Twin Reality Check

[bea2269]

Originally Posted by kricket24 Awesome! Thanks for sharing that! I've had one other friend who was tall and had twins. She seemed to have a pretty uneventful pregnancy except for getting PUPPs later in the pregnancy. I really enjoyed both of my singleton pregnancies so I'm hoping I could enjoy a potential twin pregnancy too. Wow, 42 weeks! That's amazing but wow! I didn't know twin pregnancies were allowed to go that long these days. 37 weeks is awesome! Thanks for posting that!

You're welcome! Her OB did stress tests quite often, and they were all doing wonderfully. He decided to let them continue. They were close to 8 lbs each! Mine were both between 5 and 6 lbs, but they required no NICU time.

[kricket24]

Originally Posted by bea2269 You're welcome! Her OB did stress tests quite often, and they were all doing wonderfully. He decided to let them continue. They were close to 8 lbs each! Mine were both between 5 and 6 lbs, but they required no NICU time.

I think that's awesome. I think I'd much rather have an 8 pounder than a 5 pounder!

[bea2269]

Originally Posted by kricket24 I think that's awesome. I think I'd much rather have an 8 pounder than a 5 pounder!

They did great. I had no clothes that fit them for awhile though. All of my babies have tended toward the smaller size, so for me, those were good weights.

[Tia]

Originally Posted by meesh38 Its very, very difficult to be infertile and have to make decisions such as how many embryos to transfer. I see posts like this from women pregnant with twins warning others not to transfer more than one, yet obviously they didn't heed their own advice. I also find it hard to believe that you didn't know the risks of a twin pregnancy while you transferred two embies.I'm sorry to be harsh, but I get tired of the whole "how dare you want a twin pregnancy (but its OK for me).

Read my post again. I never said I didn't know the risks of a twin pregnancy. I said I didn't know how likely it would be that I would carry twins since the RE told me we had a 10% chance. And I never said I wanted to carry twins.

And, I completely understand (though its not myself who's infertile) how difficult it is to decide how many to transfer. I'm carrying twins for another family. A family who has tried for seven years to have a baby. A family who started with 11 embryos and ended up with 5 after genetic testing. A family who really wants a healthy baby and hopefully are getting two. But, I can't guarentee that. I'm 1 week away from viability and will relax more, but every day I pray I can stay pregnant for them.

I'm not saying she shouldn't transfer two. I'm saying she should do her research (which it sounds like she has). Twin pregnancies can be amazing and perfect and better than some singleton pregnancies. But the reality is, a lot of twin pregnancies are not easy breezy and a walk in the park.

[klynn]

I have 2 boys, 5 1/2 and 2 1/2 and twin 8 month old girls. We found out at 19 weeks at the gender u/s that we were having twins so it was a major surprise. I had been slightly more sick than with the boys, but had no clue until that point. I was very tired and after that it got worse. Thankfully towards the end my parents were able to take the boys for a few days each week so I could get more rest.

I had a fairly uneventful pregnancy although if I overdid it I would get contractions and I ended up in the hospital at 35 weeks from dehydration when I caught a bug. The only other thing was that it was incredibly painful on my body. I am 5'8" and I was HUGE. For the last 2 months (they were born at 37 weeks) I could barely walk my pubic bone/pelvis were so out of whack. And now, even 8 months later I can't sit in a chair for long periods of time as my tailbone is messed up. I've been to a chiropractor and everything. I'm hoping with more time and exercise it will get better. So far I haven't had time for the exercise.

I am a very type A person who doesn't adapt well to change, but I intentionally went into this with NO expectations as to how my life would look and I think that has helped immensely. My husband was able to only work 3 days a week for the first 3 months (and then he was off for the summer) and my parents had the boys while he was working so for the first 4-5 months I was never alone with all 4 kids. I'm honestly not sure how I would have survived without their help. No one else really helped much, no meals or other child care (we have allergies so I have to cook for us and pre-packaged frozen food is out, bummer!).

I have BF exclusively and my girls were tongue tied so it was HARD. I would have given up if I didn't have the previous experience of nursing my boys for over a year each. I'm still dealing with milk blisters and blocked ducts even now, but I manage it. I'm hoping to reach the year mark even and then we'll see how it goes.

I had to let cloth diapering go. My younger son is still in diapers and with the really hard water we have here plus being on a septic system (can't wash laundry back to back) I would have only been able to wash diapers and nothing else. It's sad, but just something we decided we couldn't make work.

