Pregnant with Twins? Join the club :) - Page 4

[Adaline'sMama]

Hi Bekah, and welcome to MDC
I love seeing all the February mommas rolling in!

Questions: since your babies are in separate sacs and have separate placentas, how do you know they are identical? (I have babies in separate sacs and placentas and I was under the impression that most fraternal twins do).

[QMtwins]

Ahhh,

I just went through a weekend of yucky gastrointestinal issues and without too much detail, I probably would have been inpatient if not for zofran and immodium. 

Now, After 4 days of eating almost nothing, mostly just gatorade and some gingerale, I'm worried about weight gain, etc. 

I am 25 weeks and had lost in the first trimester and then did so well at the start of the 2nd.  I had been up about 30# from pre-pregnancy weight.  (right on track for Dr. Luke!)  The babes are growing well, right at the 49%-both of them. 

No more meds (I'm about 18 hours since the last doses, so I think I'm finally in the clear!).  Ate some chicken and rice for dinner and just finished a bowl of apple sauce.  Hoping I'll make it through the night without a trip to the bathroom. 

Someone just tell me we will all be fine!  I guess I'm needing a little reassurance.  My sweet DH just says it'll be fine and what can I do about it anyway!  He's probably right.  I'm just worrying a little more this time around. 

Contemplating my pre-natal yoga class tomorrow and will likley go and take it very easy. 

[SortaCrunchy]

Name? (if you feel like it) Megan

You and maybe your partners age at the birth? Me, 35; DH, 37

Are the babies Mono or Di or what combo of both? I really don't even know what this means. They are in separate sacs. Di?

What number of kids will is be for you? 3 & 4 (we have two daughters, 7.5 and almost 5)

Genders? Will you be finding out? We plan to find out

EDD and or planned birth timing? Original due date March 9th. Hoping for February!

State you live in? Oklahoma

Anything else you want to share?

We JUST found out yesterday we are having twins and I am completely freaked out. There are no twins in my family, I have zero experience with multiple pregnancy or multiples parenting. I have so many questions!

Who is this Dr. Luke y'all are talking about? I am sooooooo sick. I've been wearing Sea Bands which has brought the vomiting under control, but I am still battling day-long intense nausea. I have to fight my gag reflex every time I swallow food. And I'm having an INTENSE meat aversion. INTENSE. And we eat Paleo, so you can imagine this is all kinds of confusing and upsetting for me.

What are some good resources for AP and twins? And nursing twins? I am especially freaked out about that. (I bf'ed both of my girls to 2, but I only have one "working" breast - my right one never produces much milk.) And cloth diapers? DEAR HEAVENS, the laundry!

Also, I am a two-time c/s mama, so these will be a planned repeat Cesarean birth.
 

[Adaline'sMama]

QM- Whew, it sounds like you had a rough weekend! Im sorry to hear about that. I'm sure you are going to be okay. Im sure that you've gained plenty of weight to get through this without any problems :)

daceysmama- Congrats!! Do you twins have separate placentas? That would make them di-di. It's my understanding that if they share a placenta then they would be mono-di (but, if im wrong maybe someone will correct me). Dr. Barbara Luke wrote this book, which I was instructed to read as soon as I found out. Personally, i think she requires an insane amount of protein for a non-pregnant woman, and there is no.freaking.way I can eat 170 grams a day. I do follow her guidelines for weight gain though. Congrats on your pregnancy!!

http://www.drbarbaraluke.com/Books/Expecting.aspx

Ithappened- I hope all is well with you and your nurslings. I know you are busy, but if you find the time, I'd love to see some more of their beautiful faces!

mamalove3~ I think you are the furthest along. How are you feeling?

Everyone else- if you know the sex and it's not listed on the main page, let me know and Ill list it for you.

AFM- I got my nuchal scan results in today (officially). All is normal. I've been really fretting about it, so it's a huge sigh or relief for me.

[mamalovex3]

Welcome to all the new mamas! 

ifnotnowwhen - Congrats on your boys!  That is so exciting :)

xerxella - I'm so sorry to hear you're dealing with so much stress and uncertainty.  I guess the good news is that you are being closely monitored and hopefully get more info on what exactly is the case soon.

QMtwins - Sorry to hear you've been having such a rough go of it lately...I wouldn't worry too much about the weight gain, every pregnancy is different :)

daceysmomma - Check out Having Twins by Elizabeth Noble and Mothering Multiples by Karen Gromada.  We started cloth at 6 months with our girls and it is definitely doable, but you may want to either go with disposables or get a service for the first weeks/months as breastfeeding twins is pretty much a 24/7 gig and whenever you're not nursing, you should be sleeping!

AdalinesMama - Glad to hear your results are normal - the less stress the better!

AFM I am going on 34 weeks which is the magical time that I can say goodbye to the high risk team and their hospital and go to the 'normal' hospital.  The bummer is that I will be meeting a new OB, so hopefully he is on board with my birth plans.  Although of course, he is one of 10 doctors on a rotation so who knows who will be there when I actually give birth.  Luckily, I will have my midwife and one or two other midwives as well :)  I am feeling ginormous and very uncomfortable.  The worst is this terrible pain in my groin/pelvis that makes it hard to even walk.  I sleep ok, minus getting up 3-4 times a night to pee.  I can't believe that I will be having babies in a month!!  Seems so unreal.  We have so much to do!!

