Mamas with MultiplesDo you do double or triple duty through every baby stage? Having multiples has its own parenting difficulties- especially when you are trying to parent gently and naturally... please share your thoughts and questions here in your special multiples forum
If so, what were you feeling? Our CNM isn't convinved that we are having a single birth. My uterus is about a week bigger than where I am gestationally for a single birth, but that isn't enought to go by right now since it is also my second child.
Multiples run on both sides of our family, I have gained 17 lbs as of last friday (at 5 weeks). my stomach looks as though I am starting my 2nd trimester, and overall, my abdomen feel very tight and paln old very weird cokpared to #1.
At 5-6 weeks it's really hard to say. Your uterus might be about 1 week bigger because there are 2 embryos in it, or because you've already been pg and everything has already been stretched out once.
This is a very common question. Most women notice changes sooner, are in maternity sooner and grow faster in subsequent pregnancies. I'm very surprised that your CNM would suspect multiples with a 1-week variation in fundal height. Even being 4 weeks ahead in fundal height (which is a notoriously inaccurate measurement) is normal at this point for a singleton pregnancy in a mulitparous woman.
To answer your question - no, I didn't suspect multiples at all. I was not in maternity until after 20 weeks, I had moderate weight gain, etc. My fundal height was completely within the normal range until sometime after 16 weeks. At 21 weeks my CNM noted that I was on the big side, but even she did not suspect twins, based on her reaction to the results of my US. Oh, and pretty much no m/s at all with that pregnancy.
My 2nd pregnancy was a singleton pregnancy and I measured from 3-6 weeks ahead until about 33 weeks. My 3rd pregnancy was another singleton pregnancy. I was in better shape and never measured ahead, but I was sicker than I have ever been before.
I suspected even though my CNM said "no, just one." She just thought I was further along than I actually was. We found out at my first ultrasound that there were actually two.
I started wondering when I started showing at around 7 or 8 weeks.
Okay, I suspected them before conception. I just felt really, really strongly that that's the way it was going to go and I remember praying at the time and saying, basically, "You betcha, Lord! I'm up for it!" We'd had 6 pregnancy losses at that point.
Then the first HCG level came back wicked high. We did an early, early u/s and only saw the sac. But when I stared (and stared and stared) at the print out, I remember looking at two spots in that sac and telling myself, well, the baby could be there, or it could be there!
And when I went back ten days later, there were flickering lights in both places.
Gosh I laughed and cried all the way home.
>sniff<
Oh yes, I was in maternity clothes by 8 weeks. Swelled right up.
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Alaska So proud of my 7th grader and 1st graders My feedback
I made the sweater, too.
I had done one cycle of Clomid with an IUI so we had early testing doen - HCG level, u/s, etc. So we knew very early. I was showing by 8-9 weeks and wearing maternity clothes by 10 weeks.
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Christine
Proud mom of Daniel and Abigail 6/21/02
Loving wife to Hugo 9/20/98
We didn't even consider it a possibility since twins don't run in my family and we'd been told that the twins in my husband's family didn't matter because "twins can only come from the mother's family." I'm here to tell you that's a crock! Our identical twins were born on the 48th birthday of my husband's identical twin uncles.
Hey, ruralmom, when I got pg with my twins, I found out some interesting info...
identical twins are not something that runs in families. They are a chance happening.
fraternal twins can only be on the mother's side, as (as my dh says) it is the mom's decision whether to ovulate two eggs, three or one!! So, my twins are fraternal.
I NEVER suspected at all. In fact - I was so, so sick that I lost weight until around 18 weeks and was measured about 3 -4 weeks SMALLER at my 16 week check-up (just was getting into maternity clothes around 15/16 weeks) prompting my doctor to think I had my dates wrong. Boy were we surprised at 18 week to find TWO Babies. I did get big really quickly from 18 weeks though.
The odd thing is my oldest dd told me before I knew that I was pregnant that I was going to have "three baby girls all alike". Then when we found out I was pg - I kept having to tell her there was only one in there. I bled and cramped at 6 weeks and was sure I had a m/c but still was pg. So who knows - maybe it did start out as triplets. At the ultrasound when we found out it was twins - we were shocked but Melissa was very upset and kept saying "but there were supposed to be three".
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Cheryl single mama to
Melissa (8), Michael (7), Madeleine (6)
twins Megan & Maribeth (4)
I've been doing a lot of reading since we found out we were having twins. The way I have come to understand it is that the gene for monozygotic twins can come from either parent; while dizygotic twins can only come from the mother releasing two (or more) eggs in a cycle, which can be either genetic or age-related.
I was very tired, more sick than unusual but not feeling movement early or showing early.
My preschooler kept talking about there being two babies and I kept telling here there was one. My MW first measured me at 19 weeks and I measured 6 weeks ahead. That's what prompted me to get an U/S to rule out twins.
I really don't want to step on any toes, but I have to echo GoodWill's research: it's not an accepted fact at all that identical twins are genetic.
"The frequency of identical twins across the world is approximately one set per 250 births and is generally not dependent on race, heredity, age or parity (number of pregnancies). "
The above quote reflects the most commonly accepted theory -- basically that having identical twins is completely random. I understand that in your family you were blessed to have two sets of identical twins within a few generations of each other, but that's not typical.
You are correct that fraternal twinning can be genetic because the tendency to hyperovulate can be passed from mother to daughter.
I guess I want to say that it doesn't reduce the specialness of having your girls born on their relatives' birthday! Just because identical twins aren't considered genetically dependent doesn't mean that a Higher Power didn't decide to connect the two
Since y'all have been in the world of twins longer than I, I will aquiesce to your experience. With my toddler-fried brain, it is possible that I mis-remembered (if that's even a word ) what I had read. I will add, though, that these are most definitely not the only twins in DH's family... they run rampantly through his family tree, seemingly through the men.
, Olivia 3, Eva 20 months
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