Since my channel documented my twin pregnancy I felt it was only fitting that I now do the twin mom tag
Even though no one asked me to do it. I'm doing it anyways
So the first question how far along were you when you found out that you were having twins I
Found out I was having twins later than most. It's actually a cute story
When I found out I was pregnant, of course
We went to our initial OB appointment and it was super early on so they weren't gonna do an ultrasound
They put the little Doppler that listens for heartbeats on my belly
And they warned me it's super early. We may not hear a heartbeat. if that's the case. It's nothing to be worried about
So they searched and they searched and after a minute or two. We heard the little flutter of the heartbeat and
If you're pregnant right now or your mom already
I'm sure you can remember how exciting it is the first time you hear your baby's heartbeat.
There's nothing like it. It makes the whole thing real, but we only heard one heartbeat
So we were under the impression
We were only having one baby and I can remember looking at my husband as we were leaving the appointment and saying
I'm so excited
But I am a little bit sad that we're not going to be having the twins that we always hoped for quick background
I was obsessed with twins my entire life thanks to mary-kate and Ashley Olsen and all their straight-to-video movies
I always wanted twins growing up and I always wanted to be a twin
I'm still waiting for my twin stranger moment
But my mom has promised me that she did not give away his sibling anyway back to the story
So a month or so went by and I had been dreaming about my future first baby if it was a boy or a girl
What they would look like like we went to our ultrasound appointment
Expecting it to just be a normal ultrasound to see one, baby
she put the little ultrasound stick on my belly and
Immediately. We see two distinct figures and
Before we could even ask if it was twins or if it was what we thought we were looking at
She says well, there's no easy way to tell you this but you're having twins. I
immediately started bawling just tears of happiness because I
Was so excited and I was shocked and I had somehow manifested twins into my life
Which was my life goal and dream come true
So that was a long answer
The short answer is 13 weeks. I found out I was having twins. The next question is tell us about your twins
Are they fraternal or identical? I?
Have identical twin boys named Silas and Everett
They are
Two years four months right now and they are little hellions, but that wasn't the question
They are identical
My pregnancy was a mono die pregnancy, which means that they shared a placenta
But they were in two separate sexes
So it's not the highest risk of the twin pregnancies
But it is higher risk and the most common form of pregnancy is die die
which is two separate placentas two separate sacks and
since they were sharing a placenta, there's all types of risks that go along with it and I had
Lots of OB and ultrasound appointments after they discovered that I was having twins
I was going bi-weekly for the first
Trimester or two and then it turned into every single week and by the very end in my last couple weeks
I was going a couple days a week to do non-stressed tests to make sure that the babies were okay
Ultimately clearly I'm a twin mom how they turned out fine. It was just a very stressful pregnancy
I'm sure you can relate if you have a twin pregnancy in general or a
Dye or mono mono pregnancy, which is the most risky
Alright question number three, how was it carrying twins pros and cons. Oh
Man it was rough. So
Many cons. I have a video that you should watch after this
That is the difference between a one baby pregnancy and a twin pregnancy
The short version of it is the twin pregnancy was so hard. I mean double the hormones
double the
Size double the stretch. I got so many stretch marks. They were super painful
I had never been pregnant before so my belly skin had never needed to stretch and
it
stretched a lot to the point where I literally felt like my skin was going to tear and
this stretch marks were bright and huge and purple and
Sensitive to the touch. I felt super sick the whole time. Like I had the flu. I developed carpal tunnel. I
Was super swollen in my hands and feet to the point where I couldn't even fit into any of my shoes
I had to buy new shoes specifically for pregnancy. I was anemic. I was put on bed rest around 30 weeks
I had low blood sugar pelvic pain
Well, the list goes on I'll link to that video down below just go check that out afterwards
but the pro is I got two beautiful baby boys out of it while only having
Nine, torturous months being pregnant. I only had to give up sushi lunch meat wine
all the
Other things you have to give up when you're pregnant for that nine month period and I got two beautiful babies out of it
So what a great deal
Question number four. How many weeks were you when you delivered and do you have a picture? I
was 37 weeks when I delivered and
Picture I had gained 75 pounds
when I was pregnant, I was so ready to meet my new babies and
Super ready to not be pregnant anymore for all the reasons I listed in question number three question 5
What was the birth like vaginal c-section? What was the delivery? Like how much did they weigh?
