Introduce yourself!

Looks like it is now my turn to introduce myself. My name is Clare and two weeks ago at our NT scan DH and I found out we are expecting twins!!!! We have 1 daughter, Shayla, already who is almost 15 months. The twins due date is Jan 10th.

The dude doing the sacn told us that it look as though I have dropped 2 eggs as there are 2 sacs and 2 placentas. There are no twins on my side that we are aware of (my mum is adopted so we don't know anything about her side). DH's grandma had four sets of twins (OMG).

I have been getting stitch type pains on and off in my left side today. I am assuming they are stretching pains but if they last too long will be going to the dr.

My next appointment is 25th of this month and my morph scan is 18th August. I can't wait to see them kicking and everything again. It is so fascinating.

I look forward to hearing everyones stories as they go through their pregnancies.

Clare

OMG Clare that is amazing news, congrats and hope things stay good, good luck for a H&H pg.

Best wishes Michelle

HI Clare and welcome to the wonderous world of the multiple mum!!! doubly blessed, doubly loved

Just popping in to give a HUGE congratulations to Tiff and Clare on the news of their twins!! :D \:D/

monochrionic, bioamniotic twins, can I ask what this is please? Just curious

Hi Nadia, Monochrionic, means one egg ( so Identicle twins), or in the terms of presentation one chrion ( like an egg shell, the thick "outer sack" of the uterus) and Biamniotic( or diamniotic)means two amnionic sacks ( like a double yoker egg, the thin "inner sack" of the uterus)
Means the babies are identicle,but have their own sacks, but separated by only a very fine "onion thin" membrane

My DH describes it as the same house, separate bedrooms, unlike fraternal twins, that have their own houses!!!

Hi Clare! Congratulations, that's so exciting!

Looking forward to following all these other twins pregnancies.

Lol Vanita at Chris' explanation of the chorion/amnion thing.

Read on the ozmid list today about a lovely homebirth of twins 5 hours apart. I got all excited because the midwife spoke of one placenta, but it turns out they were non-identical. Looked like one placenta, didn't look fused, but the membranes were really thick (ie would have been 4 layers instead of 2). The sonographer must not have been able to tell with with the T sign/lamda sign thing.

hi all
clare I had the same stitch pain from about 10 weeks onwards. They were braxton hicks, and apparently they can start that warly with twins. I felt my two flutter around the same time as I started getting the stitch like pain. I would have to sit till it subsided and then start up again- the fun carrying twins hey!!
Congrats on your second set tiff. Apparently my SIL who has two sets reckons that the second set are a breeze compared to the first as she had everything down pat and knew what to do when they both acted up. She reckons that the first set were her practice set, so the second set are her main performance. LOL she assures me that she is not going to try for a third set.

Also congrats to those that I haven't said congrats to. Welcome to the club of double love!!!

My advice to you all would be to join your local multiple birth assoc. They are my sanity savers. The ones that tell me that what i am feeling and going through is normal and that i am not going loopy!!!!
There is always some one where that has been through a similar thing and having twins is definately not the same as having just one baby!!!

anyway if you guys have any questions etc. just fire away.
take care and enjoy the sleep whilst you can!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

odette
mum to ariel and immogen (5/12/2002))

Hi .. do you mind if I join you guys?

I am Fiona, and I have 3 children ... Gabi (who is 3) and Caleb and Declan who are 15 months.

Gabi was a fraternal twin, we lost her sister (we are not sure on the ender, but I just have that feeling she was a girl) at 10 1/2 weeks

Caleb and Declan are identical .. monoamniotic .. they were classed as this purely because they tore the membrane between them at 35 weeks.. I ended up delivering vaginally, labour being 2 hours, and they were 6 minutes apart. Caleb was head down and in position from 25 weeks, and I had lots of pre-term labour scares with them, starting from 29 weeks, but they lasted till 35 1/2 weeks. Declan spent most of the pregnancy turning in circles, seeming to prefer transverse position, but luckily decided to turn head down when Caleb left 'the building'.

Caleb was 6 pound 9 and 18 inches, Declan was 5 pund 9 1/2 and 17 1/2 inches. Was very lucky, they went straight into the room with me .. ended up spending 10 days in hospital though, Jaundice for both the boys, and weight gain issues (due to the fact my milk didn't come in until day 10) .. looking at them now .. you would never know!