My 5 year old really loves to play with the sisters now that they are crawling around and interactive. He goes to school half days so he's a huge help. The 2 year old wants to imitate his big brother, but he's not so gentle so I can't leave him alone with them. And he's a very big handful all by himself!

The girls are starting to play with each other which is fun and keeps them entertained - although we just this week moved them into separate cribs so they could actually get some sleep instead of one messing with the other one.

I can and do take all of them shopping with me. The girls are still self contained in their infant carriers and the boys more or less walk along with me. Sometimes I will wear one of the girls in an Ergo so I have actual room in the cart for groceries. I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do when they don't fit in the infant carriers as it will be much harder to take them and set one down to do anything with one hand. I may have to do my shopping at night when I can leave them home!

I guess back to the whole pregnancy/delivery thing... I was actually seeing a midwife until we found out they were twins. In my state they can't deliver multiples so then I had to go to an OB. I hated that and was so pissed that they automatically considered me high risk just because there were two of them. They were in separate sacks otherwise I would have had to go to Seattle to deliver.
I was required to deliver in the operating room, but from the time my water broke to deliver was just barely over and hour and a half and we were at the hospital barely 45 minutes before delivery. They were 7 minutes apart and he was pushing on my stomach to get the second one out fast before there were complications. I guess I should be thankful for that part. I'm still not thankful for the fact that he forced me to have pitocin after they were born, which I'm convinced caused me to have a huge clot and hemorrhage. I lost half my blood. Thankfully I had really good numbers going in so I didn't have to have a transfusion, but I literally was white as a sheet for a couple weeks. Pitocin is supposed to help your uterus contract faster as it's more stretched out with twins (and a third pregnancy), but it also has a side effect of clots and I know that my blood clots easily anyway. I suppose it could go either way, but I never had an issue with my uterus contracting with either of my previous pregnancies so it's just suspicious to me. Plus the fact that out of 5 babies the same thing happened to my best friend with the one time they gave her pitocin. So just be careful if they want to give you that.

I hope this is helpful to you, please ask me any more questions you want!

[kricket24]

Klynn - Thanks soo much for the info on pitocin. That's very helpful. I knew I didn't want it and never have had it but this gives me another thing to look out for.

I'm currently recovering from my egg retrieval. My transfer will be this coming Sunday and DH and I have decided to transfer two embryos. After all we've been through with this process I would rather take a chance of having twins than be heartbroken with a negative. I've been reading and praying LOT and I feel like if I do get pregnant with twins I'll be ok.

I'm sure I'll be back here with questions for all if you!

[beckstar]

i dont think a twin pregnancy should automatically be considered high risk and really disliked that aspect of being pregnant with our girls. we found out at 6weeks that there were two, spontaneously conceived, and a bit of a shocker since we weren't officially ttc...well, maybe i was...haha but it was still on the table for discussion whether or not to try for #4...then we ended up with #s 4 AND 5...

but anyways. my pregnancy was healthy and while it is definitely different to be pg with twins...and harder...it's not impossible and really quite magical. our birth went well, they were both born at home, both breech. i learned a lot about birth and pregnancy with my twin pg and am very grateful for the experience. it's just so special.

i would love another set of twins for the joy and wonder and pure adorableness...tho, it's a LOT of work having so many under 5...i think your benefit is having your other children be older. they can help out with grabbing diapers or snacks or whatever.

my youngest at the time the twins were born wasn't even 2yo yet so we were pretty crazy busy for the first months. we are still breastfeeding and cloth diapering the twins who are nearly 2 now! i finally feel like we are out of the weeds...tho we did end up hiring a nanny and a maid in the beginning....now we're down to two nanny days a week and the maid still cleans once a week...just be ready to ask for lots and lots of help.

i hope you get everything your heart desires. cant wait to hear how it goes!

[kricket24]

Originally Posted by Free Thinker It's common knowledge, you can find books on twin pregnancies in the library. I wouldn't want you to romanticize twin pregnancy or having twins. It's hard on the entire family, not just you. So, make sure you know what you are doing. If you've had other healthy pregnancies, and your problem isn't actually getting PG, I would transfer just one. If you have problems w/ babies sticking, I could see transfering 2, just know tha tyou could end up w/ twins or triplets! Best of luck no matter what you decide.

