Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To suspect that if I'd had 8 babies - like Octomum

42 replies

Salmotrutta · 17/08/2011 23:55

I'd have to keep their hospital bracelets on them for aaaaages in case I mixed them up Blush. The boys all looked very similar (as did the girls). I'd be the world's worst.
I even thought my DC looked very similar to everyone else's babies in hospital. Blush
I'm a terrible person.................

OP posts:
annababy · 18/08/2011 08:57

During my pregnancy amongst my many hormone fuelled fears of how the hell will I ever cope with twins etc one of my biggest worries was that I wouldn't be able to tell them apart.this used to scare me so much that I would break down crying and tell anyone who was around-including a mechanic fixing our car,all my staff at work etc
Luckily I had a boy and a girl,panic over.

PonceyMcPonce · 18/08/2011 09:00

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Melly20MummyToPoppy · 18/08/2011 09:08

:o bigger moustache

I don't know any twins. DP went to school with 3 sets of them though! 1 pair were so identical that they used to switch classes with each other quite regularly :o and no-one could ever tell them apart.

TheFlyingOnion · 18/08/2011 09:08

I have twin DBs, and DM used to have to whip their nappies off to tell them apart when very small as one's testicles hadn't dropped and the other's had Blush

Original poster
Salmotrutta · 18/08/2011 10:42

Just to answer finallygotaroundtoit - it is just babies!!
Especially when they are all dressed in the same hospital gowns and wrapped in the same hospital shawls - which is the way it was back when I had my DCs.
Babies can all look quite similar at just a day or two old - to me anyway!
I must sound awful Blush

There was a case years ago when a hospital (in Ireland I think) thought that two babies had been mixed up (two mothers delivered very close to each other) and one of the mums was adamant that she had the right baby "I know my own baby" etc. So they carried out DNA tests and they had been mixed up! Soemthing to do with bands not being put on straight away or some such thing Shock

OP posts:
rattling · 18/08/2011 12:25

I have twin boys (very non-ID, no issue there), as a result hang out with other twin mums and their children. I really struggle to fix a name to ID twins - even when side by side I can identify differences. OTOH I was at school with supposedly ID twins who I don't recall ever having trouble over. I see them around town every few years (separately) and still know who is who. I think children "see" differently.

Pandemoniaa · 18/08/2011 13:04

My former MIL was given the wrong baby at the maternity home where she gave birth to ex-h's younger sister. In those days all babies were imprisoned slept apart from their mother in a nursery. They were only brought in to be fed and were then dished out, almost randomly, at 4-hour intervals. MIL simply knew she'd been given the wrong child since there was no way her daughter could have changed so radically in appearance over 4 hours but she had to make a heck of a fuss before they took her seriously.

I hate to think what they'd have done with twins.

glastocat · 18/08/2011 13:09

My SIL's sister was given the wrong baby. This was only five or six years ago. She realised pretty much straight away, but the nurse insisted! They eventually had to do blood tests and sorted it out, but she made the front page of the local paper.

BagofHolly · 18/08/2011 13:13

My twins don't look at all alike and yet I'm regularly asked if they're identical. Last time I said "they look so different to me but I'm their mum. Do you think they look alike?" and the person said "No, not at all." WTF? why ask?!

Original poster
Salmotrutta · 18/08/2011 13:13
Shock
OP posts:
Original poster
Salmotrutta · 18/08/2011 13:17

I admit it, - I'm crap because I thought my DCs looked very similar to lots of the other newborns in the nursery room Blush

But I did feel the need to double check the bracelet.............

OP posts:
BagofHolly · 18/08/2011 13:18

And my son was given to the wrong mother in SCBU. it was for about 30 mins and this poor other lady cuddled him and then the staff realised. She'd had a rough delivery and the baby was ill so she hadnt properly seen him. They had to take my (big chunky) baby off her and direct her to the NICU where her tiny premie was. It affected me for ages. God knows what it did to her. She came to find me, I think to show that she wasn't a weirdo and that it was a hospital mistake (which I knew anyway) and said "He's perfect. I only loved him." Sad Poor woman. This was a private delivery in 2009. So it can still happen.

Original poster
Salmotrutta · 18/08/2011 13:25

How are you feeling by the way BagofHolly - yes, I lurked on your thread about your neck Blush
..................................... God I really am awful Blush

OP posts:
glastocat · 18/08/2011 14:31

BagofHolly, you're not from Cork are you? Shock

glastocat · 18/08/2011 14:31

Oh no, the dates are wrong. phew

SaffronCake · 18/08/2011 14:35

It's not just you. OH and I had a whole discussion on whether or not we would be altering our views on earrings being wrong on little ones if we had to tell identical babies apart. Then we had a whole discussion about if giving them toenail varnish would really work as an alternative. We've never been pregnant with more than 1 at a time.

kickassangel · 18/08/2011 14:48

My friend usedmarker pen on her twins as she was so tired ( also had a toddler) that she thought she'd mix them up
After 6 months she could tell the difference

New posts on this thread. Refresh page