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Original poster

Mums / Dads of newborn identical twins...

54 replies

EffYouSeeKaye · 16/11/2019 16:07

Are you absolutely, completely positive you have never mixed them up? Particularly if you are keen on matching outfits?

Having found my missing keys in the freezer, and put coffee granules in the baby bottles, I’m wondering if this is another possible outcome of exhaustion Blush

OP posts:
NoIsACompleteAnswerSometimes · 16/11/2019 16:18

Before I cut their name tags off, I painted the big toenails of twinny 1 with nail varnish! They had separate cots eventually BUT....... one night when we got up to feed them, dh put one baby back, and obviously I put whichever baby I had back in the empty cot. (I'm not good in the middle of the night, in the dark or without my glasses!) Anyway, following morning I got one baby up, fed, washed, dressed, all fine. It was only when I was sorting out the other one that I realised that this one wasn't the one I thought it was. I had to take her upstairs and compare her to the other one, as there were very slight differences that were noticeable when you had them together, rather than separately.
Mind you, a lot of photos were sent home from school as a montage of their time there when they left primary, neither the school, the twins nor I noticed they had the wrong photos a few times in both the sets of pictures for a long time!

Original poster
EffYouSeeKaye · 16/11/2019 16:22

Nail varnish is a brilliant idea.

OP posts:
BethanyGilbert · 16/11/2019 16:44

I’m a twin. I have a very distinctive birthmark on my head so wasn’t covered by hair when I was a baby. But I still occasionally wonder if I was the original Jane and now I’m Jenny.

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Original poster
EffYouSeeKaye · 16/11/2019 18:14

I know, Bethany, I think the same. It must have happened. Probably more often than anyone might admit.

OP posts:
PurplePuffinPicker · 16/11/2019 18:19

I wonder if parents have ever had an unsolvable difference of opinion as to which is which. If neither have conclusive proof who is who, do they just randomly reallocate the names and start again? Grin

I met 4yo twins at a work placement once and I asked one of them 'are you Johnny or Jimmy?' and he looked at me solemnly and said 'I don't know'!

runninguphills · 16/11/2019 19:16

My mother is an identical twin and is adamant her name was originally her sisters but they mixed them up!

WouldNeverAdmitThisInRL · 16/11/2019 20:05

No, I wrote their names on their foot with Sharpie Blush

Winterdaysarehere · 16/11/2019 20:08

Sharpie sounds a great idea!!

GinaCarbonara · 16/11/2019 20:09

I had a birthmark on my arse so if ever my parents got confused they just stripped us down.

But my mother videoed our first birthday as my father was working away, and she didn't realise until afterwards that all day she had called us the wrong names.

BakedBeeeen · 16/11/2019 20:13

I know someone with identical triplets. They used nail varnish on the toes

anxioussue · 16/11/2019 20:15

I'm a twin and it was when we were 18 that Mum said my sister had a birthmark on the back of her neck and that was how she told us apart. My sister has no such birthmark but I do! Shock

littlepeaegg · 16/11/2019 20:17

Not sure permanent marker on newborn skin is a good idea?! 😂😂

JohnnyMcGrathSaysFuckOff · 16/11/2019 20:18

So my twins are not identical but they are both convinced they are called GirlTwinName.

If I ask them "Where's Tilly?" they both point at the other, like two small time crooks incriminating each other.

I tried telling BoyTwin the other day that he was Egbert, not Tilly, but he just pointed at his own chest with both index fingers and said "Till. Ee!"

Hmm

(Names changed to protect the innocent.)

BethanyGilbert · 16/11/2019 20:20

@anxioussue no! That’s terrible.

anxioussue · 16/11/2019 20:22

It's only a name! She must have muddled us up when we were tiny and not realised, we just laugh about it now as she was so scatty it's typical of her.

Didiplanthis · 16/11/2019 20:28

I put 2 naked twins in the bath. DH tool them out the bath and put them in pjs (always dressed differently) and put them in their respective cots. The next morning I was delighted the slightly slower developing twins had finally cracked crawling which he demonstrated when I got him up. For about an hour.... till his brother woke up and couldn't crawl ! DH had muddled up naked twins in bathroom , dressed them in wrong pjs and put them in wrong cots. I didn't notice when getting them up as assumed twin in twin 1s pjs in twin 1s cot was twin 1...

twinmum2017 · 16/11/2019 20:34

Positive - kept their hospital bands on for ages and by the time they came off twin 2 had developed a very handy birthmark behind her ear!

lljkk · 16/11/2019 20:46

Don't you find a lot of ID twins, one of them is bigger?
I know that's true with the ID twins I'm related to... and most others I meet. The eldest is marginally larger & tends to keep that difference in life.

rosy71 · 16/11/2019 20:51

I asked this of someone I know who had identical twins. She said one was much bigger & one had no hair for ages so it was quite easy to tell the difference.

Didiplanthis · 16/11/2019 20:56

My ID twins ID bands fell off in their shared hospital cot/fish tank thing in day 1. One was bigger until about 6 months when they stayed the same size and weight until about 3. No hair till 18months then matching mohican stripes till 2. No birth marks....

FunOnTheBeach20 · 16/11/2019 21:07

I don’t have twins but this thread has made me chuckle!

itsgettingweird · 16/11/2019 21:08

My friend has ID TDD. I couldn't tell them apart ds could.

Then one got glasses.

Except I could never remember who that one was Grin

Luckily my friend and her DDs have a SOH.

(I, btw have severe visual processing difficulties and can't remember non ID people by face Blush)

BethanyGilbert · 16/11/2019 21:11

@lljkk me and my twin were the first ever to be born at our hospital born the exact same weight!! I’m sure that didn’t last though!

8by8 · 16/11/2019 21:14

My friend has identical twin girls and admits that they probably got confused a few times. Sleep deprivation, and then several family members helping out and passing the twins around. I can totally see how it happened.

At some point they just said ok this one is A and this one is B and put bracelets on them with their initials on.

She says they’re just never going to tell the girls that they don’t really know which was originally which.

TheHootiestOwl · 16/11/2019 21:20

My Grandma said she would get my Dad and Uncle mixed up as babies. If I see pictures of them as children I couldn’t tell you which twin is which.