Thank you for your honest post. I have PCOS/ovulatory dysfunction as well as low progesterone. I don't believe there are any problems with my uterus but I can't say for certain. So far everything looks good. I appreciate you sharing what you went through with your twin pregnancy. Of course I've checked out lots of books on multiple birth and actually owned a few up until I miscarried my ID twins and gave them away. Healthy babies and mom is the ideal outcome but it makes sense that it wouldn't be all unicorns and skittles the whole way. I think over the last few months reality has definitely had time to settle in. I've thought about so many different scenarios and possible outcomes if we did indeed have twins. Such as, what if they split and we end up with trips or quads, what if one or both has a serious mental or physical handicap, what if we have pre-term labor, NICU time, what if they're both extremely challenging and I can't get them on a schedule, what if they have colic or reflux or TTTS, what if we lose one in utero? I've about driven myself mad. Then eventually I realized I don't have control over any of it. I have to rely on my God to carry me through those times if something happens. I want to be smart about this, no doubt. You can ask anyone that knows me, I dream, yes but I'm also very well grounded and realistic. One thing I'm very confident about is the help and support of my husband and boys. My 9 year old is very helpful and mature (most days) and my 3 year old can't wait to be a big brother and I seriously forget he's only 3. My husband will do anything I ask him to and is unconditionally supportive. He actually made Thanksgiving dinner by himself this year. He also took care of all the cleanup because I was still recovering from my egg retrieval. I know if I were put on bed rest it would be tough but we'd manage. The thing about the IVF, this is our one and only shot. After this, I have no idea how long it would be before we could start trying again (with help I mean, because I just don't get pregnant on my own). So even considering all the what-ifs, I still can't stand the thought of not giving this the best chance of working the first time, twins or no. I didn't force this decision, my husband and I have talked at length about the whole thing. For a while we were just going to transfer one because we were worried about ID twins again. Then somewhere along the way he read about it and came to me saying he wanted us to transfer two after all. His reasoning was that he didn't want to see me crushed if this didn't work and that he trusted that God wouldn't give us more than we could handle.

[Traysee]

I had my twins by IUI. My infertility was because of PCOS and my husband has low sperm count too.

My situation was different than yours. You already had two successful pregnancies. Your body knows how to do all this. You know you can carry and how your body reacts to being pregnant.

We TTC for 2 years and going thru infertility DH and I both wanted twins because I didn't want to go thru the infertility process more than once. If you haven't done it, it's very time consuming, pretty invasive, can be expensive if insurance doesn't cover it. The drugs increase your risks of cancer. I knew I wanted at least two children and for me twins was the easier and faster way to get there. I had so many follicles they asked me a few times how I felt about having multiples. I couldn't imagine even being lucky enough to get PG, much less to be blessed with multiples. In my heart I knew that I would not reduce from triplets to twins. Quads would have given me a really hard decision. At that time in my life I don't know that I could have reduced even with quads. My sister has twins who are now 10 years old, I *thought* I knew what I was getting into since she lives 3 blocks away. I had no clue. LOL

It was a 3 year journey for me to get pregnant and hold my babies in my arms. Pregnancy was hard but I got thru it. I had a shortened cervix, bed rest at 24 weeks, GD, Pre-E and a TON of doctor appointments, basically like once a week the entire pregnancy. I know some people have "easy" twin pregnancies. But I think more often than not it is harder and should always be treated as high risk. I don't see why anyone would opt for less prenatal care and risk your babies and your own health. No one has a magic ball to see the future. If you are eligible for more extensive care, take it. I was planning on a c-section from the beginning and ended up having to have one for pre-E anyway. My sister had hers natural. You get what you get. I would just say if you end up getting PG with twins you treat yourself as high risk. You don't over do it. The second half of pregnancy gets hard. The last few weeks are brutal. I think prenatal care if KEY to having a healthy pregnancy.

My girls are 18 months now and it is VERY hard (for me). I went from no kids to twins and it has been difficult. I have little to no help. My husband works 16 hours a day, 5-6 days a week. Everything is easier if you have help. ) Doing it virtually alone is really hard on me, but I wouldn't trade it for anything.
Statistically they say about 50% of people who seek IF treatments end up with multiples. But the risks of higher number multiples quads and up is still pretty low. You have already made you decision so this is all moot anyway. But in your situation... since you pretty much know what you are getting into, I would also have transfered two. Whatever will be will be )

So... how soon will you know if they stuck?

[dvansmom]

Ill make this quick. I have 12 month old twins and a four year old. My twins were natural. I thank god everyday for them. They are a ton of work but I get to watch them grow together. The love for my kids is unreal. I want a fourth. Hubby says no way

My beautiful family