Our Fraternal Mono/di shocker!

amb2013

All along, we have been told we had identical twins, because there are two in one placenta. Last visit 2 weeks ago, baby b showed the goods, clearly a boy. Baby a( who is 37% smaller and causing a lot of worry) we couldn't see gender, assumed too early but also assumed a boy since we thought identical! Well, today, we had another scan and baby b still a boy, baby a appears to be a girl. The thought is that we have fraternal mono/di twins. We are in shock. Thankfully, Still no signs of ttts other than size difference, but we need to watch them carefully. 

 

Anyone know anything about this? Not finding Mich on google either.

TIA 

FML8608

My twins have two placentas which fused together so they appear to have one...but I'm not sure that's what you're saying b/c you said they're "in" it. My placentas are fused but the babies are in separate sacs...that should be pretty obvious to the doctors, no? I'm inexperienced in the area of multiples but that seems common sensical...

 

ETA: I'm really sorry to hear that you have a situation that is worrisome. Best wishes that Baby B picks up on growth soon!

amb2013

FML8608:

My twins have two placentas which fused together so they appear to have one...but I'm not sure that's what you're saying b/c you said they're "in" it. My placentas are fused but the babies are in separate sacs...that should be pretty obvious to the doctors, no? I'm inexperienced in the area of multiples but that seems common sensical...

Im still not exactly sure what happened but I've been having ultrasounds since week 6 and they have only ever seen one placenta. If these babies were same gender, we probably would have thought identical, like we did, up until today.  

FML8608

Well at least you know now and aren't figuring it out after they're born . Like I said, mine appear to share a placenta, too but it's actually two. I really hope your sweet Baby B has a growth spurt soon!

CourtneySue

This happened to me & my di/di did end up with TTTS The donor twin just kept slipping further & further behind as her brother's placenta took over her's. They were the same size at our 18 week appt when we found out the gender. Then slowly moved apart till they were in the 80% & then less the 3% so there was a huge difference. They monitored me closely & I had a c-section as soon as her cord blood flow slowed. She has stopped growing weeks before & was 3.3lbs & her brother was 7.6lbs.

She is catching him now!

Raggedy1

Maybe you mean gestational sac? Instead of placenta? I'm 11 weeks and the placenta can only be seen faintly at this point as it has just recently developed. What do I know? Nada. I just hope the best for your babies. 

pea-kay

i would wait until you were a bit further along to assume you're having a boy and a girl. at one point, we were having two boys and a girl. :P

macchiatto

pea-kay:

i would wait until you were a bit further along to assume you're having a boy and a girl. at one point, we were having two boys and a girl. :P

Funny, I don't think I knew that!

OP, that's interesting. My di/di twins had two placentas that fused, too. The nurse at delivery said there was one and I recently discovered my placenta pathology report says they are mono/di twins ... but it also says "There are two fused disks" so I think my pathologist was having an off day.  

HisBelovedPrincess

macchiatto:

pea-kay:

i would wait until you were a bit further along to assume you're having a boy and a girl. at one point, we were having two boys and a girl. :P

Funny, I don't think I knew that!

OP, that's interesting. My di/di twins had two placentas that fused, too. The nurse at delivery said there was one and I recently discovered my placenta pathology report says they are mono/di twins ... but it also says "There are two fused disks" so I think my pathologist was having an off day.  

 

 

OP so interesting! I hope that TTTS doesn't become an issue for you guys

Macchiatto...I hope this doesn't sound like a dumb question, but how does one get a hold of their placental pathology? Is it part of the write up the OB does after delivery? For that matter, is that write up that the OB does, something I could see if I asked? I have always wondered about that, since my twin B had distress and my husband and I didn't really understand what was going on at the time...

 

Mrs. Alice

HisBelovedPrincess:

macchiatto:

pea-kay:

i would wait until you were a bit further along to assume you're having a boy and a girl. at one point, we were having two boys and a girl. :P

Funny, I don't think I knew that!

OP, that's interesting. My di/di twins had two placentas that fused, too. The nurse at delivery said there was one and I recently discovered my placenta pathology report says they are mono/di twins ... but it also says "There are two fused disks" so I think my pathologist was having an off day.  

