So, the swabs have been taken and the DNA tests on the girls have been sent off for analysis.
The testing kit was very simple. Each child had a labelled test tube with a small amount of liquid in the bottom and ten swabs each, which looked like single-ended cotton buds. The instructions said that each swab had to be inserted in the mouth for up to 20 seconds (ha ha) in order to get as good a sample as possible. Once the swabs were taken, they were placed in the test tubes.
Dh did the honours and got into forensic scientist mode. The last 9 years melted away before my eyes as he balanced the test tubes in a shot glass to keep them upright and for a moment the train driver disappeared and the chemistry PhD student re-emerged.
G eyed the swabs suspiciously, realised they looked in no way like a Petit Filous yogurt (she quivers with excitement when she sees an unopened pot) and pushed the first few out of her mouth with her tongue. By the 8th swab she had begun to get the hang of things and allowed the swab to stay in her mouth for a good....oooh...8.4 seconds before clamping her mouth shut.
R had the advantage of going second. She obediently opened her mouth for the first swab and allowed dh to have a good scrape around for about 15 seconds. After that the law of diminishing returns applied as boredom with the procedure kicked in and by the tenth swab she was starting to protest a little.
We posted the completed tests off yesterday afternoon. The blurb said that we would get the results in 3-4 weeks but with the Christmas and New Year festivities almost upon us, I’m not expecting to get them for at least a month.
I don’t know how I feel about it all really. I’d like the girls to be non-ID because it’s a nice link to my Dad, who is a non-ID twin himself. Also, we’ve spend so long explaining to everyone that the girls are absolutely, definitely NOT IDENTICAL that it’s going to be a bit annoying saying ‘Well, actually...’ when we’re asked. Frankly (and rather selfishly), I’m going to feel like a bit of an idiot if they turn out to be identical. I have this image of everyone we know doing Muttley-style laughs behind their hands and thinking “What a moron! Of course they are bloody identical. We knew it all along! She was clearly in denial, stupid bint!”
I can’t deny that they look remarkably similar, to each other and dh – I was clearly just a ‘host’ for nine months. I don’t see anything of me in them, looks-wise. However, are they really identical?
In the great scheme of things, it doesn’t matter a jot. Regardless of the test results they are still our babies. They are still R and G. It’ll just be nice to give people a truthful answer when they ask us the “Are they identical?” question.
