Was this spontaneous twinning?

This is what one of my doctors asked me at my last visit. Yes, one of my many doctors that I see.

Twins do not "run in my family" (that's a different post for a different day), and we were not doing fertility treatments of any kind. So yes, I think spontaneous is the word.

Upon our shock of learning we were having twins, I started devouring information about multiple births. The likelihood of having twins, the types of twins, possible complications, etc. It turns out that your likelihood to have twins increases into your mid-30s. Your body is basically in shut-down mode and is just throwing eggs out. 

Seeing as I am 34, I thought this was the case and that we were having fraternal twins (two eggs = two separate everything = fraternal twins). I would think to myself, this would have been good information to have when I was trying not to have babies in my 20s.

We knew from my very first appointment at 10 weeks that they had separate amniotic sacs. There was a very clear membrane dividing them, which was a big sign pointing to fraternal twins. Still, I had this nagging in the back of my mind...

With twins, you get an ultrasound at every doctor appointment to check their heartbeats. At our 16 week appointment my doctor said maybe one was a boy but it was too hard to tell what the other one was. Okay fine.

We thought we knew exactly what was going to happen at our 20 week anatomy scan. We expected to go in and hear that we were having one boy and one girl. We already had one boy name and one girl name and it would be perfect. 

Our ultrasound tech first asked if anybody had told us what kind of placenta they had. No, nobody had mentioned it and I hadn't asked yet. But I knew that the placenta was a big factor in knowing what kind of twins they were. 

Then she said, surprise, it looks like two boys! Shock! Two boy scouts for Todd! Hooray! And then surprise, they share a placenta! More shock!

A shared placenta, with no signs of two placentas fusing, means one thing. IDENTICAL TWINS. Identical boys to be exact. It's pretty much the last thing I ever expected to hear. 

Spontaneous means coming or resulting from a natural impulse or tendency; without effort or premeditation; natural and unconstrained; unplanned.

I think it's safe to say this was definitely spontaneous twinning.