for those of you with identical twins

PiperS · August 2013

Could you tell them apart right away our did you need some help like a name bracelet out something? I'm their mom so I feel that I should be able to identify them but it might be hard at first lol.

kiwi443 · August 2013

I had the same fear during my pregnancy. It was never an issue for us because there was a 1 1/2 lb. weight difference between the two. They have started to look more alike the older they get and are now closer in size, but we can easily tell them apart.

I know some moms will paint the big toe of one to help tell them apart.

CNYBride05 · August 2013

Mine look so different to me. If I wasn't 500% sure we'd only transferred 1 embie, is really wonder if they were fraternal.

Jen0204 · August 2013

We painted their toe nails and they wore different colored bracelets (until they got old enough to start pulling on them). DD1 also had a red mark on her neck (that is almost entirely gone now). Early on we also tried to make sure their pacifiers were in pictures - DD1 had a pink one and DD2 had a purple one. We found that H and I could tell them apart pretty easily but looking back on pictures can be tough to tell who is who. It's much easier in person. Our moms could basically tell them apart right away, but my dad still has no clue which is which and they're 18 months! Even though we could tell them apart in the beginning we were both so exhausted that we were concerned about mixing them up, which is why we did the nail polish and bracelets.

pea-kay · August 2013

we kept their hospital anklets on for a while, and always set them in the crib in birth order.

then again, my mom would take the anklets off when changing a diaper, and forget to put it back on, then put the in the crib all willy-nilly. so who knows...

ks3pink · August 2013

We kept the anklets on for a couple weeks and then painted ones toe nail blue and the other green. DH and I didn't have much trouble and still don't but everyone else is clueless. Lol.

yinyang124 · August 2013

I had the same fear while pregnant and bought different colored hemp bracelets on Etsy for them. I could tell them apart right away. Totally different head shapes, and now at 9 months a weight difference too.

megs2011 · August 2013

I'm not sure if mine are ID, so I'm getting them tested. I had this fear as well. There was a lb difference so it was really easy. We were thinking about the painting toe nail thing. We can tell easily and so can my parents. My brothers both have an issue. They look so much a like now its crazy.

raraavis28 · August 2013

I had the same concern when I was pregnant, but mine have always had a significant size difference, so I never had an issue telling them apart. What's crazy is that, at the beginning, I sometimes had trouble telling them apart in individual pictures, but looking at those same pictures now I can easily tell who it was. Odd.

carrotcake06 · August 2013

marchesa28 said:
I had the same concern when I was pregnant, but mine have always had a significant size difference, so I never had an issue telling them apart. What's crazy is that, at the beginning, I sometimes had trouble telling them apart in individual pictures, but looking at those same pictures now I can easily tell who it was. Odd.

My boys are di/di and not identical, but I still had an issue w individual pics of them in the very beginning. But same thing, I look back on those pics now and it's easy.

Mrs. Alice · August 2013

Never had an issue telling them apart. They have different head shapes and always had a significant size difference.

meldoo2002 · August 2013

We painted a toenail. They were on different formulas so it was important everyone could tell them apart. They only weighed a few ounces different so even though I didn't think they looked the same, swaddled, in the middle of the night.. not sure.

ceechie · August 2013

Mrs. Alice said:
Never had an issue telling them apart. They have different head shapes and always had a significant size difference.

Ok, this may be a lame question, but of identical, how come different head shape. That seems like a big one to be different on. Not just a small thing like a beauty mark. My girls are di/di but my husband thinks they're identical. Everything matches but head shape kept me from thinking ID could be a possibility. Sorry to hijack thread...
To help my daughter, who is 4, tell the girls apart, we always put Penelope in pink. And her sister, Evie, gets the other color of the matching outfits. But they are still a pound different at 6 weeks, so it's easy for us to know who is who.

MrsCali_Bride · August 2013

ceechie said:

Never had an issue telling them apart. They have different head shapes and always had a significant size difference.
Ok, this may be a lame question, but of identical, how come different head shape. That seems like a big one to be different on. Not just a small thing like a beauty mark. My girls are di/di but my husband thinks they're identical. Everything matches but head shape kept me from thinking ID could be a possibility. Sorry to hijack thread... To help my daughter, who is 4, tell the girls apart, we always put Penelope in pink. And her sister, Evie, gets the other color of the matching outfits. But they are still a pound different at 6 weeks, so it's easy for us to know who is who.