And how many minutes apart I had a planned c-section. I know some twin moms
attempt to deliver vaginally and that's
Super great good for you. I
chose to do a c-section because when my doctor
Explained the risks specifically with my kind of pregnancy with the twins sharing one placenta. I
Just felt like for me the c-section was the better route
With a mono die pregnancy if you deliver vaginally it was explained to me that when the first baby comes out
The second baby can be put at risk because the first baby as they're being delivered the cord can sometimes pull on these shared
Placenta and rip it and if that placenta is ripped. That is baby B's
source of oxygen and nutrients and they could essentially suffocate if they don't
deliver fast enough afterwards
So I don't want to be in a situation where I deliver one baby and they find out that the other baby is
At risk due to a ripped placenta, and then they would have to do a c-section anyways on the second, baby
I really didn't want to be beat up
down there and on my belly, so
Planned c-section seemed like the safest route for me and baby B
And that's what I decided to do the day that I actually delivered the baby since it was a planned c-section
I knew what the birth plan was going into it. So it actually wasn't that stressful
I was just so excited to get the babies out and meet them
not only because I was excited to meet my babies but also because I had a really
rough pregnancy as I said before and I had been on bed rest for almost two months and
Was just ready to move on to the next chapter and the saying is true ignorance is bliss
I had no idea how painful a c-section
Recovery would be so there was no anxiety going into it
I was very zen
But the recovery from the c-section is pretty rough and there were a lot of things
That happened after a c-section that I was completely oblivious to I'll have to make a video on it someday
Oh
and then how much did they weigh and
How many minutes apart were they so they each weighed five and a half pounds almost on the dot?
I think it was five pounds seven ounces and five pounds nine ounces
So that was really good and they were only two minutes apart since c-section. It was pretty easy
It's just pop one out pop the other
Question six bottle or breast and how did feeding go?
Feeding was the roughest part for us by far
I tried to exclusively breastfeed at first, but they developed really really terrible reflux
so with them vomiting all the time, I just didn't have enough breast milk anymore to
supply both of the babies we ended up doing
5050 breast milk and formula and they were still vomiting all the time
It turns out that they were allergic to dairy and soy
So that really limits the formulas that you can supplement with and it also forced me to go on a complete elimination
diet an
Elimination diet is basically you cut out allergenic foods, and there's a huge list of allergy foods that you have to cut out
Basically, I ate chicken and rice
But it's what I had to do to help the boys not have such severe reflux because all those aller
Pass through your breast milk to the babies. I was pumping around the clock. I was avoiding all the foods that I loved
We eventually found a formula that worked. Well enough called Nutramigen and
We just did the 50-50 split. It was just pumping feeding pumping feeding cleaning up vomit pumping feeding cleaning up more vomit
The first year was such a struggle, but fortunately around nine months
They started growing out of their allergies and they were mostly allergy free by one year
question number seven
Are they on the same schedule or are they on separate schedules?
