Which Twins

I’ve had names for my twins since early on in my pregnancy with Raj. I just woke up with them in my mind one morning. Laurel Eliana and Rowan Belen. My desire to have twins feels both beautiful and true to me. And it shows no signs of slackening with time. I think that Laurel and Rowan are aware of it and waiting to come.

I ordered Anne Geddes’ book Pure at our local bookshop a few weeks ago. I’m going to make a little collage of some of the pictures out of it. Sort of like a “vision board.” I believe one of the most important aids to conceiving twins is visualizations. Once I’ve made sure that my body is getting optimal nutrition and is hormonally balanced, I just need to visualize the twinning event. To properly visualize it though, I needed to read up on exactly what happens in early pregnancy.

There are, of course, two possible twinning events corresponding to the two types of twins. The first is double ovulation/double fertilization. If I release two eggs rather than one and both are fertilized and implant properly, I’ll have dizygotic, or fraternal twins. The second possible twinning event is an egg that splits after fertilization, causing monozygotic twins. A third possibility is the egg splitting before fertilization, a sort of in-between option that some people theorize as a reason for fraternal twins seeming more similar than they really ought to be genetically.

I have my heart set on identical girls. Laurel and Rowan. I know that monozygotic twins are prone more problems than fraternals, so I researched further. Apparently, most of these problems are related to mono-chorionicity and mono-amnionicity, or sharing of placentas and amniotic sacs.