Category: Pregnancy

Author:  Renae Foggiato

Finding out I was pregnant with twins

It was the last day of our first family holiday with our almost 1 year old boy when I found out that I was pregnant again. Right from the start everything felt different with this pregnancy, I was feeling very nauseous and extremely tired, however I just thought to myself, every pregnancy is different.

We had a dating scan at 7 weeks, and the sonographer quickly found the first baby and then he said to us ‘and there is the 2^nd one’. I remember asking him again what he said, and his reply was ‘twins’. My husband and I just kind of stared at each other. We were going to be parents of 3 kids under 2. We saw our Obstetrician at about 10 weeks and she confirmed that we were having MCDA twins.

33 weeks pregnant with twins

My pregnancy continued to progress relatively smoothly. I had an appointment with my Dr when I was 32+6 weeks. The Dr mentioned to me that my blood pressure was up a little bit but nothing to be concerned about at this stage. She just advised that if I started to feel light headed etc to go and get my blood pressure checked and then give her a call.

5 days later (33+4), I woke up not feeling the best. I took my son to a regular play group that we attended and on my way home I was talking to my husband and saying that I think I will go and get my blood pressure checked after Lucas woke up as I was feeling a bit light headed. Also I had a slight twitch in my left eye, but I didn’t think much of it, just one of my nerves being a bit funny.

Author: Natasha Stewart

You may not know this, but I was the one who actually had the idea for Twinfo and helped Naomi start it. My business, Business Jump helps lots of mums set up an online business, and whilst I am a massive fan of all the businesses we help start, I never in my wildest dreams imagined that I would become unexpectedly pregnant with twins and be one of Naomi’s biggest fans personally as well as professionally. What Naomi has done with Twinfo is just incredible and not only that, she has become a dear friend as well. 

I was one of those mums that thought twins would be my worst nightmare

Secretly, I was one of those mums that thought twins would be my worst nightmare, my first two were tough, especially my son which resulted in an awful PND journey, I naively just couldn’t fathom how multiple mums possibly could manage it and thought two babies at once would be the end of me. 

In June 2018 I very unexpectedly fell pregnant and bonded with my little baby quickly, only to lose her at 9 weeks. Realising that I actually really did want a third baby I convinced my husband and he reluctantly agreed to try again.

Finding out I was pregnant with triplets

A few months later, I was 6 weeks pregnant and convinced I was having another miscarriage, I raced down to the ultrasound place with my GP words of ‘it will be too early to see anything!!’ ringing in my ears only to discover THREE actual, live, beating, clear as day, heart beats.

I drove home with my ultrasound photo and three little heartbeats growing away in my tummy knowing that when I walked in the door my family would change forever, I videoed it and you can watch our twin journey from that day here.

At 8 weeks I noticed some bleeding again and an ultrasound later that day confirmed my triplet had left us and gone back to the spirit world. I’ve always had a belief it was my same little soul from the first miscarriage coming earth side to teach and share with me the lessons she wanted me to learn and that she is also my twins custodian.

Accepting I was having twins

Once I got to 12 weeks the numbness of the shock wore off and I realised these two little babies were here to stay, we were doing this. I was having twins. 

The real fear set in. I was so scared, the assumptions I had about twins shocked me to the core, all I could think about was how PND nearly cost me my life last time and now I was going to go through that again, but double. The guilt and shame I felt about myself as a mother was intense and all I could think about was how I am not cut out of this. 

Pretty much every day I cried to my husband, I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry. And when I was 20 weeks he said something that had a profound effect on me.

He said, you don’t have to do anything different. We love you the way you are, you are already enough to us.

The penny dropped for me that day.

You mean… I don’t have to try any harder? Or do mum life different? Or force myself to do double the craft, double the reading, double playing with toys on the mat? 

No babe. You just do everything how you’ve already been doing it, he said.

In this moment I let go of all the expectations and labels I’d confined myself in and surrendered. 

Maybe I would end up in a straight jacket, or maybe I’d be the best freaking twin mum ever.

Who knew? 

Not me. 

Managing my twin pregnancy and mindset

I managed the ups and downs like any other twin pregnancy, I was big, exhausted, tired and every day was a mindset struggle, my mantra was ‘this is simple, this is easy, this is fun’ and I repeated it over and over again. 

I still had some fears and worries pop up that I had to pat back down, but overall I had made peace with the fact that these babies had chosen me for a reason and I would honour that. 

31 weeks pregnant with twins

At 31 weeks I went into pre-labour which the hospital stopped and my babies had steroids just incase, I continuously had contractions for the next few weeks and was in and out of hospital being monitored. My gut told me they were going to come early, and fast. 

35 weeks pregnant with twins

At 35+1 as I woke up to my husband leaving for an early morning appointment. I told him to keep his phone on, as I had a funny feeling that day.

At 9pm that night, as I was walking out of the bathroom my waters broke and about an hour and a half later I was getting prepped for an emergency c-section and was already 4cm dilated.

My babies were coming early, and fast. 

Why having the twins in Special Care was the best thing for me,

We spent two weeks in special care, which I have to say was the best start for me as a twin mum with my history. I was able to go home, recover and get full nights sleep and probably because I already had two children, I was ok to leave the twins and not fret, I knew I had to be on my game not to have a PND relapse and sleep was crucial for me.

