Whilst the majority of women may experience what is commonly known as ‘morning sickness’, a small percentage of women develop hyperemesis gravidarum, which is a really severe form of nausea and vomiting that can last all day.
According to Standford Childrens Health the cause is unknown however it is thought to be hormone related. Unfortunately it is also more common in multiple birth pregnancies.
When you first find out you are pregnant, you wonder what your baby will sound like……the first cry, the first laugh, the first words. But then you find out you are expecting more than one baby! And the panic may set in. How will you cope with multiples or twins crying at the same time???
This isn’t an article on possible reasons why they crying at the same time – there are lots of general articles on why babies cry. This article is purely to help you cope with multiples or twins crying at the same time.
There are three basic options and it will depend on why they are crying as to which one you will use:
When you find out you are having twins, triplets or more, one of the main concerns most people have is “how will I feed them all at the same time”? Regardless of if you are breast or bottle feeding, sometimes feeding multiples separately is the more practical option.
Don’t feel bad. If you don’t like it, then don’t do it.
So many parents of twins or other multiples face a low sex drive after twins or multiples are born. Unfortunately, it can become almost the norm – it is probably rarer to find parents of newborn twins engaging in regular nookie!
If you are experiencing a low sex drive after twins, then I have some good news for you. It is very unlikely to be caused by anything serious, and with almost all couples who go through this, it will pass.
It can be incredibly frustrating for couples of newborns to try and get some adult time happening.
After a woman gives birth, it’s generally recommended that she not have intercourse for around six weeks to give her body time to heal. Many women, even if their lady-parts are feeling ok, will still appreciate the six weeks off from sex because they are pretty exhausted and can be overwhelmed right now.
But most of us would like to get back some intimacy with our partners at some stage, right? Many mothers of twins and multiples can still be reluctant to have sex after 6 months, a year, and even longer after their babies were born.
Some women have no desire, but still feel very much attracted to their partner, and want to ‘want it’.
For many couples, regular intimacy is a way of connecting beyond communication, that reminds you that you are still one being, one team. So, even though this mother wishes she had back her old libido and could connect with her partner on that level again, physically her body is not coming to the party.
Author: Jemma Lichtendonk
I went into spontaneous labour at 36+6 and had a natural monochorionic twin birth. Our boys were both head down and arrived after only 2 hours of established labour.
My husband and I had been ‘training’ for this day spiritually, physically and emotionally since we found out we were having twins at our 20 week scan. Twin pregnancy is so full on, especially being so ‘high risk’ with babies sharing a placenta, we prayed for a natural monochorionic twin birth.
On Sunday night we had a long prayer meeting with friends and committed all our fears to Jesus, it was hard, but we had to let go of what we were worried about, especially the timing of when I went into labour.
Through God’s divine intervention we were able to escape induction talks twice and thankfully, Monday morning at 36+6, less than 10 hours from releasing our fears, my waters broke in bed at 6am. I was so over the moon! We had been told to call an ambulance as soon as I went into labour. My second birth had progressed quite quickly so the hospital staff weren’t interested in mucking around this time, especially not with monochorionic twins. Despite this, I felt totally at peace and knew we had enough time. I had a relaxing shower and prayed over what was about to come!
It was so bizarre being in a delivery suite and not being in active labour, I was pretty much just walking around trying to get things started! Not much was happening, I was being looked after and intermittently monitored by a beautiful midwife who kept very calm.
I had been praying that the right people would be rostered on for our birth. And this midwife was definitely hand picked by God. At 10.30am a team of doctors came in. We had a long, serious and scary talk about the need for an epidural again. It was so hard to hear. And quite exhausting trying to respectfully listen to all the risks but also not let the fear take over. The desire of our hearts was to have a natural, intervention free birth, but everywhere we turned we were told it was just too risky and just not possible.
Should you use infant car capsules for twins or triplets or go straight into car seats? It’s always a hot topic of debate in the multiple birth community. There are definitely people who are pro capsules and then there are just as many people who think capsules are not necessary. While there is always an option to hire capsules, not all families live in an area where baby equipment hire is available, and will choose to place their multiples directly into car seats.
Author – Illiana Bell
Over 12 months of no periods, no ovulation and no pregnancies, my partner and I decided to consult a Gynaecologist at the Royal Woman’s hospital, Melbourne. After blood tests and ultrasounds everything was reported within normal range… still no periods and of course no ovulations. The gynaecologist was concerned that the Depo Provera shot I had in 2011/2012 had completely messed up my hormones.
I was put on medications to bring on a period and then another lot of medications to bring on ovulation. After finally getting a period I was still not ovulating. Finally, I got a period without medication, however they only occurred every 3 months. This left us with a really small window to try and conceive. After 12 months, what felt like a life time., we were going to try one last time on the medication. And if this round did not work a referral would be completed to an IVF clinic.
One of our resident sleep experts, Tanya Greene from Sleep Right Sleep Tight shares her sleep tips for twins, triplets or more.
I have been working with children for 15 years now, and personally am a Mum to 4 gorgeous children. I worked in Childcare before having my own family, and then gained my qualifications to help other sleep deprived families get a great night sleep. My passion is helping each individual family get through those sleepless nights and bedtime struggles.
I made the decision to help other families through their sleep struggles after having problems with our daughters sleep. She was 15 months at the time and waking approx. 5 times a night. Where we were living at the time there was no help, so I turned to an online program. We had amazing success! From this, I knew my path was to help families in similar situations as ours.
A baby’s sleep patterns are affected by what is happening throughout their bedtime. They generally look for whatever is happening at this point to be repeated throughout their night when they wake. If your twins or triplet are reliant on outside aids, dummy’s, feeds etc. in order to fall asleep, you will find that waking throughout their night, they need these to come back to get themselves back to sleep. They are what we call sleep associations.
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Our guest blogger Shannon from Project Revive and Thrive shares her experience with toilet training twins.
The only thing I like about toilet training is that I won’t have to pay for nappies anymore. As far as the how and the why go, I didn’t really do any research about toilet training.
I just knew it had to be a stress-free toilet training process. Although to be honest, I was hoping daycare would sort it out for me.
Toilet training does seem to be a high traffic topic on the mummy blogs. You’ll find constant questions like how do I train my 18 months to go to the toilet, how to toilet train boys, the guide to toilet training in a day, the secrets to the 3-day toilet training program etc.
Author: Twinfo
I couldn’t wait to be a mother. Even though I didn’t realise it was an actual term, I was really looking forward to attachment parenting. It just seemed the natural thing to do. To be honest, I didn’t realise there was really any other way to parent.
We had a fairly rough start to parenthood. When couples start thinking about having a baby, infertility never comes to mind. Unfortunately for us, it was a subject that we soon knew a lot more about than we had ever expected. Thankfully, after 8 soul destroying rounds of IVF, and one twin miscarriage along the way, we finally able to announce to the world (OK…….Facebook!) that we were having a baby! I couldn’t wait to have a water birth, delay cord clamping and respond to the beautiful newborn cry. Plus co-sleep, baby wear and breastfeed my single baby. Oh, hang on….its twins??? Really???? OK, our bedroom will only fit a queen bed, how we will all fit in there? I have three bulging discs so I won’t be able to tandem carry them, and what do I do if they are both crying??? How will I possibly breastfeed two babies at once?? Everyone is telling me I won’t be able to have a natural birth or breastfeed???