Fiona

Fiona, you are very welcome to come and chat, we multiple mums, seem to by "multiplying"..... LOl Its wonderful to see how well they thrive despite being little hey!!!!

Woo hoo! It's all happening in here now.

Big welcome Fiona. Great to see more of us turning up here.

I'm off to change a pooy nappy now, will be back soon to ask lots of questions.

Ta Vanita, good description by you and DH!

Not long to go now honey, good luck!!!!!! O:)

Hi Fiona

How exciting, so many more twin mummies!!!!

Yvette, how are you going??? Any more recent news???

Hi Tam & everyone. Must update website again. Scan yesterday. All's well. Twin A is 4lb & twin B is 5lb. 20% weight difference is borderline for concern, but as they're both growing really well & fluids etc all ok, not too worried.

I'm enormous & tired & my legs ache & I can't walk too far or very fast, but still nice & healthy.

Babies are top & tail both sort of sideways still, & wiggling around heaps.

How's everyone else?

Wow Yvette, it really does sound as though things are moving along well. I just hope that I can carry as good as you have.

My turn??

My name is Jo, slave to Jack, 2 and a bit years. And found out on Wednesday at our 6.5wk scan that we are expecting twins. After the initial OMG shock, things have settled down. WE are due between Feb 24 - March 4. I can't make head or tail about the EDD as going by the sonographer I was 6 wks and 4 days on Wednesday, yet the first day of my last Af was May 20th which makes me 8 weeks today? Can anyone shed some light on this?

Cheers all!

Jo

I always thought that sonographers edd was establisehed by the size of the babies

Hi Clare. I was thinking the same as you. They go by size not last AF.

Jo good to have you in here

congrats JOJO!

i always thought that dates were taken on your cycle, not on the size dates of the babies. They base those sizes on singletons, so theere is every possibility that they will not match the dates you are pg. Especially as they can both grow at different rates. By the 31st week of my pg, my twin A was 29 week size and my twin B was 33 weeks. So go figure.

how have you found the twin pg compared to your singleton?
good luck and welcome to a very special club.
keep well and rested- LOLO
remember you are never given more than you can handle

if you want to ask anything just go ahead no matter how big or small

take care
odette
mum to Ariel and Immogen 5/12/02

WOW! COngrats Jo and what amazing news. I too would think that they would need to use a different database for comparison of twin size to age, cos they have much less room and share 1 mummy, they must grow differently. Did you get any info on them, like are they identical, do they share a placenta etc.

Hope you have a H&H pg
Best wishes Michelle

I knew I forgot something!

It's very confusing about dates! I have an appt next week with my doc, so I will see if he can shed some light!

Details!

Both have a very steady regular heartbeat of 153. One is 0.78 and the other is 0.73, it's interesting that Jack at the same stage was smaller.

They are not identical as they are from two different embryos, it's an IVF pregnancy, we always transferred two embryos at a time to increase our chances of having a baby, NOT to increase our chances of haveing twins (in case you were wondering) This attempt was our 4th go, I was pg on the 2nd & 3rd go , but the pg were not viable.

I didn't have any symptoms with Jack, just a little nausea in the evenings cooking dinner. This time around, I seem to be forever on the loo, sometimes getting up twice during the night. (Normally I never get up in the night) I've had more nausea suring the day but have not been actually sick. I don't mind the nausea as it reassures me that I'm still pg. And lastly my boobs were really tender in the begining but have eased off now. So I think I have been let off lightly. I am a bit surprised about the lack of symptoms, but I guess I have a lot compared with the pg with Jack.

I am wondering what kind of car you all drive! Well actually DH is! We have only just got anew car last October, it's a FOrd Escape, but DH is unsure if we are going to get 3 carseats in the back?? I told him he was a bit ahead of himself atm!!!

Jo-
terrific news that both babies are doing well.

We have 4 kids so we drive a Kia Carnival, and it is good. We have had the 2 babyseats in the 2 middle seats, which are single seats, but that would leave your ds in the back seat by himself. I guess you need to test it out and see how it goes with 3 seats across the back. We had a ford eb and had a booster and a carseat and it fitted but was a squeeze.

