Anybody else pregnant with twins – or more?

[nh101andhertwinbeans]

My twins are due in May and it would be nice to have other multiple-mums-to-be to chat to!

this pushchair thing is a bit of a nightmare, isn't it? i'm still undecided, i wish i could go to a shop and try a few, but most shops don't stock many doubles...

icandy pear is back in running! Accessorize, is it easy enough to clip the car seats/ carrycots on and off? and how much does it weigh?

I've found out my friend won't take any money for her double mountain buggy, what a sweetheart. So now I just need to find a twin carrycot, preferably secondhand but given that I don't have to pay for the buggy I could cope with paying for a new one. It's nice not to have to think about it any more - the buggy thing is a minefield. It is a huge beast but as it's free, we'll cope!

Mel2005 - just looked at your profile pics as we having the great buggy debate at the moment (think i've posted on the due jan 09 thread for you actually!) and I can't believe how clear your sacs are on the scan photos?!
The line is so prominant isn't it?

Could I join? Am 10 weeks pregnant with id twins and feeling very very ill. It seems to be getting worse. Any light at the end of the tunnel? Also looked at mel2005 pics and convincing myself mine are monoamniotic as a result. Feeling pretty fragile, sorry...Have DS of 17 months too.

Hi Nellstar, welcome and sorry to hear you're feeling so awful. How do you know your twins are ID so early? I didn't get any info on that until the 12 week scan whenwe could clearly see 2 sacs but the sonographer thought there was a single placenta. I got my consultant to re-scan and he said there were two. I thought it was something that was only possible to tell for sure around those dates? Excuse my ignorance - maybe you know for sure there is only one sac?

On the sickness side, for me that went away at about 13/14 weeks, so not too far off. It seemed to be made much worse by doing too much - must be tough having a toddler to run around after. Do you get any chance to put your feet up?

Make sure to drink lots of water my lovelies I know how hard that is but do try. It really helps with morning sickness. Mine was so rough that I could only keep Guiness and Red wine down. My GP said "Just how did you get to that conclusion?" lol

Thanks gettingbigger and marslady, I had some bleeding at 6 weeks and thought I was having another m/c (had one in March) so went for an early scan at 7 weeks, and the consultant said this is going to freak you out, it's identical twins, they're sharing a placenta and are monochorionic, they think they're diamniotic but at the last scan (they scanned me again at 9 weeks) they weren't sure. They also checked and only one corpus luteum, so only one egg released. Am really hoping they aren't monoamniotic. On my scan pictures you can't see a line between them. I guess I just have to take it day by day. Little one in nursery today to give me a break - hence am on the internet. Threw up in the street yesterday, am truly fed up with it. But must hang in there I know...morning sickness started to go around this time with DS1 so feel a bit robbed that it's getting worse this time. I guess that's multiples for you!

Do be sure to drink lots of water honey and to rest where you can. It won't necessarily get worse but you'll feel it more because you have one already and your resting options are limited.

I'd wait until they were a bit bigger before worrying about how many sacs. I say that because my sonographer didn't have a blinking clue until I pointed it out to her. She called in a consultant because of an abnormal sighting (the blinking line between sacs sigh...)

Same here - my sonographer didn't seem sure about much and that was a few weeks on - I insisted on the consultant checking so maybe that would be an option after the 12 week one? I know it's hard not to worry, especailly when the hormones (the DOUBLE hormones) are all over the place, and with your previous experience this year. I had similar probs - a termination in Feb for a terminal chromosomal abnormality, then early bleeding so also found out The News at 7 weeks. I'm over the moon about it now but it took a while...

i am so sorry you are not feeling well nellstar, i still have off days at 15+4, i dont feel well today at all.
i think one of the books said that you cant sometimes see the sacs until later on.

gettingbiggerbird, thats fantastic that you get you MB for free. i will keep my eyes open for you for a twin carrycot on e-bay. there were two fantastic green ones last week. i was tempted but we are trying to keep the costs down so i resisted.
the twin one is great and i think they would prefer to be together.
do you have the adjustable handle version? if so look out for the carrycots with the clips on the sides. they are really easy to get on and off.

