Tales of a Shared Womb: A Guest

Today we have a guest for Tales of a Shared Womb! Rozanna is one of our friends, and we asked her to share her story! We hope you enjoy her guest post.

Hi everyone! My name is Rozanna and I am not a twin but I am mother of (almost) 14 year old identical twin girls "A" and "B". Let me start by answering all of the questions right off the bat..... No they were not fertility treatment babies, I was 17 when they were conceived. Yes they are identical. Yes I had them naturally and not cesarean section. NO I don't have any identical twins in my family, fraternal yes, identical no. There are twins on my husband side but we don't know if they were identical or not. And finally yes, for the most part I can tell them apart and always have.

Lets just start with the basics here for starters. When they were born we kept baby “A”’s bracelet on from the hospital until she was about 6 weeks so everyone else could tell them apart. After she out grew her bracelet we had her ears pierced so we could tell them apart. We did try to paint her toes but It was very hard in pics to tell them apart and their toes were not visible. They did everything at the same time, teethed at the same time, got sick at the same time, even potty trained at the same time. They have always had this weird twin language that none of us understood. For instance, they would be sitting at the table eating their food and one would eat all the meat and the other all the potatoes and jabber some language and switch plates. Or while playing with a toy they would jabber something and both go off and pick up the same thing.

When they were getting their exams for their braces the orthodontist was completely shocked that they had the exact same mouths! The same craniofacial measurements, the same odd shaped tooth, and were missing the same adult teeth! At each and every dental appt, if they have cavities they have the same ones in the same teeth! Twin "B" has always been the sicker of the two with asthma and many nights was rushed to the er for steroids and breathing treatments. Whenever we had to go in the middle of the night “A” got to stay with grandma and as soon as they would give “B” steroids, instead of her getting wild and crazy like expected, her sister would at home with Grandma. Or when one acted sick and would pull on her ear we would take them to the Dr. Most of the time the twin that was symptomatic wasn't the one that was sick, the other one was!

Since they have been in school it has been brought to my attention many times (at the beginning of the year) that some teachers thought a little cheating was going on. They would have essay tests where they could pick the topic and both many times picked the same topic and wrote essays very similar to each other. Or would have a math test and miss the same answers. After the teachers got to know then and their "twiness" we haven't had any nasty grams about cheating but I am sure next year when they start High school they will start again.

We did have two cribs when they were born, bunk beds as they were small kids and now they each have their own rooms, but they still slept together. And by sleep together I don't mean in the same room, imagine two teenagers sleeping head to feet together in a twin sized day bed. I don't know how they get any sleep but they sure do!

Now that they are older they don't have twin language anymore but they do speak to each other telepathically (I swear)! For instance, this summer we were all outside (which is hard to do where we live) sweating our you know whats off when one of them out of no where started singing jingle bells. They just looked at each other and started cracking up! Everyone around them were very confused as to what was so funny when they told us that one of them was thinking about the song and the other one started singing it! They also constantly are finishing each other's sentences and talking at the same time.

Teri asked me a few questions so here we go...

How did you feel when you found out you were having twins?

Let me just say shocked! Like I said before I was 17 when I got pregnant which was a shock to my family in itself. I had lost so much weight from being sick no one at school really believed I was pregnant. My mom and I prayed so hard for a girl since I only had 2 brothers. We went in for my regular ultrasound at 20 weeks and when they put the us on my stomach my mom said "look at your twins!" We both started laughing and my Dr said "your right!" I said "Shut up that is not funny!!" He said he would never joke about something like that and showed me both of their heads. I just started crying and said just please tell me they are girls! My husband (who was in the room and we were broken up at that time) almost passed out and his mom was just in complete shock also! I just had gotten used to the idea of having one baby and now found out I was having 2! Big shocker!!

What is your favorite thing about having twins?

I never had a sister and even though my brothers and I are very close it is still not the same as having a sister so I would say that seeing the relationship between them is my favorite thing. It is a relationship that not everyone can understand.

What is the most difficult thing about having twins?

Honestly they were my first kids and they were so easy going that it was hard but I really had nothing to compare it too! I would say overall though The hardest thing is that we have two more children, another girl age 7 and a boy almost 5. The girls have each other and are very close so I think sometimes they pick on their sister and brother. The reason we actually went for baby #4 was not to try for a boy (as most people think), but because I wanted Hannah (My 7 year old) to have a sibling close to her age that she could grow up with since we waited 7 years between the twins and her. Also they would never betray each other which is a good thing but sometimes I worry that they would keep secrets from me that I need to know about just because they are so close.

Thanks so much Roz! We are laughing about the sleeping together part, because we totally did that. We each had our own room, and one of us had a full sized bed, so that’s where we always slept, clear up until Teri got married and left the house. We agree with you, unless you are a twin or have a close personal relationship with them (like being their mom), you can’t don’t fully realized how closely connected they are! How did you like hearing about other twins? We are looking forward to more guests soon!