Cheers Michelle

When my twins were little we only had them, then when the next came along we hads the twins in boosters ( so 2 boosters and 1 car seat) and that was a ford fairlane. We are expecting #4 any day now, and have a Kia carnival ( heaps of room)

Welcome, to the multiplicity of life !!!!
CONGRATULATIONS to the new twins mummies to be!!!

I think it really would depend which sort of seat you were using, we have a wide sort of seat and a skinnier seat, so the brand may make a difference.
Cheers Michelle

Congrats!! =D>

I have a commodore station wagon .. and with the 'skinny' car seats (I thinkthey are called compaq, we can just get all 3 in! Before I got prego with the boys .. I had a suzuki swift ... was really sad to give it up!

Tam I'm sure you'll do great!

Jo, welcome. And big congratulations on expecting twins. It's so exciting finding out isn't it. I can't be any help re the dates sorry, mine have always been from lmp. Size of bubs will not always match exactly, but goes up & down all over the place throughout the pg, so I'd pay more attention to the cycle dates I reckon.

Hi again Fiona. I was going to ask you about Caleb & Declan. (as mine are also identical). Did you have lots of monitoring with the size difference? Was there any TTTS? Were they worried about the membrane being torn? Do you have your birth stories posted anywhere I can read them? 10 days for milk, that must have been hard. So you breastfed? Did they share a placenta? There's a really good book I've been reading called Having Twins by Elizabeth Noble, and it has a section about lost twins (re Gabi). I'm borrowing the book & I think I'll have to actually buy myself a copy for future reference, as the few I found in the library were crap, lol.

Hi again Clare. How's things going with you?

Hi Odette, haven't seen you around for a while.

Kelly, we need Tam, Jo, Clare & Fiona added up the top. (Is that everybody, lol?)

I gave the website address to some other twins mums at an AMBA morning tea yesterday too, he he. There was a mum there with triplets too.

My babies are 4lb 9oz & 5lb 12oz now, and since this morning I'm back on weekly u/s and twice weekly CTGs. All ok and they're growing well, just got to keep an eye on them.

Me Me!!! Count me in too!!

Yvette, WOW girl, you must be getting close. How are you feeling?

hi all
still here, just not much to say. I am soo boring!!!!
lolo

congrats on getting to 33 weeks Yvette. Their sizes are so good!! Not long to go until you reach the magic 36 week mark.!!
Have you got a plan about inducing you etc..?? You must be sooo sick on being pg and carrying all that weight.lolol I only got to 31 weeks and I was soo over feeling so sick. Ah well its all worth it
Don't have any experience at TTTS as mine are fraternal, although a friend of mine did. Apparently there is a hospital in Brisbane that are world leaders in TTTS and they do the laser surgery etc. Might be worth looking at their website. Even if you just type in TTTS and AU search, you should be able to find something

as for me, same old same old. Kids are doing great, although fighting a bug etc. they are just outta sorts, but then again its full moon!!!!!

Nothing new to report.
Twinpower to all lolol
odette
mum to Ariel and Immogen 5/12/2002
p.s just starting to find life after having twins now - i can start to see the light!! rock on 3yold kinder next year

OMG girls..... I know this forum has been busy but geeze !!!!!! LMAO Okay we all know BellyBelly is a fertile place but someone please tell me not to drink the water or I might find myself in here too ;)

Congratulations to all of you !! I am going to keep up in here now so I can read how you are all getting along ;)


Love

Congrats all mums with twins!! :D

Please reply to this post with the following details and I'll add you to the first post for you:

Name:
Location:
Conceived:
Gestation:
Names & Ages:
Notes: (e.g. bioamniotic etc)

Tiff, Jo, Odette and Clare - your details are now all added! :)

Clare - OMG at your DH's grandma having 4 sets of twins!! :-s

Thanks Nel!

Name: Fiona (twinmumplus1 on BB)
Location: Hobart, Tasmania
Conceived: both sets naturally
Gestation: 1st set lost one baby at 10 weeks, second set made it till 35 1/2 weeks
Names & Ages: Gabi is 3, Caleb and Declan are almost 16 months
Notes: (e.g. bioamniotic etc) Gabi was a fraternal twin, the boys were identical (monochromic .. classed as monoamniotic at the end .. they tore a small whole in the seperating membrane)

Tam and Fiona, you both are all added :D

So we have 5 mums pregnant with twins now & 5 with twins already, with 9 of us all together as Tiff is pg with her second set. Me, Tiff, Clare, Tam & Jo all pg, & Tiff, Vanita, Justine, Odette & Fiona with twins already.

