Identical Twins and Two Cats

About 35 weeks

Twin (or any multiple) pregnancies are not easy.  I was extremely lucky.  I went to 37 weeks with no real problems.  The babies were HUGE for twins: Kieran was 8lbs 5 oz and Angus was 7lbs 5 oz.  Part of this would be genetics (both Gus and I are around 6 ft tall) but I also contribute my successful twin pregnancy to some other factors:

1.   I was off work for my first trimester (this was due to a previous late term miscarriage).  I was ordered off work again by my obstetrician at 24 weeks pregnancy.  I am fortunate as I had a number of weeks of sick time built up but I ended up using all my sick time and even borrowing some sick time.  This means I will go back to work in the hole for sick days which sucks, but I realize I am very lucky to have all the paid time off.  I really think all that stress free rest time helped me with the pregnancy.

2.    Dr. Barbara Luke’s book “When you are expecting Twins, Triplets or Quads”. http://www.amazon.com/Youre-Expecting-Twins-Triplets-Quads/dp/0061803073/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1327267485&sr=8-1

Dr. Luke’s website is at: http://www.drbarbaraluke.com

I followed her advice which is basically to put on a lot of weight early in the pregnancy.  The reasons for this are multiples are quite often born premature so you want them as big as possible as soon as possible, and it is very difficult to eat later in the pregnancy when your belly is so full of baby.  It made sense to me though I have spoke to other moms of multiples who don’t like the advice to put on all that weight.

My obstetrician felt I was putting to much weight on too early as well but my problem with this was she had a recommended amount of weight that I should be putting on every month.   The recommendation was for every multiple pregnancy rather than looking at me as an individual.  My husband and I are both large people (6 ft + tall), the ultrasounds were showing babies in the 90+ percentile and I was feeling like crap unless I ate.  So I ignored her and started to  pack on the weight.  Sure enough, by the end of the pregnancy I was hardly gaining at all – no room for food!

3.   I took Salmon Oil supplements – I worked with a dietician to get the correct dose and I used Jamieson brand http://www.jamiesonlabs.com/en/products/prodvitamins_067.aspx which uses a wild salmon source (as opposed to farmed) and has been pharmaceutically tested for any trace of heavy metals.  Apparently omega 3’s are very important in the last trimester for the brain development.  I haven’t done a lot of research on this but intuitively it felt like the right thing to do. I just read a little blurb yesterday that women that eat two servings of fish per week during their pregnancy have healthier babies.