[Adaline'sMama]

Mamalove3- so glad you are getting to that point where you can say goodbye to your high risk team. I'm not sure I will calm down until that day arrives. What's left to do? I guess it's just like when parents have their second singleton. I dont know why I think in my head, "but you already have twins, what could you have to do?" Too bad it doesnt work that way, right?

x- Are you home from vacation? Have you found a second opinion doctor yet? Thinking of you :)

AFM- MOVEMENT!!! Last night, in my sleep I was dreaming of riding a rollercoaster and it woke me up. I sat straight up in bed and felt incredible movement from the babies!!! (or maybe just one, I dont know how that works.) I've gone through this twice before, but everytime it's amazing. I have this feeling of amazement that something is actually living inside of my body. Its cool and creepily parasitic all at once :)

Questions for twin mamas, or people who might know the answer:

Can you feel the difference between the babies' movement at some point? Like who's who of the womb or something?

Do the babies keep each other up in utero? My babes have always moved the most around 3 am, I wonder if they will move at the same time, or if they will be on different active schedules, therefore keeping me up even more at night :)

TIA.

[wendipauline]

I can tell who is moving because of their positions. And their movements are different, which I find fascinating. A has always been a more forceful mover, jabbing and spazzing all over the place. B is much more languid. Makes me wonder if their personalities outside of the womb will match up !

[Bgerl]

Anyone have a twin homebirth or no of midwives in California (or traveling midwives) who do? Thank you!

[~Adorkable~]

when i was preggo with my twins i used to call them "peanut butter" and "jelly" because of how they moved.

my girl never moved, she used to scare us from how little she ever kicked, she had a wonderful stretched out position with her head nearly engaged and curved all the way up my right side with her feet under my right ribs. think "crescent moon". she came out first despite him weighing considerably more.

my boy was balled up in the curve of the crescent for lack of a better description high and on the left side. he never stopped squirming, flipping and everything under the sun, going from vertex to breach and back again less that 2 weeks before i went into labor at 36w, he gave me heartburn in way more than one way!

frankly i think she had the best spot and was content and he was always looking for a more comfortable position.

from the moment they came out their movement and attitudes have been 100% opposite! she is the active go getter, learning everything the hard and fast way, always bruised and happy to fling herself around, rarely taking a break long enough to cuddle unless sleeping.

He is the reclined observer, doing everything way later, not walking till 16 months, 10 weeks after her! always happy to melt into a puddle of cuddles in nearly any pair of loving arms.

i would have never guessed

[Xerxella]

bgerl- Welcome to MDC!!!!! You might want to ask your question as a new post here in the parenting multiples section and also in you tribe area and maybe in one of the homebirth sections. That way you'll get the most views. I'm in IL, so I can't help you with CA recommendations.

wendi - I don't know about twins, but I know my first born hardly ever moved and to this day he is very calm and easy going. My 2nd child was ALWAYS active and continues to be ALWAYS active to this day. So, 2 seperate kids can show their personalities even in utero. I notice you're in Chicago. I'm also in Chicago, can I ask where you're birthing? I'm strongly considering Lutheran General. (I hear they have a great NICU.) But, I'm still searching for whoever's the best for ID twins in the Chicagoland area.

Adaline's mama - Yeah for movement!!!!! So exciting!!!! And yeah for a good visit!!!! All of these steps just put you more and more at ease.

mamalove - I'll take those book recommendations too. Thanks. Does LLL also have a breastfeeding twins book? I imagine they do. How does breastfeeding work with an extended NICU stay? I think I'll be looking at that. Congrats on reaching 34 weeks, but I imagine this is all old hat for you!

sorta crunchy - I'm with you. There has NEVER been twins in my family, although there are ID twins on my dh's family and I understand that he might be to blame. I had 2 healthy, relatively easy pregnancies and then 2 losses last year. So, I'm still holding my breath that these 2 will stick and on top of all the other concerns..... Well anyways, hopefully we can all figure out this twin thing together.

QM - Ugh. What a time of it! I really DO think it'll be fine. Babies do great even when women are sick the entire pregnancy. Hugs to you.

Bekah - Hi!!!! Welcome to MDC! What have they told you about you identicals? Why do they think they're identical? I have so many questions about identicals and I don't even know where to begin.

AFM - We had a great vacation. I wasn't sick at all, just very, very tired. But, the day we got back, the nausea hit again, so that kinda made me feel a little better, if that makes any sense. My next u/s is supposed to be Wednesday August 8th as long as work doesn't send me on a trip. As soon as I tell them I'll stop traveling. But, with all the uncertainty I just don't know what to say and when to say it! I think if Wednesday goes well, I'll tell them after that. I'll update everyone after Wednesday's u/s. Wish me luck.

