Having two sets of twins was always a big goal of mine in life
Which is kind of a dumb goal because there's only so much you can do to bring that to fruition
But somehow I willed one set into existence
I had spontaneous twins in my first pregnancy. before I even knew that I was carrying two I was
scouring the internet trying to find
Every little symptom that could be an indicator of it being twins
With all that knowledge that I gained on twin pregnancy signs and symptoms
I thought I would share it with you guys today before we get into it
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All right. Let's get into the video the first sign which you can detect as early as five weeks is elevated HCG
levels
HCG is the hormone produced by the placenta after implantation and when you are carrying multiples
You will have higher levels of HCG in your body at home pregnancy tests work by detecting this
HCG hormone and that little pink or blue line that pops up on your pregnancy test appears when enough
HCG is detected on the test different pregnancy tests have different sensitivities and how much?
HCG it needs to be detected in order to get that line to show up but a sign that you could be pregnant with multiples
Would be if you take the test just a teeny bit
early
like maybe a day early and
You still get that faint little pregnancy line?
Or if you take the pregnancy test on time and the line pops up to say that you're pregnant before the waiting period is over
Another sign of elevated hormone levels is tied to the next symptom which is excessive morning sickness
Now you can have excessive morning sickness, even when you're pregnant with one, baby
There are things like hyperemesis that are medical conditions beyond morning sickness that can land you in the hospital
But overall if you seem to have way worse morning sickness than what you're seeing your friends or family members that are pregnant
Experienced it could be assigned a twin severe fatigue is also a symptom
elevated hormone levels in pregnancy can also cause severe fatigue
So if you are just beyond tired more tired than what you see other pregnant women
Experiencing around you it could also be a sign of multiples
Fatigue is very normal in general in pregnancy
It's oftentimes related to just the elevated hormone or progesterone levels in your body
but another thing that could potentially
Be causing fatigue that actually affected me and my pregnancy and I didn't
Realize that it was causing my issues until later on in my pregnancy
But I was actually anemic or iron deficient in my pregnancy
my body was creating so much blood to support the two fetuses and
I hadn't been taking in enough iron apparently and that was for me driving a lot of my severe fatigue
Learn from my mistakes early on if you're feeling super super super tired
Like you can barely get out of bed
Call your OB they may give you a blood test to just make sure that you're not anemic
And if you are they'll just suggest an iron supplement to help put iron back into your body
The next early sign that you could be having twins is just motherly intuition or really
Female intuition cuz I kind of feel like all of us women are a little bit psychic
I just had this feeling when I was pregnant in my first pregnancy
Even though I had never been pregnant before and I didn't know what was normal for me or not normal for me
I just had this gut feeling that it was twins. Yes
I did also have a lot of the symptoms that would have pointed me to that direction, too
But I mean when you know, you know
right
I just had this indescribable gut feeling that it was multiples with my first pregnancy and then with my second pregnancy
Which did turn out to just be one, baby
I can remember people asking me before my first ultrasound appointment like oh my god
Are you so nervous that it might be twins again? And I could honestly say no like I just knew it was one, baby
I just knew it was one, baby
And it turned out to just be one, baby
Now if you're between weeks eight and twelve and still haven't had an ultrasound yet. Here are some more symptoms
That could be a sign of multiples a little bit later in the first trimester
First is the Doppler heartbeat count picks up more than one heartbeat now
This sounds like it should be a dead giveaway to twins, but it's actually not what can happen
sometimes with the Doppler is it picks up the heartbeat in the umbilical cord or
It picks up the heartbeat from a different angle kind of as an echo
So while hearing two heartbeats seems like it probably is twins
It could actually just be a false alarm
The next is measuring large for gestational age or early weight gain
Measuring large for gestational age in the first trimester would really be showing it all most women in their first trimester
Especially if it's their first pregnancy
Won't show it all but with the twin pregnancy you may show as early as nine weeks as for weight gain
twin pregnancies generally result in more weight gain during the overall pregnancy and that
Weight gain early on could be your sign of twins
Next is feeling fetal movement early on most women won't feel fetal movement until week 18 if it's their first
pregnancy and if it's a subsequent pregnancy
they may feel it too three weeks earlier if you start to feel your baby or
Baby's moving any earlier than that
It could be a sign of - however note that it's not uncommon for women to confuse early fetal movement and gas
If you're experiencing many of these symptoms early in pregnancy
Another clue that it could help to look into
Would be to see if you're just at a higher likelihood of conceiving twins to begin with I have a video that actually goes into
more detail about the odds of conceiving twins that I will link down below but just some high level signs and symptoms would be if
twins run in your family
If you're over the age of 35, if you're taller if you have a BMI of over 30
Some people just have a much higher likelihood of conceiving twins than others
So it's worth looking into if you fall into that bucket or not
If you liked this video be sure to check out some of my other videos in the description box below
I'll soon be uploading a story time video on how I knew that I was pregnant with twins
And if you are currently pregnant, I also have some prepping for baby videos that are really helpful if you're a first-time mom
See you in the next video. Bye