poor i have replied on the other thread.
the nipper does look great and it is lighter than the MB but it is wider and i cant find if you can have a carrycot. my MB cost £90 and the carrycot £60. i thought the covers were going to need replacing but they were a great colour and good condition only problems were the bar had poked out on the hood which took a minute to sew up and it needs a couple of clips. i love it to bits already. its only a few cm wider than the single version i have. my little boy got all excited thinking it was for him and his little sister, (we sold our last MB double at the end of last summer and he has been on the buggy board since) so we went out on a test drive with my two in it and they only got out to play at the park.

Mel - thanks, I re-read your detailed instructions on the other thread about which carrycot I need , it's one with clips as the handlebars are adjustable. Very sweet of you to keep an eye out.

MEL2005 I think you are rapidly becoming the Queen of twins! Hows about writing a book??
By the way I love the look of your mountain buggy! I really want to see the first wheels city twin as I really fancy it and they have some on ebay - but I can't find anywhere which actually stock it so I can go and have a play! Have you any experience with first wheels??

GBB - I'm 16 weeks on Friday and they still can't decide what type of twins I'm having! Starting to annoy now me to be honest. Currently scans are saying 2-1 ID with 1 placenta, so after scaring myself stoopid looking at TTTF on the Tamba website I am making a concerted effect not to google it anymore...

Poor, know what you mean - the TTTS stuff scared me rigid and I was still having delusions of a homebirth at the time. Well, that well and truly put me off so even though it looks like DCDA (the consultant showed us a clear lambda) now, I feel much better about being in hospital. Mine could still be ID though, couldn't they? Unless the sexes are different (will find out in 2 weeks).

Here's our mini list for Poor and Nell if they are ready!

Neenztwinz: twins born May 6 2008, Esther and Theo
GBB: twins due Dec 25
Merrymarigold: non id twins (girl and boy) due Nov 11th/12th/ 13th
MEL2005: twins due 10th jan 2009
accessorizequeen" non id g/b twins due Oct 2nd (induced at 38 wks though)
PazzaPlusTwo: twin girls born April 28th 2008 - Anais and Carmen

ooooh, the list is growing...

welcome nell and big congrats, hope you start feeling better soon. I did at 11-12 weeks, the sickness got less frequent and then finally stopped all together (though I know I was lucky!).

I think ID twins can still have 2 placentas and 2 sacs, something to do with when egg divides. So you can't tell whether IS or non ID unless b/g (which mine are). However, if they are on one placenta and one sac, they are definitely ID as non ID's will never share a sac. Something like that anyway...

GBB, great luck on the MB! If someone offers me a free buggy [hint, hint!] I will gladly have it whether it fits through the door or not! It's just when spending so much on something, you want it to be perfect.

Accessorize, did you think of the M & P Aria+ as travel system for car. It's really light 7.4kg and will do well for the first few months though it's not supposed to be great when they are very heavy (ie. after 1 yr old). Also you don't have to bother clipping the seats on/ off, just plonk them in, so could be a lot quicker.

oh not the m&p twin aira, it is really wide and not well made at all. i had one for a week and hated it. two of my friends kept them longer and they fell to bits quickly, they hated them.

the first wheels twin i have seen as they are in my local babyshop. i do like them as they are like a double bugaboo. they are only slightly wider than the MB and i do like the seats facing you or facing out as well as the carrycots. not great for the beach which is why it wasnt on my list this time. i think you might have to take the seats off to fold which used to bug me with the bugaboo. i have seen some in a bad condition/broken on e-bay so i am not convinced about the quality but if you get a bargain on e-bay you can always sell it on if you hate it.