Same schedule as soon as I could get them on the same schedule
That is what I did and that is what I suggest you do if you are about to have twins
The newborn stage is hard because there's only so much you can do to try to get them onto the same schedule
We did what a lot of other twin parents do and you make sure that you feed them at the same time
Even if that means that you have to wake one up because the other is hungry it helps them get on to the same cadence
With us. It was a little bit harder because they both had reflux. We would feed them at the same time
but if one of them had a big vomit afterwards
We would have to feed them again and it would kind of throw things off
But around nine months old when they started growing out of their reflux
we were able to really get them on the same schedule and Sleep Train and
I
Recommend that you just sleep train and get them on the same exact cadence as soon as possible
You will feel so liberated once you do
Nothing is a loud to screw up our schedule. We live and die by our schedule
It's what you got to do with twins to guarantee that you have a break throughout the day if you're not living by a schedule
Someone's always going to be awake for the most part or your break is gonna be about this long
Right now our kids wake up at about 7 o'clock. Their naptime is at noon. They sleep until 3:00. So
That's a 3-hour chunk that I have in the the day to
Be by myself get stuff done. It's so
Rejuvenating because having two kids is very draining and then they go to bed
Strictly around 8 o'clock now. We we recently push back their bedtime
so my husband and I have our nights together again, if your twin mom watching this right now and
Your kids aren't on a schedule and you're feeling exhausted
I hope this helped you kind of see the light at the end of the tunnel if you sleep train and
Get them on the same clock
Question number 8. What do you do when both babies are crying?
Just deal with it. I don't know what else to say about this question
There are going to be times where both babies are crying and there is just nothing you can do about it
Just breathe and know that this too shall pass
one thing that really helped me out because my twins were really colicky and wanted to be held all the
Time is I had multiple boba wraps. It's a wrap that
helps you
Baby wear and it's great because when your twins are really small you can actually wear both of them in there at the same time
So if they're both being fussy, you can at least hold both of them
it kind of swaddles them over you and it keeps them at least happier if they're in a cranky mood and
Once they get a little bit bigger
you can still baby wear one of them in the boba wrap and then have both hands-free so that you can carry the other or
If only ones being fussy you carry them and you do chores or wash bottles with your free hands
baby wearing is necessary when you have twins just find a
Carrier that works for you. I just like the bow before the twins with my singleton
I use the baby bjorn because that's what he preferred
But again, the boba can hold two babies at once when they're really little so great for twins
Number nine. What is your reaction to cliche questions?
Cliche questions. Don't bother me at all
I was probably one of the annoying people asking cliche questions before I had to
So I have to give grace to people who are just interested or fascinated
Like I was as long as people are being nice and good intentioned with their questions
I will answer literally anything if you're about to have twins right now
Just leave a comment down below if you have any questions and I will happily answer them
question number two any advice for new moms of twins
So much advice, but the thing that pops into my head right off the bat is to join a twin mom group
like I said in the beginning of this video only other twin moms or moms of multiples will
Understand the struggle of having twins, especially during that first year of life
I joined one and it was helpful to meet other twin moms
You have that common bond you can ask them questions if they already have kids that are older than you about just the different stages
They can relate to your pregnancy struggles. They can give you advice on how to ease any symptoms
They can give you advice about sleep training
Feeding pretty much anything that involves twins. It's just a great resource to learn
I joined a twin mom group pretty early on and it was one of the best things I did because I
was able to make new friends who knew exactly what I was going through and
They're just a bunch of amazing strong mamas who can give you amazing advice?
who just know what you're going through and can be a
Shoulder to cry on if you need it during those really really stressful days
some of my best friends are other twin moms that I met through twin mom groups and
When I was really struggling and couldn't figure out how to do something like sleep training
It was always another twin mom who ended up giving me advice that saved my life
the other really great thing about joining a twin mom group is a lot of them have
Twin garage sales where you can sell your old twin
gear and make some cash off of it and then also in that same garage sale by
Twin items for the next stage that you're moving into from other twin moms
Buying double of anything is a lot of money. So being able to buy things in sets of two's at a youth discount is
Vital if you're on a budget
There you have it. That is my twin. Mom tag. I hope this video wasn't too long if your twin mom out there
I really hope that this helped you in some way
Please like my video and subscribe to this channel if you have not already
I upload twice a week with the goal of just helping moms out there on anything and everything
And don't forget to leave a comment below on any other topics that you would like me to cover
Thanks again so much for watching. Bye