Surviving Twin Pregnancy: Morning (and afternoon, and evening and nighttime) sickness

10 Weeks of Pregnancy - 153 Pounds

So one thing that *almost* every expectant mom gets to participate in is the dreaded morning sickness. I believe mine started around 8 weeks. It seemed worse if I got hungry, so the best thing I could do to help it, ironically, was eat. Mostly I craved comfort food: Macaroni and cheese, Ramen Noodles (beware the MSG in the seasoning!), soda, or anything with lots of carbs. When I felt sick, I ate anything of the above to keep myself sane. And when I felt well, I tried to eat extra healthily to make up for it. The worst time for me definitely was in the morning. I got into the habit of waking up and immediately boiling water to make ramen noodles. It was the only thing I could stomach, but after I ate them I felt much better. Most of the day I still felt slightly off. I think this is really the worst time of pregnancy because you are so miserable and just want to keel over on the couch and watch old episodes of Friends from the season Phoebe is pregnant with triplets while sucking on preggie pops, but you can’t because most people probably don’t even know you are pregnant yet! (Or maybe because you have several little ones running around already trying to play in the toilet water and your long-abandoned maxi pad drawer). But nevertheless, you are stuck trying to live your day to day life in an honorable fashion.
Usually, for me, it got better as the day went on, though there were a handful of days that I was quite miserable and just threw up the white flag claiming illness and sympathy from my hubby. I never actually ‘tossed my cookies’, because I HATE throwing up, and resist it with my whole being. But I probably would have felt better if I did! My heart goes out to those women who can’t quit the vomiting. But especially for you twin and multiple moms, it is VERY IMPORTANT to keep food down and get lots of nutrition and weight gain a little earlier in pregnancy because twin, triplet + buns generally don’t get as much time in the oven. Talk to your doctor if you have a hard time keeping food down on a regular basis because they can prescribe drugs to help.
Also, one thing I did find helpful was this device that I already owned because I frequently get motion sick. It’s called a ‘Reliefband’ and works on the principle of emitting a small electric pulse through a pressure point in your wrist. It worked miracles for my motion sickness when flying. Unfortunately, it was removed from over the counter sale around 2005 or so and was subject to FDA approval. There is now a new version on the market called 'ReliefBand Voyeger' that seems the same, except it is considered disposable because you cannot replace the batteries. I only once replaced the batteries in my original Reliefband in years of use, so if the new ReliefBand Voyager is as high quality, you should get many good months/years of use before it is kaput.
The Seaband works on the same premise, so you could try that too, but knowing how much pressure I had to apply to my wrist when I forgot my relief band, I’m guessing the Seaband isn’t as effective, but it's cheaper and may be worth a try for the desperate. As for my second pregnancy, I did have morning sickness, but not nearly as often, nor as intense. On the other hand, I just had a constant sense of being slightly ‘off’ that could usually be controlled with eating consistently. So I got in the habit of keeping a granola bar or healthy snack in my purse every day, which seemed to help.
Do take heart that nausea is a continued sign that you are still healthy and still pregnant! In fact, if you had a very sudden drop the severity or frequency of nausea, I would give the doc a call, just to make sure everything is ok. The dreaded morning sickness did finally dissipate and get milder for me around 15 weeks, and milder and less frequent yet around 16 and 17 weeks until it was a mere memory! Good luck getting there! Be sure to post a comment if you have any tips or tricks that worked for you!

Just an ultrasound...

Baby A 11 Weeks

Baby B 11 Weeks

We had out ultrasound on August 12 when I was 11 weeks along. I’m not a superstitious person. But 11 has been a lucky number for me. I was born in the 11th month. I wore 11 on my softball jersey. I met my future husband on the 11th. And of course, if you add 1 + 1, you get 2, which is also a pretty important number in my life! I remember being in the waiting room for the ultrasound. I had to pee to the point my bladder hurt, but that was not what was making me nervous. I was going to meet my baby. See her little heart fluttering, See her springing around in nice warm gooshy balloon of goo. At least I said a prayer that we would see those sorts of  pictures of a very healthy, normal baby. But there were a few surprises. The first surprise was the goo she squirted on my belly…it was warm! Then she put the sensor on my belly and started swooping all over, way up high, down low, side to side. She would pause for a moment with a puzzled look on her face, and then move to a different area. I couldn't make out anything on the screen except black splotches of static. After about 2-3 minutes of this, I was getting very nervous. The room was dark and she hadn't said one word, there was absolute silence. I swear I could hear the beating of my own heart. Visions of 2-headed babies danced in my head. Or perhaps no baby at all. I prayed and told myself that no matter what it was, God would not give me that which I could not bear. Just then, she took the sensor off my belly and said “Well, (note that the comma you just saw represents about a decade of purgatory in my memory) “how do you guys feel about twins?” WHEW! What a relief! I was totally flabbergasted! And thrilled! Now Mike: he looked a little stunned, but he assured me that he felt, happy, excited, and blessed, just not in the same flamboyant manner in which I was. What a realization that you need 2 cribs, 2 car seats, a double graduation party and two 529 college savings accounts. At least I already have 2 boobs, eh?

We couldn’t keep this a secret long. It was a morning appointment, and my mom knew by the time we were at lunch to look at ultrasound photos. I got out one photo and said “alright, well here’s one.” Then took out the picture of Baby B and said “And here’s the other”.  That is how we told pretty much everyone, and some of them it took a while to catch on and would accuse us of playing a prank. But we had ultrasound photos labeled “Baby A” and “Baby B” by the technician to prove it!