I never could have done that as a first time mum though, I would have stressed to the core about leaving them.

Life today, with 7 month old twins.

My twins are 7 months old now, and whilst we’ve had some ups and downs, I have to say, I am completely gob smacked at how different it is to what I expected. They are the happiest, smiley, content little babies I have ever known. Sure we have our moments, but overall, they have been so grounding and calming for me and I can see they were always meant to be. 

You can follow Nat on her Business Jump Facebook Page HERE. Not only does she share some great business tips, but she also shares a lot about mindset, PND and of course twins!

Twinfo provides a connection to resources, information, products and service providers who specialise in supporting multiple births at every stage of their life.

Connect with the Twinfo community via the Twinfo Website, FaceBook Page,  Facebook Group, Pinterest or via the Twinfo Instagram page.

Please note:  This story contains the loss of a twin at 37 weeks, as well as some heartbreakingly gorgeous images.

Author: Jasmine Legge

It’s been four months and I’ve only now just built up the courage to share my story.

On Valentine’s Day 2019 I got the big fat positive. I was pregnant (very mixed emotions) although my partner, Jason, and I were trying to conceive. We each had children from a previous relationship and this was our first together.

Finding out I was pregnant with twins

Fast forward 6 weeks it’s ultrasound time, the first time I’ll get to see my little peanut on the screen. As the technician scans my belly I jokingly say “there’s not two in there” to which she replies “no” phew!! I can relax now. “Oh.. I just need to do an internal quickly”. “You know how I said before there wasn’t two” she says, well my mistake congratulations. Immediately that twisty knotted up butterflies in the stomach feeling comes over me, you have got to be kidding I’m pregnant with twins.

Author: Jodi Collins

Twin pregnancy in all its glory!

I was pregnant, with two of everything, for roughly 265 days (that’s 6360 looong hours or 381,600 seemingly endless minutes) and I’m not going to lie – towards the end – I felt every, single one of them. 

I know I’m one of the lucky ones, not many multi-mammas get to bake their babes until they are well-done, but at the time, I was certain I was serving a sentence of hard time for a crime I didn’t commit.

Right from the beginning, I made a decision, not to count weeks! 

One-day-at-a-time was how I survived the third trimester with twins. My morning sickness rivalled the type of hangover only a three-day bender from waaaay back (when I had no kids and a life) could induce.

It was also how I got through the third (uggghhh) trimester.  

(Please note: This article is an overview of haemorrhoids in twin pregnancy, or triplet pregnancy, and should not replace your health care professionals advice).

Ahhh……the joys of being pregnant with twins or triplets.  Particularly the joy of haemorrhoids.  Haemorrhoids are one of the fun things that nobody mentions when talking about being pregnant with twins or triplets.

What are haemorrhoids?

Haemorrhoids (or sometimes referred to as piles) are enlarged veins in your anus and lower rectum.  The swelling makes them susceptible to irritation.  This can cause anal bleeding, painful bowel movements, anal pain and itching.  Although haemorrhoids can be painful and very unpleasant, they can be treated quite easily, and even prevented. Unfortunately, it is quite common to get haemorrhoids in twin pregnancy. And in triplet pregnancies as well.

Author:  Josie Teggeris

Let’s face it right, I never expected to be the recipient of bad news in the office of my gynaecologist. From the tender age of 21, my poor body had been subject to 10 or more laparoscopic surgeries, particularly relating to endometriosis. It somehow became the norm for my pear sized uterus to be put through this so called form of “minimal invasive surgery” every 18 or so months.

I think I was around 36 years old, where I began to consider my age for having children and that’s when I took myself to my gynaecologist to get some tests. After being told I’d need a blood test to see where I was at hormonally, this blood test would also determine whether I had enough eggs to be able to conceive.

Author: Mikaela Holmes

I have four beautiful, healthy children.  Three of them are rainbow babies, including rainbow twins.

My first pregnancy – daughter

I got pregnant with my first as soon as we started trying.  I had the perfect pregnancy, no morning sickness, no spotting, no other health issues at all.  Our daughter was born right on time at 39 + 3 weeks. 

My second pregnancy – miscarriage

When we decided to try for number 2, again I got pregnant straight away.  We told the family at 7 weeks, I had a missed miscarriage at 11 weeks but only found out at our first scan at 12 weeks.  I ended up having a D & C. 

Author:  Belinda Smith

“There’s definitely two but I think there’s three.” The sentence that changed our lives! This was how we found out we were having multiples. I was lying on the bed at the clinic for our first scan and it took the sonographer all of two minutes to say these words. The old saying ‘Your life can change in the blink of an eye’ certainly applied here. We were in complete shock, as you can imagine.  Totally floored, dumbfounded and struggling to come to terms with what our future was going to be like.

We had no idea there was more than one baby in there!

At no point leading up to this day was there even an inkling that we were having more than one baby.  This was my first pregnancy so I had no experience to draw from.  However, I was not violently ill or showing really early which are symptoms you would normally expect when carrying multiples.  I was exceedingly tired for the first six or seven weeks and then had intense headaches during week eleven and twelve.  By the time the thirteen week scan came around I was feeling really great. I even commented to my husband on the way to the scan that I was feeling so good they might not even find a baby in there!