Just found out . . .

Hello, everyone. I found out on Tuesday that I'm having mono twins. After four healthy, low-risk pregnancies I'm quite in shock to suddenly find myself considered "high risk", with all the worries and complications that go along with that. I'm trying not to freak out too much, as I know many women have perfectly uneventful twin pregnancies, but it's harder than I thought. I live in an extremely rural area and options for the delivery are very limited. My midwife says that after 36 weeks I can deliver at my local hospital, but if I go into labor earlier than that or have complications arise she'd want me at the nearest hospital with NICU facilities, which is 2.5 hours away. My last two births were very quick and I currently have vivid images of delivering high-risk twins in the back of an ambulance.

I'm also obsessing over the possibility of bed-rest because I have no-one else to watch my other 4 kids for an extended period of time. My husband wouldn't be able to take more than a few weeks off work and neither could my SIL, who's the only family member really capable of watching my kids. Plus, SIL has three kids of her own to deal with. What am I supposed to do if I'm put in the position of choosing between the welfare of my older four and the twins? *sigh*

I know, the stress isn't helping, but up until now everything's been so simple! How did you deal with the worry in the early days of your twin pregnancies?

 

COngrats on your twins! How far along are you?

As far as worrying, I never really worried until I ended up on bedrest at 24 weeks and I only had 1 child at home and not 4. I am sure the other girls will give you lots of pointers!

 

Hi, slipper. I'm 9+4, according to my midwife. Still very much in the early days.

 

Welcome and congratulations! How old are your older children? My oldest was 7 when I was pregnant with my twins. They're fraternal, but I still spent 9 weeks on bedrest for preterm labor. She really stepped up! My husband did all the shopping and most of the laundry. He mostly bought things that were easily microwavable, sandwich items and such. Sage made lunch everyday, helped with my youngest who wasn't quite three, changed an occasional load of laundry, etc. And we actually had a lot of fun times on the bed, or gathered around the recliner. We homeschool, so that worked, but I'm guessing you're due late summer, early autumn? So your school-aged kids would be home?

As for dealing with the worry? I don't know. Just made it through somehow. When I found out we were having twins at 9 weeks, my midwife turned me over to the local twins-specialist Dr. The first thing she said to me was, "We'll be cautiously optimistic." What kind of thing is that to say to a pregnant woman??? I did end up loving that Dr. though. I had also had two miscarriages before getting pregnant with them, one of them fairly late at 14 weeks. So I was thrilled to be having twins, but totally stressed at the same time. I guess the excitement took over. Plus the insane exhaustion and horrid morning sickness didn't give me too much time to dwell on it, LOL. Goodluck! I'm sure things will go very well!

 

Hi, Dielle. Nice to meet you! I homeschool too! My oldest will be 9 in a few months and is pretty responsible, or at least easily bribed, lol. I don't trust him to keep a close enough eye on my two little ones though (4yo and almost 3). It's really the "who will chase the little ones?" question that I'm worried about. My husband works in the city 3-4 days a week, so I'm here all alone on those days. I can't really keep 2 active little boys inside all day, especially in the summer. I've never been good at making friends with other mothers, so I guess I feel pretty much like I HAVE to manage on my own. Maybe the oldest two will surprise me, though?

I feel great right now, which is probably what's giving me so much time and energy to worry, along with DH being here now to do the brunt of the child-care. Come Monday I'll probably be too sleepy after chasing kids all day to worry so much, lol. I'm really glad to have a place where I can meet some others who've been through the same thing.