[rblakley]

During my second ultrasound the doctor could see that they were in 2 separate sacs, but also had one sac enclosed around them. Meaning they came from the same egg. :) From what I hear it is not very common.

[~Adorkable~]

ah that is is what is called Mo/Di  or Monochorionic-Diamniotic

 i wonder about the 2 placentas, i have heard it can go either way with mo/di but i also can't imagine how they could actually see that!

congrats of the twins!

[rblakley]

I was checking out Dr. Luke's website and discovered that actually 65% of identicals have separate sacs and placentas! Not as uncommon as I thought. :)

[gozal]

I thought DS was going to be a chill baby because I didn't feel vigorous movement from him. I mentioned this once to the u/s tech and she laughed at me! She was like, Yeah, well, he is very active, you just can't feel it because you have an anterior placenta. Whoops! She was pretty much right. DS is not super active as kiddos go and does like to sit and concentrate on tasks he's into, but he does go-go-go all day. Kid does not stop (or nap - he gave up his nap verrrry early). With the twins, initially I felt B a lot more because he's higher up; then in was A, because his placenta is posterior whereas B's is anterior, and now I feel them both about the same. I think they move about the same amount. I have to say the feeling of two babies moving around in there is totally amazing and one of my favorite parts of my twin pregnancy!

Just for fun - the babies are growing extremely consistently and their heart rates are always within 5 beats of each other. I realize this probably just means that they are brothers of the same GA, but I can't help but wonder if they could possibly be identical? I'm almost sure they're not (hey, Clomid + strong family history of twins) but it would be such a surprise if they were. From what I've read, only 30% of MZ twins are di-di (same stat as you, rblakey, essentially) so it would be statistically unlikely as well. Anyone have anecdata to share?

[SortaCrunchy]

I have another question ... I'm noticing that I'm extremely short of breath these days (I'm 9 weeks, 2 days). I had shortness of breath in the first tri with my first two pregnancies, but this is ridiculous - like I feel out of breath after picking up a lightly cluttered living room. Shopping for groceries pretty much takes it out of me and all I want to do is nap when I get home.

Is this a first trimester thing? Or will this be an issue my entire twin pregnancy? I know there probably isn't much that can be done about it - just curious.

(Also, housekeeping note for the due date list - I changed my screen name from daceysmomma to SortaCrunchy)

[mamalovex3]

sortacrunchy - I don't recall feeling out of breath until late 2nd tri/all of 3rd tri but experienced total and utter exhaustion in the first trimester of both twin pregnancies.  It's pretty common, just a double whammy from hormones and your body working hard to grow those babies :)  FOr me, it got a little better in the 2nd trimester but goes downhill from there...

[Adaline'sMama]

I, too , have been super out of breath. I've read that it is typically caused by increased levels of progesterone. But, then if you have it for your first trimester, by the middle of your second, you just cant breath because youre out of room for your diaphragm to expand.

[lilysamsma]

Hi! I am Michelle and i have been stalking this board for a couple weeks or so. I dk everything i ternet related from a phone and i am not techno-savvy, so there are always weirds random punctuations and whatnot. I tried to copy and paste the initial.questions, but am having no luck, so i will just wing this intro. I have my second appointment this friday and i am hoping there are still two.in there( i was hoping.to.wait until after that appointment before i.officially joined here, but what the heck, right?). These will be kids 3 & 4. My other ones are almost 6 and 16 months. The newbies are due in mid February. The dr was fairly sure they were identical. I am sure any of you can understand the shock.of it all, so needless.to say, i did not ask him anything at all (other than, "are you SURE??"), and actually would not have known what to ask at that point in time anyway, even without the shock.factor. He very nonchalantly mentioned NOT seeing a membrane, but i didn't know what that meant. I feel like odds are in my favor that either they will see one this Friday with the office machine, pr hoefully send me to the radiology dept to get a scan done with a better machine. I will be around 12 1/2 weeks then (my dates are 4 days ahead of what they measured at, so i have been splitting the difference since i 100% know my dates with o/dtd are spot on, but that doesn't account for later implantation)...But from the u/s pics and all the info.i have managed to glean online, my us shows one circle with two little blobs in it. Every mono-di/mono-mono early u/s looks much like mine. The di-di pics show two circles with one blob in each. I have been reading Dr.Luke's book and trying to eat as much protein as possible. It is not going super well, because my appetite is not right still. I am also still bfing ds, which i want to put an end to because i want to make these babies GROW and also my breasts are finally really sore. Holy cow!!! This is long! I hope i get to stick around after all this.

[Adaline'sMama]

lilysmama- Welcome! You're in the feb ddc with me, too- right? My OB didnt see a membrane until 12 weeks, so  I wouldnt rule it out yet.

[~Adorkable~]

i wanted to chime in on the out of breath issue, i had this a handful of times thru out my pregnancy and it was explained to me that it could simply be from the changes in your blood volume. you are increasing it FAST and at time when there is growth spurts it is a game of catch up for your body to oxygenate and circulate all of it. it can cause momentary low blood pressure, light headlessness and feeling like you can't catch your breath. it always passed in a day or so and all was good again.