In the UK, a single mom revealed why her twin sons are different in sizes that people do not believe they are twins.
Gabriella Christmas, 30, got pregnant with her son Eduardo before she conceived his younger twin brother Ezra, three weeks later in a rare double pregnancy called superfetation.
While Eduardo was conceived and developed three weeks ahead of Ezra, the twins arrived healthy on the same day in July 2018.
Eduardo is heavier and is still much taller than Ezra, which left many people confused and cannot believe that the boys were born on the same day.
“They looked different when they were born,” Gabriella said. “My little one, Ezra, was a lot smaller so I had to buy clothes for my twins but in different sizes and his skin hadn’t gone through the process of being less waxy, so he looked like a little old man.”
“There was also length difference and there still is,” Gabriella added. “I’m really fortunate that they were both healthy because there were fears Ezra would have to go into NICU because he was premature and his brother wasn’t but he was a healthy, early baby”.
The boys are considered twins because they were born on the same day. However, they are not medically twins due to the fact that Eduardo and Ezra are products of two separate pregnancies that happened at the same time.
Gabriella learned about her superfetation —which only happens to 0.3% of women— during her five-week scan.
“I went for an early scan at about five weeks because I thought I was losing the baby,” she said. “I had an internal ultrasound because it was so early.”
“They said there was a baby and a shadow which could have possibly been another baby but they didn’t know for sure because it was a lot smaller,” she added. “At the 12-week scan, the doctors were worried because one was so much bigger than the other and they thought that was because the babies were sharing a placenta.”
“We went to a neonatal expert who said there were two placentas and two completely different pregnancies,” she said. “The second baby was three weeks behind in his development because he was three weeks younger.”
“So Ezra consistently grew three weeks behind Eduardo during the pregnancies,” Gabriella explained. “Even though he was younger, Ezra was the stronger of the two and he was the one I could feel moving.”
“I just didn’t know it was possible to get pregnant while pregnant and I think that it’s important for women to know that it is possible for that to happen.”
The boys were delivered by C-section in July 2018.
“They are twins because they were born on the same day and have the same genetic parents but it was two separate pregnancies that happened at the same time,” she explained. “It was really hard to get our heads around the fact that I’d fallen pregnant while I was already pregnant.”
Despite her explanations, Gabriella said that many people still calls do not believe that brothers are twins because of their notable size difference.”
“They still look different now and people don’t believe they’re twins,” Gabriella said. “They are absolutely twin brothers because they have that bond but they couldn’t be more different, they’re like chalk and cheese.”
“Eduardo is really calm and creative and Ezra is boisterous and loves to trash everything.”