The Difference between a twin pregnancy and a singleton one

This is all based on my recent personal experience. I am now about 6 weeks postpartum.

1st trimester-- I was twice as sick with morning sickness than usual and my tummy started poking out much sooner than any of my previous singleton pregnancies. I was unable to continue eating the nutrient dense salads and raw foods I had gotten used to eating prior to the pregnancy. I figured out that they were just too strong for my tastebuds I needed very plain food or anything I didn't have to make. I had to pretty much quit the raw meals because I couldn't make 2 meals- one for me and one for the family, the one for the family was barely making it. I did try to juice wheatgrass more often and I did keep up on the dark green leafy salads and smoothies, but I couldn't eat my previously favored dressings and I couldn't keep up making sprouted wheat crackers or breads.

2nd trimester- was not too bad. I started feeling more normal and had a couple months of good housecleaning and school teaching. I started to be asked when I was due. I decided to pretend I wasn't as big as I was or I wouldn't have gone anywhere. I was still able to exercise and funciton on a normal level. I was much itchier though and I had a lot more Braxton Hicks contractions than with my others. Not a huge difference so far although certainly different. The worry for the babies and if they are O.K. is twice what it is for a singleton. It seems so many more things can go wrong. The twins would switch positions every time I went in- twin A breech, twin B head down, etc. Worry about a c-section if both twins are not head down at time of delivery. I had an ultrasound every visit to the doc about every 3 weeks.

3rd trimester-- this is where the variance is the greatest. I got to be very slow. It was hard to get around and I was very tired. I had to quit exercising because the wieght of my pulling on my ligaments was just too uncomfortable and I realized that I'd better save my strength for sweeping and mopping the kitchen floor. I had a terrible itchy rash on my ankles, back and arms, just a couple spots on my belly. It was awful. At least it was in the winter and I could wear long sleeves. It cleared up by about 3 weeks postpartum. It was so itchy. about 35 weeks I started to swell really bad especially in my ankles. I think some of that was from being so immobile. We were remodeling our house to make room for everybody and I really didn't want to have the twins come during that awful mess so I stayed down a lot and I really swelled. I was able to cope with the bigness-- and I was humongous-- my belly was anyway- I actually gained the same amount of weight I did with my other babies mostly because of my diet I think-- anyway I could cope with the size and the being tired and itchy, but when my feet started to swell and my hands too, I knew it was going to be time to have the babies soon. About week 30-32 I found that preparing dinner on a tall barstool was very helpful. It was just hard to stand up for any length of time. I pretty much quit doing any kind of deep cleaning. We were in survival mode especially with the remodel. I usually would reach that desparate point of immobility at 37 weeks with a singleton and I would say I was there at 28 weeks, but I had a good attitude and was really looking forward to raising the babies. Fortunately, my husband picked up a lot of the slack. Then when it became almost impossible for me walk because of the pressure on my pelvis,I knew the babies would need to be born soon. My body wouldn't be able to go on much longer and it wasn't going to get any easier. Plus the babies were good sized by 32 weeks they were about 4 lbs. each and I had them at 37 weeks and 2 days and they were 6lbs 10 oz and 6 lb 11 oz which is really good size for twins. I'm only 5'2" though and that was a lot of pressure on my frame.

The Delivery-- My doctor agreed to induce me and the delivery went smoothly although I had to deliver in the operating room and I pretty much had to get an epidural to avoid a c-section. If I had to do that part over I might consider getting a midwife familiar with twins so that I wouldn't have to get the epidural, but I'm thankful I didn't have to get a c-section. So I'm not complaining much, my doctor was competent, and I had to go with what she was comfortable with and knows. I didn't feel a single contraction. Usually I feel them right after the doctor breaks my water, but not this time, maybe because the other bag of water was cushioning it. The epidural worked right away even though I asked for the smallest dose possible just enough to give me some if a c-section was necessary so that they wouldn't have to knock me out, but I didn't feel a thing, not even any pressure, just pins and needles through my legs and feet the entire time. I pushed 3 times to get the first baby out and the second one was born 5 minutes later with one push and the vacuum.

Postpartum-- The afterpains were not too bad with my motherwort tea and the red raspberry leaf tea I had taken throughout the pregnancy. I did take one dose of ibuprofen, but that was it for prescription meds. The feeling in my legs returned about 6 hours after delivery and i felt pretty good. I came home the next day with both babies and I felt like a deflated balloon. I was worried about the muscle separation in my stomach, it felt like there was a herniated muscle in the center. I felt like a bulldozer had just run through my insides and torn up everything. Fortunatly I have a book I had great success using after a diastais (muscle separation with baby #5) called Lose your Mummy Tummy and it has great exercises i write about when I have my waist back. So I started those including Kegels and I don't feel quite so torn up anymore, but I have a ways to go to get my waist back and to get my abdominal muscles back together. It took about 2 1/2 weeks for my swelling to go away. I could fit into my pants a week later, but my belly looked eformed from the diastatis. I was about 5 fingerwidths a week after delivery and am now down to 2 fingerwidths. If I was more consistent at the exercises I'm sure the diastasis would be even less, but slowly but surely I will get those closed up. I feel close to norml with everything else and have started exercising again although getting the twins on a common schedule haas been a challenge and it is harder to do things like that now.

It felt so good to not be pregnant anymore. It feels so good to be able to walk around bend over and clean the house and make dinner easily. I won't feel completely normal until my diastatis closes completely because I just know my core is fragile and I don't want to risk any further damage, but it was worth it!! It was extremely difficult with homeschooling 5 other children, remodeling the house, eating healthy, and running a household, but we made it and the babies are so adorable and wonderful. I would do it all over again although one set of twins is plenty!!