Category: Pregnancy

Author:  Amanda Munday

When we found out we were expecting twins We were overwhelmed with shock and joy. We would soon be parents of 4 under 4.

Finding out we were pregnant with twins – at 11 weeks.

Our first scan at 8 week’s only showed us one baby.

At 11 week’s after a fall & having a small bleed I presented at the ED, we had a quick bedside ultrasound with the Dr showing us one healthy baby and heartbeat, and him mistaking the second baby as my bladder!  

I laughed and asked why my bladder was moving… not expecting him to tell me “oh wow, that’s actually another baby”

Little did we know our journey was going to be far from easy.

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Author: Victoria Milner

Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that I would be a mum to twins!

I always thought as soon as I decided the time was right to have a baby, yes A BABY, yeah one, It would happen just like that. At the drop of a hat.

Finding out we were pregnant with twins

Boy had I got that wrong. It took a few years of trying to conceive, which resulted in a miscarriage at 7 weeks. As time went by we left it and said hey, it will happen when it happens or if not, then it’s not meant to be.  A few months later I was pregnant, at our first scan the only thing I remember the lady saying to us was “do twins run in the family?” shocked and speechless, we couldn’t believe it! two babies!!! it’s hard enough to get pregnant with one, right?

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Author: Belinda Smith

When I found out I was pregnant I was driving a single cab Proton Jumbuck Ute!  Great for transporting my dogs but definitely not a car you would find in the family garage!  Looking at our finances we decided we could comfortably afford something like a small SUV.  This is of course under the assumption that we were having one baby.  After the complete shock of finding out we were in fact having three babies we knew that the small SUV was not going to cut the multiple mustard!

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Author: Robynne

My journey into motherhood has not been without its challenges some of which I didn’t even realise I was facing until much later on.

I am one of the very fortunate women who has been blessed with amazing fertility. My whole family in fact. After being on the pill for nearly a decade it only took us 6 months to fall pregnant with our daughter (now 3.5 years old).

The pregnancy itself from a medical standpoint was very ordinary. There were no complications physically, she was growing perfectly! My body did amazing!

Being diagnosed with depression and anxiety while pregnant

My mental health however was declining, rapidly. It wasn’t until my husband finally said something about halfway through about my increasing outbursts and extreme mood swings did I finally realise something was wrong.

Together we booked my appointment to see the GP. I was terrified. I went alone, as that is what I wanted. Taking a deep breath I walked in and immediately burst into tears. I cried so much. I felt like I was failing my unborn daughter and my husband not to mention everyone else in my life. But she reassured me I was in the right place.

Based on the severity of my depression and anxiety a low dose of medication was decided to be the best action for both the health of myself and my baby. It helped. So much. I felt more level, I worried a little less. It helped my husband and I reconnect.

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Author: Lauren Smith

Diagnosed with unexplained infertility at the age of 27

Unexplained infertility is not something you are prepared to hear when you’re 27 years old, and have been trying to conceive for over a year. It’s not a commonly used term around friends your age. And it’s certainly not something you’ve thought you may suffer from, particularly at what is seen to be a young age to conceive. But the reality is, 1 in 6 couples will struggle with infertility and it’s a lot more common than people realise.

I was 26 years old when my husband and I starting trying for a baby. No one tells you just how stressful it actually is. At 27 I had surgery for what was thought to be endometriosis. Turns out, there was nothing wrong. This was both the best and worst thing to hear at the same time. I went from relief that I didn’t have endometriosis, to complete sadness knowing there was no reason I couldn’t conceive. And so began our fertility treatments.

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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.

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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. 

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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!

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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.

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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.  

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