Doc wants me to gain 50 pounds!

I have a question that I am curious to see if any one else was told. My doctor told me that she wants me to gain around 45-50 pounds this pregnancy and she wants me to gain most of that before 20 weeks. (I am guessing around 30 lbs.)
She said that research done shows that the more weight gained in the first half of pregnancy with twins can help in a healthy and full term pregnancy. I am already at high risk for PTL due to having two uterus'. When my husband asked how to gain that much weight, she said "milkshakes, anything"

what do you guys think?

 

I asked my doc about this just today. That weight recommendation is what is discussed in Dr. Luke's book. He told me that was an old recommendation and that I was right on track for weight. I've gained 12 pounds by 20 weeks.

 

My doctor at my 12 week when we found out it was twins, said that I'll probably gain 60 pounds.. YIKES! But he gave no strict "'you must gain so much"

By I have gained a little less than 25 pounds here in week 29..

 

My doctor suggested that I gain 35 - 45 lbs in total for this pregnancy. She's not concerned about how much I gain by what point ... her only concern is that the babies are growing accordingly and measuring where they should be (which they are!).

I started out at 5'6 and 120 lbs and have gained almost 30 lbs to date. I also have Dr. Luke's book and know she recommends close to what your doctor suggested. It's funny how doctors still have different opinions in regards to weight gain in twin pregnancies. Best wishes!

 

From what I understand, if you can gain 24 pounds by 24 weeks it greatly reduces the amount of pregnancy complications. You don't have to go insane and eat like a horse out of the trough, but have seconds with lunch and dinner, go for 2% or whole not skim. The little things. Also Ensure was a lifesaver while I was pregnant with the boys. It was so much easier to drink my calories than eat them many days because I had no appetite.

 

I think it partly has to do with how much you normally weigh. It's not a "one-size-fits-all" kind of thing. If you are average weight for your height, then yes that's a good goal. I don't think you should eat just anything, though. Focus on lots of protein and don't just pig out on cake and ice-cream all the time (although once in a while is fine). I made sure to gain a lot of weight, especially in the beginning and ended up with a gain of 55 pounds. I lost a set of twins previously due to TTTS and wanted to make sure that my diet would be the best possible. I also thought it might help with nursing, although that's a whole other story. It makes a lot of sense that if twins aren't getting enough nourishment then they may decide it's better to try to survive on the outside and often will try to come early. I drank lots of protein shakes which I think really helped.

I truly believe my weight gain affected the girls' weights. My singleton at 40+ weeks was 7 lbs. 1/2 oz. My twins, at 37 weeks, were 7 lbs. 0.4 oz. and 6 lbs. 6 oz.

Congratulations on your twins!

 

I had the same question when I first got pregnant. I've heard many different opinions but when I researched other twin moms experiences I found many of them were very much for gaining as much healthy weight as possible in the first 20 weeks. It seemed the consensus was about 25 pounds by 20 weeks. I gained 30 pounds by that time. My son was born at 24 weeks (had a long NICU stay but is great now) so I want to do all that I can to give these babies a good chance if they are born early. I figure as long as I'm not over doing it with the sugar it can't hurt. I'm 5'4 and started out at 120lbs and now at almost 27 weeks I'm 168. Honestly I'm not sure I had much of a choice because I've been starving since day one! It has been crazy to watch the scale jump so quickly but I'm doing well and my babies are good sizes.

I ended up in the hospital at 20 weeks for PTL and have had four or five nutritionists contact me from the different agencies (Matria for monitoring my contractions, Cigna, hospital nutritionist, Dr.'s nutritionist) and all of them have been really happy with my weight gain. Just make sure you eat a lot of protien which will help with their lung development. Anyway, I would go with what your Dr. tells you.

 

Well then I'm in serious trouble.
So far I have lost about 13lbs, gained 1 and lost it. I fear I may gain nothing, but I am quite um what is the word, well padded anyway.

 

My peri suggested gaining 35-45 pounds total, not any amount specifically by 20 weeks. I really tried to gain a lot before 20 weeks, but I just couldn't do it. There's only so much I could eat before the indigestion got me. But my girls were always measuring at around the 50th percentile for their gestation, and they were born at 31 weeks but in about the 50th percentile for that gestation.

I did end up gaining a total of 42 pounds, and had a devil of a time getting rid of it.

 

I did read guidelines on the March of Dimes website and it says that for twins the recommended weight gain is 35-45lbs and I believe it is 10lbs less if you are overweight according to your BMI. My doc didn't give me any weight guidelines. He just told me twin pregnancies are completely different that singletons and not to worry about it. He did tell me we would have to have a talk if I was gaining an outrageous amount between each appt ie 20lbs. I started off this pregnancy about 30 lbs overweight so maybe that is why they didn't tell me a certain amount to gain. I am almost 24 weeks and have gained 12-13 lbs so far which at my last appt the doc said that was fine.

 

I told my doc about the 24lbs by 24 weeks and she said she would consider that a lot for somebody my size. I am 5'9", and have a healthy weight (size 10). In the end I "only" gained 43lbs (of which 13 in the last 3 weeks, mainly fluids) in 38 weeks and delivered 15 1/2 lbs baby. I was back at pre-pregnancy weight a week later.

 

My Dr wanted 20+ by 24 weeks...esp. since I was thin and High Risk. Heavy on Protein to help weight gain for the babies- we knew they would be early so the more they weighed the better....I gained about 18 by 24 and then 38 by 31...(delivered) Some of it was water weight toward the end.

It depends on how High Risk you are, what you normally weight, and the size of your twinkies!

Good luck and eat eat eat....I didn't really gain much until I got past the morning sickness phase.

 

My OB suggested 35-45 lbs. I have gained 11.5 so far at 26 weeks. They are not concerned at all. The babies are at the 50th percentile size wise.

 

I also am "well padded" and had only lost weight by 20 weeks. I had gained 15 by the end. (Had two perfectly healthy full term babies).

I tried all I could to gain weight. DIdn't happen.

 

My Dr. said around 50 pounds too. I've gained about 17 pounds so far at 21 weeks. I haven't gained anything in the past 3 weeks which is weird to me, because I've definitely been eating! It just seems like growing 2 babies takes all of those calories away or something. I'm trying to follow the basic guidelines in the Dr. Luke book. I do agree with a lot of what she says about a lot of protein and good fats (ok, I had 2 twinkies yesterday also )

 

Ive gained 20lbs so far and im 5'9 starting pre-prego weight at 194. dr hasnt said anything, but my goal is a pound a weeks so im doing pretty good. I have also heard that if u gain them early better for babies good luck!!!

 

My ob told me the exact same thing and once I got over my ickiness in my first trimester, it was a piece of cake (in order to keep the ickiness away I found that eating often helped)! I drank Ensure pretty much throughout my pg for the added protein, but I did allow myself a Whopper and milkshake once a week to pack on some extra pounds too...Good luck!!