DNA test results are in....

any guesses??...... We got the girls' DNA tested earlier this month (which just involved swabbing the inside of their cheeks and sending it off to a lab in California) and the results came in a few days ago.... Aubrie and Lexi are IDENTICAL!! We either thought they had to be ID or very similiar fraternal twins. Here's a brief science lesson for everyone :) After an egg is fertilized, if it splits between days 3-5 (while it is still in the fallopian tube) they will have seperate placentas and seperate sacs (which was the case with the girls). If twins share a sac or placenta - they don't split until day 9 (and if it splits after day 9 - it will result in conjoined twins). At that stage of development (the first 2 weeks) cells are doubling at such an exponential rate that twins that are *together* longer (like until day 9 vs. splitting earlier at day 5) will typically look more alike since they are the exact same unit for such a long period of time (in regards to development). Once an egg splits different genes can turn on and off (and result in identicals having their differences - such as: Lexi is tongue tied and Aubrie's not... Lexi has a birth mark on her arm and Aubrie has a freckle on her leg whereas the other one doesn't etc...). Something else that's kinda cool is that only 9% of all twins are like Aubrie and Lexi (being ID and having seperate sacs and placentas) so it's not that common. 30% of all twins are Identical (and of that 30% only a smaller % have seperate "stuff") so that is why it's more common than not to have fraternal twins. Regardless of how the test results came back - really wouldn't have changed anything (except now we know what to tell people when we get that #1 questions... so are they ID?? hehehhe). Also, ID twins are just spontaneous and have no factors based on heredity. So there's your biology lesson for today! LOL

so I'll end with some cute pics of my little ID girlies...