Is everyone involved with AMBA? We’re just getting started with them & I think it will be a really good thing. Have been to a morning tea & an antenatal night, & getting the Duette newsletter.

Fiona I asked you some questions in my last post about placenta, size difference etc as your boys are identical too.

Vanita I see you’ve updated your avatar since Dion arrived, nice outfit.

Odette, my plan re inducing is not to be, lol. If I get to 38 weeks, I’ll keep hanging on & just watch the bubs even more closely. We discussed a possible trip to Brissy if TTTS developed early in the pg, but now that I’ve come this far, if it did develop now we’d just get them born.

I’ve noted happily too reading back through these posts, that my babies should have their sucking reflex by now, woo hoo!

Had another scan yesterday,
Baby A 2326 g or 5lb 2oz,
Baby B 3068 g or 6lb 12oz.

So in 5 days little one has only put on a few grams, & is just over 50th percentile growth rate now, but big one is off the scale. Still, all fluids, cord blood flow etc all fine. If TTTS developed now they would just get the babies born and they'd be fine anyway, so not really worried, other than it could interfere with my natural birth plans if we had to get it happening, but fine for now & another scan Wed next week.

AND, for most of the scan babies were both head down!!! I was thrilled, but then one moved back to transverse by the end of the scan. Goes to show they've still got plenty of mobility though, so looking good.

We picked up our twin stroller yesterday & assembled it, and it has the big girls dolls in it, a baby born and a smaller one. I was holding the dolls on my tummy to show their positions, and they're about the size of my babies, & I can't believe they both fit in there & can still move around so much, he he. We picked a Roger Armstrong one again, the cheapest, lightest & easiest to fold. Has enormous pump up tires though, but otherwise similar to Angus’ stroller.

I got a brace thing from the physio yesterday too. It's basically just a piece of elastic that goes around my hips like a belt. It feels great when I'm standing up, but I can't sit down or sleep in it, so basically it's useless! I'm not supposed to walk much now anyway.

My rib pain has eased a bit though, maybe since the babies moved.

Website is updated again Tam, just need to take a new belly pic today.

So Tiff, Clare, Tam & Jo, you’re all due pretty close together. Will have to cruise the belly buddies threads & keep an eye on you all.

Oh, and Clare I was thinking, it’s probably still a possibility yours are identical even though sep sacs & placentas. If they’re the same gender you might not find out for sure til after birth?

Yvette, looks like you are travelling along nicely. The girls are a good size too. Just going to check out the web now.

Twin / Multiple Mum Summary

Name: Miky
Location: Melbourne
Conceived: october 04
Gestation: 31.4 weeks
Names & Ages: Cate and Milla 91/2 weeks
Notes: (e.g. bioamniotic etc) Fraternal but extremely alike

Yvette - Everything sounds so easy when someone else is leading the way LOL I should have no problems at the end of my time, I think I'm last? A girlfriend up in sydney has told me to join AMBA, which i will, but won't be able to get to any meetings. I think there are a few twin mums in town so hopefully will bump into them someday, I know two by sight only though!
8-[ 8-[ 8-[ WOW WOW WOW, Twin B is BIGGER than what Jack was when born 8-[ 8-[ 8-[ i'm getting a bit worried now, what happens if both mine are 9 pounders *ouch* LOL!

Miky - Welcome aboard!

Welcome Miky! Your babies are only 9 1/2 weeks? I hope you'll tell us all about how it's going, how are you going with feeding etc. How was the birth? What advice do you have so far?

Jo I suspect by the time you give birth there will be more twins mums behind you. Hopefully the numbers on here will grow quickly as it's a great way to stay in touch with other multiples mums. Yes twin B is growing like crazy, I'm slightly concerned about the difference now, but we'll see how they're doing on the next scan on Wed. How are you feeling? I was quite tired & getting more nauseous at that stage.

Hi Miky and welcome. I am still new to this twin thing myself. So anything that you have to shed light on would be great.

Yvette, I too have just joined AMBA. I think it will be great to chat with others who have been there.