Additional Coverage:
- I thought my twins were fraternal, but no one can tell them apart. They refused to take a DNA test for me. (businessinsider.com)
Local Mom’s Double Take: The Mystery of Her Twins’ Identical Connection
It started, as many stories do, with a growing belly and a mother’s intuition — or what she thought was intuition. For one local mom, her third pregnancy brought a rapid expansion that she chalked up to simply having “been there, done that.”
But at 11 weeks, her bump was already showing like a five-month-old, and the nausea was relentless. A doctor’s suggestion for an ultrasound to pinpoint her due date would soon reveal why.
“Your body’s been here before,” she’d told herself, “It’s just doing what it knows how to do.” But during the ultrasound, the technician pointed to the screen.
“That’s a head,” she said, confirming a human was indeed on the way. Then, with a dramatic pause and a second pointer, she added, “Now, do you see that?”
The husband, ever the optimist, wondered if it was “the baby’s bum.”
“No,” the technician smiled softly, “That’s… another head. You’re having twins.” The news struck the couple like a pinball, bouncing between shock, terror, and thrill.
Lucas and Callum made their grand entrance at 34 weeks, each weighing a healthy five pounds. Initially, the family, reassured by multiple scans showing two separate placentas, believed them to be fraternal. It was a detail that went unquestioned for years.
But a recent online search brought a surprising revelation: up to a third of identical twins can develop separate placentas, and as many as 20% of twin births are misidentified. Suddenly, the long-held assumption began to unravel.
From the start, the boys were remarkably similar. While their mother could spot subtle differences, others found it nearly impossible to tell them apart. A small birthmark on Lucas’s arm became a saving grace, helping to minimize the dreaded question: “Which one are you?”
Beyond their looks, their connection was uncanny. They’d reach for each other while nursing, settle more easily in the same crib, and even answer nature’s call simultaneously each morning.
As teenagers, they formed an unbeatable Charades team, communicating with an unspoken understanding. When asked about their differing personalities, their mom would often mumble that they were “still finding themselves.”
They remained consistently within an inch and a pound of each other at annual checkups, intertwined in a way that defied simple explanation.
Now 23, Lucas and Callum stand six feet tall, pursuing distinct interests and friendships. Yet, the confusion persists.
Callum even muses that they look more alike now than they did as children. This led their mother to propose a simple solution: a $119 cheek swab DNA test to settle the identical-versus-fraternal debate once and for all.
Their response? A resounding, good-natured shrug.
“No, I don’t really care,” Callum said. “It hasn’t crossed my mind at all.”
Lucas echoed, “Does it really matter? What difference would it make?”
He then delivered the ultimate truth: “I think wanting to know is more for you than it is for us.”
And he was right. The question, she realized, was less about them and more about her own need to categorize and label, to put her “twosome into a tidy little box.” Raising twins, she acknowledges, is both incredibly challenging and an immense privilege, with or without a definitive label.
Taking a cue from her easygoing sons, she’s decided to let the mystery be. So now, when someone asks, “Which one are you?”, Lucas and Callum have an answer that’s both simple and speaks for itself: Lucas has the mustache.
This story was originally shared by Angela Yazbek, a first-generation Lebanese-Canadian writer and former journalist.