i have just had a bad appointment with the midwife, a different one yet again. she was running 50 minutes late so the kids were manic and hot by the time we got in. her room was like a sauna. as soon as i said twins she said 'so no bloods then' and tried to get rid of me!!!! i needed my blood pressure checked, my blood results checked, urine checked and heartbeat checked. so she said 'oh we dont do babies heartbeat at 16 weeks we do it at 24 weeks' thats funny as i always have it done at 16weeks. she said she wouldnt be able to hear it but i asked her to try. we had two clear heartbeats first try. then she said i had to book my blood tests and diabetes check myself as she didnt need to see me again and the hopsital could do the checks as she was busy. my consultant asked me to still book my midwife appointments as they do different checks. i will ask the hospital when i go in next month.
i am glad i dont have to wait around etc. but anoyed at the level of care being offered. its really gone downhill since my last baby.
sorry had to get that off my chest.

hello, nellstar & poor & welcome! I think 8/9/10 weeks often the worst urgh nell. I didn't have much nausea but omg the hormones and tiredness until 14 weeks (with all 3 pg).

I am not following any of this scientific stuff about twins as I know nothing!! But given that merry originally thought she was getting triplets, scans obviously can be wrong and it takes some time to establish what's going on. Glad you've got your lo in nursery for at least a day, rest makes all the diff. I have a 19mo, he wore me out today! Got my 2 twin books tday from amazon though although largely about routines & handling daily life which is what I wanted.

Mel, sorry you had such a cr&p time with m/w, I've not bothered at all with appts, just the hospital scan & consultant every fortnight until they arrive now but I had very little contact until 24 weeks. Why can't the staffing levels be improved so they can offer better care?

And lastly, buggies. Sigh. Aria - haven't seen one in the flesh but does seem to get mixed reviews really. I would have been happy with it as a travel system for the car for a year and then sell on BUT the reviews on the primo viaggio car seat are appalling - babies sitting upright etc. I'd like to check it out & have a look but m&p seem to have a really bad rep. It's a pity as it's the only one where I could have let ds2 go in or put a car seat in easily.

First twin, I think this one looks pretty good but too wide for my doorway or I'd consider it. Doesn't take car seats though as it's too narrow in the seat unit. Having owned a bugaboo, the build quality needs to be there or as mel says it might not last long (just because of the reversing seats etc, it's quite a faffy design iyswim). Does end up weighing more than a mountain buggy with carrycots on I think but as you'd take it apart to fold it might not seem that much.

And I think merry you asked about the icandy - did try to go and see one yesterday but we had a test drive (yet another saga!) so couldn't do it. I can't access the video on my mac, but the instruction manual seems to be fairly lengthy so god knows how easy it is to take cars seats/carrycots on and off. It weighs um, I had trouble figuring this out but I think with carrycots nearly 17kg! Groovystyle had a good breakdown Are you considering the powertwin as well, merry?

Merry... how big is your doorway?

GBB... b/g twins can still be identical if the egg split early enough.

I love looking in on you all and seeing how you're doing. Do pop by the d'y ever threads occasionally, we like to be a bit broody (well not me... I see enough births to prevent that) there.

oh i had the m&p car seat as well for my first baby, it was the primo viago version. it was heavy and even though it had a base it was a nightmare to get in and out as i had a safety feature in my Audi seatbelts that wouldnt alow me to losen them without retracting them. the man at my local baby shop said that they stopped selling them as they thought they were dangerous. if you have a head-on crash the handle (which is aginst the seat) can snap and go into the baby. the SIP car seat was in the sale in john lewis a few weeks ago, i asked about them and they said they have also stopped selling m&p and wouldnt recommend the car seats. they were getting rid of stock from the warehouse. i looked on the which? website and the maxi-cosi are rated the best. we had a maxi-cosi 0+ car seat for my second baby and currently have the children in the tobi and priory versions as they had the best safety ratings. so i have already bought the bases for the 0+ maxi-cosi ones and will buy the maxi-cosi cabriofix car seats for the twins. i am waiting for them to go on sale, john lewis had a special order in at £70 each and said they might do it again soon.

