twin pregnancy books?

Hi - can you recommend good books on pregnancy with twins? the bookstore is full of pregnancy books, but not very many about twin pregnancy.

I am 8weeks 3 days with fraternal twins.

thanks

Lisa

 

I would love to hear about some good books too! Are they your first?

Lisa I am from Whidbey Island (up near Everett) & there are a few really good local Moms Of Multiple groups in our area. They are a GREAT place for face to face advice.

Also they are both having sales this month!!!! It is a GREAT place to get twin books, gear & other stuff. The North Seattle MOMS sale is this coming weekend (the 10th) & the Snohomish SNOMOM's Sale is n Lynnwood on the 31st.

I can give you more info if you would like! Welcome by the way. I am 22, married with a 20 month old son & we just found out a few weeks ago we are expecting twin girls!!!

 

Welcome and congrats! I would definitely take pp's advice adn go to the sale - what a great way to meet other moms/parents of multiples.

I found that the best book was Dr. Barbara Lukes book on expecting Twns, Triplets and HIgher Order Multiples.

She is the only one who focuses on the difference between carrying a single baby and more - and there are MANY differences, one of them being that multiples take a much bigger toll on your body.

I found that although I appreciated how research-based her book is, I was not able to do some of waht she mentioned; specifically eat the amount of protein (or anythng else!) She is a BIG believer in the importance of gaining a lot of weight early on, since as you get bigger there is less and less room to eat quality food, and also some greater risk of early delivery.

But she really explains what's happening and gives great suggestions about taking care of yourself (take naps, your body needs them!)

I found that most of the classic preg. books basically had nthing to say about twins, except "gain ten more pounds than a singleton"

Not to alarm you, but carrying twins is a lot more work - but then, we get TWO babies at the end!

 

Jordari - thanks for the info about that book. I saw it at the bookstore, but it looked a little overwhelming to me. I guess maybe I'll take another look at it. I just looked it up on Amazon, and the reviews all sound pretty good. But it sounds like she really does advocate gaining a lot of weight in the first trimester? that sounds hard. I'm having a hard time getting much food down - I'm pretty much living on yogurt and cereal because they are the only things that don't make me feel sick. I have lost 3 - 4 pounds, but I started out probably 20 pounds over weight, so I'm hoping that will be ok.

Kymy - thanks for the local info - but I'm not feeling quite ready to buy stuff. I'm still afraid that these two might not both stick around. I know it might be an irrational fear - but since we know about the twins so early, and you do hear stories about people losing one twin - - I guess I'm a little freaked out about it. So far the only thing I've bought with this pregnancy is a few books, and I think I'll wait until at least 12 weeks before I do anything more than buy books.

These are my first. It took us 6 tries at IVF to get here - so maybe that helps explain why I'm so scared.

 

quote:
Originally posted by SeattleLisa:

Kymy - thanks for the local info - but I'm not feeling quite ready to buy stuff. I'm still afraid that these two might not both stick around. I know it might be an irrational fear - but since we know about the twins so early, and you do hear stories about people losing one twin - - I guess I'm a little freaked out about it. So far the only thing I've bought with this pregnancy is a few books, and I think I'll wait until at least 12 weeks before I do anything more than buy books.

These are my first. It took us 6 tries at IVF to get here - so maybe that helps explain why I'm so scared.


I can understand that not wanting to buy stuff. I would still suggest contacting the MOM's group that is close to you... Most have a 3 month free membership... so there is no money or commitment. Also I know the SNOMOMS has a lot of support for newly pregnant moms, I believe they have a book library swap or something... that way instead of buying all the books you can borrow them. I know some like the SNOMOMS have a big sister program... they can match you up with another mom that was in a simular situation.

Good luck & stick babies stick!!!!

 

SeattleLisa - I absolutely hear you on the Luke book; i was overwhelmed by her food recommendations, especially as i puked my way through my first trimester - which lasted FOUR MONTHS.

I wouldn't worry about the weight at this point; eat what you can. There is no point in trying to force things down (I couldn't even LOOK at meat, poultry, vegetables or salad til i was about 20 weeks!) if you are just going to throw it up.

I also found her recipes not so helpful - or maybe it was that i was so nauseous that i couldn't bear to read about food! I had very high hopes of eating fabulously well, gaining a huge amount of weight, etc..
I did manage to gain about 22 lbs by 24 weeks, probably because in those early days i ate whatever calorie-dense food I could.

The truth is - the babies will take from your body what they need, mostly. So - I ended up not being able to even keep my vitamin down after 13 or 14 weeks, and although i felt horribly guilty, my doc basically said "I'd rather have you eat what you can and keep it down than throw everything up w/your vitamins"

But for all that - i still found the book to be the most helpful and informative about what was going on inside my body. And ESPECIALLY for giving me permission to feel completely exhausted, and to take care of myself in a way that i don't think i would have been able to - I would have tried to push things a lot more. I was very athletic to start with, and ended up hardly being able to exercise at all. I'm NOT saying this will happen to you, but learning to listen to my body's needs was one of the gifts of this pregnancy.

Good luck, and keep asking questions! (fyi, i ABSOLUTELY understand your not wanting to buy anything for a while: i know some people go out immediately and do so - i was not one of them. Just do what you can to make yourself comfortable, and somehow the weeks will pass)

 

One more thing - i practically LIVED on cereal for months. In the early days when i could eat dairy, I would also make milk shakes with milk, ice cream, and soft tofu - it's completely tasteless but adds a nice hit of protein.

When i was able to eat fruit again, i'd do the same but w/yogurt and sometimes soy milk or rice milk, a frozen banana and frozen berries, and now I add a rice protein powder (it's grainy but a good way to get soem protein in).

hope this isn't making you nauseous!

 

I didn't read all the replies, but I didn't see that anyone mentioned "Twinspiration." It is written by a twin mom. I found it to be very practical and entertaining. It will give you more of an idea what the day-to-day will be like. Dr. Luke's book is great as well, but it's more medical focused.

Hope this helps.

Randi

 

We have some links to popular twin pregnancy books here at Twinstuff at this URL:

http://www.twinstuff.com/store/catalog/index.php?cPath=39

 

I definitely second the "Twinspiration" nomination. Great, great book. Funny, very real, and super informative.

A friend gave me this book, "Twins!: Expert Advice from Two Practicing Physicians on Pregnancy, Birth, and the First Year of Life with Twins" by Connie Agnew, Alan Klein, Alan H. Klein, Jill Alison Ganon.

I really liked that one, too.

 

"Twinspiration" gets the thumbs up from me as well.

 

Randi, T_A_L_I and Amy28...that makes me so glad that you liked Twinspiration!
Thanks for saying so!

Wishing you all a happy, healthy remainder of your pregnancy and a smooth and memorable meeting with your twins!

Best and blessings-

 

I read A LOT of books during my pregnancy and the ones I liked the best are listed in the twins resources section of our website.