful future......someday!
Anyway, I recently took a picture of the boys but noticed something awesome. Something that my Daddy has been trying to tell us all for a while. I did some research on it so lets start with some information.
Okay, we all know that there are two different categories of twins: identical and fraternal. What you may not know is the important differences between the two.
In the case of fraternal twins, two separate eggs are fertilized by two sperm and develop into two babies. These are known as dizygotic twins, they develop in two separate amniotic sacs and each has it's own placenta. They are as different as any two siblings only they were born on the same day. There is a hereditary connection in fraternal twins where the release of two eggs is passed from one generation to another.
Identical twins are something different all together. Here's what happens. An egg is fertilized by a single sperm at conception but sometime in the following two weeks that little zygote does something amazing. It splits in two. These are known as monozygotic twins and they share one placenta. They are as close to exact as you can get. They have the same DNA, fingerprints, and usually the same dental patterns.
So, here are some statistics I found. 32 out of 1,000 births are twin births. Only 1/3 of those are identical twins. Only 20 - 25% of those identical births are mirror image twins. Mirror image twinning is determined by the timing of the zygote split after conception. There are subtle differences between identical and mirror image twins. Identical twins are typically exactly the same from their cowlicks to their crooked pinky toe (if they have one). Mirror image twins have all the sameness as identical twins but show small variations such as matching reversed moles, reversed dental patterns and problems as well as opposing hairlines and/or cowlicks. Mirror twins are usually different in that one is a lefty and the other a righty. This seems to be the case with the boys. It is too soon to make a definite decision on this matter but so far we are leaning toward mirror image. Poppy is already waiting for Walmart to get in more lefty ball gloves in small. It's just too noticeable to ignore. Cameron has always favored his left and James his right. We have all noticed it but thought Poppy was just looking for an excuse to brag. Hehehe.
Take a look!