Twins are very different sizes - anyone else

I am 32 weeks pregnant and the baby boy is big for this time – 4.5 pounds and the baby girl is small for this time -2.14 pounds. I am going for Dopplers every other day now… and will have another growth scan in 2 weeks. If the girl has not grown a reasonable amount – the doctor thinks that we should deliver them early because he is afraid the boy is taking womb space from her sister. Has this happened to anyone? I really trust my doctor. But there is a part of me that cant believe it is better to deliver them early – even if the girl is only growing 3 ounces a week… He said another think we will do is give them a steroid shot (possibly) to speed up lung development… if anyone has/ or is in this situation and can offer some insight – that would be great.

 

My babies were discordant. The key is not that they stay exactly the same weight as the other baby but they they continue to grow on their own curve. If one tends to put on 5 ounces a week and the other 10 ounces a week it is ok as long as they continue on that pace, I hope I am making sense with my totally arbitrary numbers. There can be a time when the babies could be better on the outside if they are not getting enough to grow on from the inside. We never had a big cause for concern because my little one just always stayed little but kept on her own growing curve. She has continued this same trend in life, her and her brother have about a 30 pound difference in weight at 5 years old. Both are perfectly healthy, just different.

In regards to the question about even if she only gains 3 ounces..........when Kayla was born she was very red. It was nothing harmful to her or anything but the doc said she was most likely getting only blood at that point in my pregnancy, not nutrition and it was a good thing I delivered when I did. It is also important to know the estimations can sometimes be very far off due to how they figure it.

I had the steroid shots, there were 2 shots 24 hours apart. The general belief is that these steroids will mature the babies lungs to the equivalent of 34 weeks gestation. If your appointment is scheduled for 2 weeks and that is when they are thinking steroids, I am not sure if I would bother since you will already be 34 weeks.

Just remember, at this point the estimations can be off as much as 1 pound either way.

 

they told me that my baby A was much smaller than her sister - that's why they put me on bedrest at 30 wks and started to monitor us really close. my girls were born at 38 wks and baby A was actually larger than her sis - not by much but larger!

you are in my thoughts and prayers!!

 

ours were discordant but the peri would only become very concerned if they're growth discordance reached 14 days (ie baby A measured 22 weeks and Baby A only measured 20 weeks)...depending on the sex of the babies (I see they're b/g) it could just be genetic in that baby boys are *generally* bigger than baby girls - that said my 34 week u/s showed baby A (DS) as 5.5 lbs and baby B (DD) at 4.5 lbs...I delivered 2 weeks later and they were only 4.5 and 3.5 lbs... so the u/s could be WAY off....

 

Amy is right. Boys tend to be a bit bigger than the girls. Also, if they stay on their own growth curve, everything should be ok. Mikayla was always the small one. (still is at the 5% on the growth scale for weight), but she continued to follow her own growth curve.

Amy is also right that the ultrasounds aren't always accurate. They thought my babies were going to be 7 lbs each! Michael was 6 and Mikayla 4 and a half. When the measure they use the length of their femur, circumferance of their heads etc. Mikayla had long legs, therefore they thought she would weigh a lot more. Does that make sense?

Have a good day, and keep us posted!

Bridget

 

thanks everyone for sharing your thoughts and experiences.... next thursday is the growth scan.... so ill keep my fingers crossed until then!