Mars, some of my doorway is 74cms (ok for Mountain Buggy), but where the door opens it narrows right down to about 72cms which is too narrow for any side-by-side. I wouldn't mind putting babies into buggy whilst it is outside if it weren't going to be Winter, but as it is...and with a toddler ds who I guess I will have to manhandle outside once the twins are already out there...I would also prefer to be able to bring them in the house and leave them sleeping in buggy to get a bit of a rest myself! But maybe that is wishful thinking!

I wouldn't mind splashing out on the icandy or even the zoom (got some savings ) if I thought it would make my life a whole lot easier...

I don't like the powertwin as you can only put carseats on it for newborns and I don't like them to be in carseats for ages and ages (even good ones). I do agree about M & P carseats, but they are ok while baby is still small. If you're trying to get 2 babies in and out of the car 6x before 9.30am (that's right innit accessorize ), I would definitely recommend the easiest possible route and dare I say it, safety come a second to sanity. But then again, I am a bit lazy!

In a bit of a moany mood today. I will go on 'd'ya ever' thread for a moan too! There is only 1 person who has been nice about my bump and that was someone who's had twins themselves!

That's a shame. The buggy I have is 79cm. Never mind.

Hope you're all drinking your water today and behaving

ooh, let me know about JL & maxi cosi, Mel as I need to buy another one (already have one plus two isofix bases). We've decided I think to have twins on outside, ds2 in the middle and ds1 in the back with buggy next to him. Although still waiting for

Merry, can you fit a matrix or auto carrycot on the powertwin as they're both lie flat so essentially a carrycot (I had a matrix for ds1)? One of the seats is lie flat isn't it? I can see your point re: m&p it's just that I found the maxi cosi & isofix base so wonderful with ds2 (click and off we go!) I'm not inclined to give it up for heavier, unsafe option! I think matrix has improved a lot as it used to get v.bad reviews (which I didn't know about at the time).Or twin two would fit & both lie flat seats or use with rebel/matrix as a travel system? We don't have room in car for a matrix or autocarrycot, but perhaps you might for one of them? I thought the double trouble book made a good point about really needing a diff. buggy for first 3 months than the rest of the time because I think MB is perfect for us just not for first few months. I really struggled putting my single into the boot & out again yesterday but then I am 30 weeks pg with two large twins!

I'm sure someone said there was a place durn south (I'm ooop north) with a showroom for zoom? Have you checked icandy website for stockists of pears to have a look - you're in london, there must be somewhere! I do think you're right about spending a bit extra if it will be for 2 years at least but not sure about sizing on the icandy (although getting the apple hood seems to resolve some of the height issues with the seat unit).

I am drinking my water, mars so I don't faint from dratted low bp! You are lovely to keep an eye on us - I do look at d'ya ever but can't keep up with it plus my postnatal thread and this one!

Neenztwinz: twins born May 6 2008, Esther and Theo
GBB: twins due Dec 25
Merrymarigold: non id twins (girl and boy) due Nov 11th/12th/ 13th
MEL2005: twins due 10th jan 2009
accessorizequeen" non id g/b twins due Oct 2nd (induced at 38 wks though)
PazzaPlusTwo: twin girls born April 28th 2008 - Anais and Carmen
PBH - twins due 9th Jan 2009

I'm on the list!

Never want to disagree with people on these types of lovely threads, bit I have been told (and read) that g/b twins must have come from different eggs so can't be identical!

Personally I think they should just admit that it isn't an exact science, assume the worst for care level and if you really want to know have the DNA test done after birth...

the twin two is really heavy and hard to push and steer. i bought a bargain one from e-bay, it was an impulse buy not long after they came out. it was so bad i took it out of the box pushed it around washed the covers etc and put it back on e-bay and it was boxed up and down parcelforce asap.

i did have the powertwin for quite a while but it used to tip to the side with my toddler in the front when he moved around. once it tipped into the road from the pavement when i was letting some children pass me, luckily there were no cars comming. it was hard to get up kerbs and he used to be able to get out of the harness as well. it would be different with twins in though as it would have the same weight in the front and back seats.