Positioning in the uterus can contribute to a difference in head shape. Mine are fraternal, obviously, but they each had a different head shape (A's was rounder while O's was more oval).

kiwi443 · August 2013

ceechie said:

Never had an issue telling them apart. They have different head shapes and always had a significant size difference.
Ok, this may be a lame question, but of identical, how come different head shape. That seems like a big one to be different on. Not just a small thing like a beauty mark. My girls are di/di but my husband thinks they're identical. Everything matches but head shape kept me from thinking ID could be a possibility. Sorry to hijack thread... To help my daughter, who is 4, tell the girls apart, we always put Penelope in pink. And her sister, Evie, gets the other color of the matching outfits. But they are still a pound different at 6 weeks, so it's easy for us to know who is who.

My girls have different head shapes as well. Nutritional disparity and positioning in the womb can affect head shape; it's not wholly determined by genetics.

JTA2426 · August 2013

I have never had an issue telling my 6 week old boys apart, but for the first couple of days at home we kept them in different colors or different coordinating outfits. Then all of a sudden my baby B developed a little red birthmark on his back at about 3 weeks old- so if anyone else has a question, they can look!

Mrs. Alice · August 2013

ceechie said:

Never had an issue telling them apart. They have different head shapes and always had a significant size difference.
Ok, this may be a lame question, but of identical, how come different head shape. That seems like a big one to be different on. Not just a small thing like a beauty mark. My girls are di/di but my husband thinks they're identical. Everything matches but head shape kept me from thinking ID could be a possibility. Sorry to hijack thread... To help my daughter, who is 4, tell the girls apart, we always put Penelope in pink. And her sister, Evie, gets the other color of the matching outfits. But they are still a pound different at 6 weeks, so it's easy for us to know who is who.

What the others said. Mine had TTTS and the baby to the right was IUGR, had lower fluid, and was positioned further into my pelvis most of the time. Just wanted to show this example of their first picture together. I totally thought they might be fraternal here because it was so different!

katieg314 · August 2013

I am so glad I'm not the only FTM that has worried about this lol. I have a feeling I will do nail polish just to be sure...

BabyCarryingVessel · August 2013

Ditto the painted toe nails. Mine were easily distinguishable at birth because their head shapes were different (from being smashed in the womb, I suppose). Now they're difficult for others to tell apart but I can easily identify them. You'll find small differences and you'll be just fine! Here's my girls when they were newborns and now at 10 months.

kgs0505 · August 2013

Painted nails here too

T get's a pink pedicure, and C get's a blue one. I also tend to put them in diferent outfits for the most part. I tend to try and put T in something with more pink in it than I do with C, but it doesn't always go that way. The only for sure difference they have right now is their ears are a slightly different shape around the tops and T's lobe sticks out a lot more than C's on the right. Can i take a quick glance at them separately and know? Not without a bit of study. But they are starting to get more personality so I thin that will help. Plus T has taken to sucking her thumb, so that's another tell.

ceechie · August 2013

The size difference is a huge tell! And thanks ladies for the head shape info! Always something to learn on this board!

BananaPancake · August 2013

Mrs. Alice said:

ceechie said:

Never had an issue telling them apart. They have different head shapes and always had a significant size difference.
Ok, this may be a lame question, but of identical, how come different head shape. That seems like a big one to be different on. Not just a small thing like a beauty mark. My girls are di/di but my husband thinks they're identical. Everything matches but head shape kept me from thinking ID could be a possibility. Sorry to hijack thread... To help my daughter, who is 4, tell the girls apart, we always put Penelope in pink. And her sister, Evie, gets the other color of the matching outfits. But they are still a pound different at 6 weeks, so it's easy for us to know who is who.

What the others said. Mine had TTTS and the baby to the right was IUGR, had lower fluid, and was positioned further into my pelvis most of the time. Just wanted to show this example of their first picture together. I totally thought they might be fraternal here because it was so different!

That is so wild! It's almost like you can see what your "one baby" would look like at two completely different developmental stages!

BananaPancake · August 2013

They were pretty easy to tell apart right when they were born, to DH and I, but we had bracelets on them from Day One. We were so sleep deprived that we would have mixed up ANY twins.

Ours were DI/DI but within a few weeks we started suspecting they were ID - we decided that if we had to leave the bracelets on, they were frat. They also had very different head shapes and now that's changing and we never know who's who without studying them! In my siggy pic, Max has the skinnier head and is on the right. Miles' nose was more turned up and his head was perfectly round. Now at 8m they're really closing in on the ID-ness! We've gone back to marking Max's hands with an X so that we can keep them straight. When you're chasing 5 kids, there just isn't time to study faces every time you pick one up, and now that they're mobile, forget about it!

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