 

 

OP so interesting! I hope that TTTS doesn't become an issue for you guys

Macchiatto...I hope this doesn't sound like a dumb question, but how does one get a hold of their placental pathology? Is it part of the write up the OB does after delivery? For that matter, is that write up that the OB does, something I could see if I asked? I have always wondered about that, since my twin B had distress and my husband and I didn't really understand what was going on at the time...

 

OP - that's crazy but it just might be a little too early to know 100% what the sexes are.  Another possibility I think would be a genetic disorder with one?  Hopefully not that, but I just don't think it's possible for true mono/di to be fraternal.  I think with early u/s it's pretty darn clear when 2 are in the same gestational sac.  My 10 wk u/s is in my bio.  Definitely mono/di.

HisBelovedPrincess:  You have to contact medical records at your hospital to get a copy.  Once you deliver the placenta it is sent to the hospital pathology dept. and they check it and write up  a report. I recently got mine and was pretty disappointed with how brief it was given the issues we had with the placenta.

 

Rynleigh

There is a very rare chance of early fusion during the blastocyst stage that allows fraternal babies to develop connected placentas, which could look like one or two placentas on ultrasound. There is also the very rare chance that two sperm fertilize one egg and force division, creating fraternal twins who share one placenta. I started researching it a day or two after PP posted about the doctors confirming TTTS with her fraternals. All that said, they are extremely rare occurances that cannot be confirmed until birth. Mistaken sexes, late fused placentas, and turner syndrome all have higher probabilities.

HisBelovedPrincess

Mrs. Alice:

HisBelovedPrincess:

macchiatto:

pea-kay:

i would wait until you were a bit further along to assume you're having a boy and a girl. at one point, we were having two boys and a girl. :P

Funny, I don't think I knew that!

OP, that's interesting. My di/di twins had two placentas that fused, too. The nurse at delivery said there was one and I recently discovered my placenta pathology report says they are mono/di twins ... but it also says "There are two fused disks" so I think my pathologist was having an off day.  

 

 

OP so interesting! I hope that TTTS doesn't become an issue for you guys

Macchiatto...I hope this doesn't sound like a dumb question, but how does one get a hold of their placental pathology? Is it part of the write up the OB does after delivery? For that matter, is that write up that the OB does, something I could see if I asked? I have always wondered about that, since my twin B had distress and my husband and I didn't really understand what was going on at the time...

 

OP - that's crazy but it just might be a little too early to know 100% what the sexes are.  Another possibility I think would be a genetic disorder with one?  Hopefully not that, but I just don't think it's possible for true mono/di to be fraternal.  I think with early u/s it's pretty darn clear when 2 are in the same gestational sac.  My 10 wk u/s is in my bio.  Definitely mono/di.

HisBelovedPrincess:  You have to contact medical records at your hospital to get a copy.  Once you deliver the placenta it is sent to the hospital pathology dept. and they check it and write up  a report. I recently got mine and was pretty disappointed with how brief it was given the issues we had with the placenta.

 

 

Thanks Ms.Alice!:)

JenLC99

I had fraternal b/g twins whose placentas fused, but we could clearly see separate placentas up until the end. In fact, it was never mentioned that they were fused until delivery to I don't know if the MFM even knew, or if he did it wasn't a big deal. I do believe TTTS may have been starting because they had always measured within 1 to 2 oz of each other, but at birth my DD was 8 oz more than my DS and quite chubby, whereas my DS was very scrawny and his umbilical cord was more narrow. The TTTS was not medically confirmed, just my own assumption.

JenLC99

Oh, also, I watched a special on Discovery Health once where supposedly if a fertilized egg has the chromosomes XXY (male with Klinefelter's syndrome) splits into two embryos, one is a chromosomally normal female and one is a chromosomally normal male. Kind of crazy!

lcbourgeois

It can happen, but less than 1% ever & it's the syndrome that the previous poster above me said.  It's not good...so let's just hope the placenta fused early...which can happen or they couldn't tell sex yet (but I think they can at this far along).  Cannot have healthy boy/girl Mo/Di twins....But miracles do happen:)