At how may weeks were your twins born?

[Bibblebo]

I am 30 weeks with DCDA Tgirls. I have in the past week been suddenly growing alot, feeling quite sick, having more braxton hicks, hemmies, out of breath, unable to force myself to do housework or much else some days, need to sit down a lot, feeling far more intolerant of my 3 yo son when he misbehaves.
I just feel as though I could have these babies quite soon. I think they are close to 2kgs each now. My old stretch marks are running upward towards my navel as i grow. Please tell me how many weeks you were and and any birth stories welcome - I probably need a bit of companionship!

It's just great hearing everybody's stories - more!
I just feel so big and I have a huge old itchy stretched bump. Tried wearing a tuby grip that another twin gave me around it the bump today that practically strangled us! Got to pack for moving house but can hardly bend over! 30+4 today.

TAKE IT EASY moving house (if you possibly can).

Get a clipboard, a mug of tea, and adopt a managerial role !

38 + and then induced
please try to take it easy......sit down as much as you can xx
hope it all goes well.

Induced at 37+2 normalish delivery very quick 3.5 hours from waters going til finish.Baby 1 lift out vountouse as twin2 a bit fed up she was breech so high forceps.4.5 and5.5 pounds I remember my skin feeling like it would split if anything touched it I could nt even tolerate the bobbling on the sheets at night.Tummy shrank back quickly but I do have spare skin and a few stretch marks. Small price to pay in my opinion.I did need a fairly significant blood transfusion though I'm not sure why as I did nt think I lost that much blood. Try to take it easy though.They are much less work inside than out.

Thanks guys.

36 weeks and 5 days, by ELCS. I was at Queen Charlotte's and their policy was that ID twins be delivered by C section no later than 36 weeks. The girls were 6lbs something each and were fine. I was so relieved not to be pregnant anymore - I'm a small frame and looked ridiculous towards the end. Not to mention how uncomfortable I felt.

(My private midwives said I would have been induced at 38 weeks on the NHS. I did not want to be so we did a lot of monitoring between 38 and 40 weeks to check the babies were fine which they were and they came when the first one indicated he was ready and my waters broke. I felt that was controlled and safe and that those last 2 weeks gave them the time to grow and to come when they wanted and was glad.

When I found it was twins I asked my GP (whose wife coincidentally is an independent midwife) if there were now any point in having a private midwife as the birth would be complex as it was twins and he said even more reason to keep the midwives to get the control and kind of birth I wanted... obviously at the slightest risk or need for intervention however I would have had it.

Twin one born at home, other twin born 7 hours later in hospital with my midwives in both cases. The original plan with twins was hospital anyway. We had to speed up twin 2 with a drip hence trip to hospital - he obviously wanted to be born days after week 40 and was cross his twin got things going by coming first......) We got home again that same night. Amusingly twin 1 was a visitor to the hospital not in their care as born at home so only twin 2 was technically discharged that night. It all felt pretty much in control and I was very very very lucky).

78bunion, that is quite a bonkers birth story!

I know and yet it was all quite calm and relaxed. It was a terrible thing that after twin 1 arrived everything slowed down no matter what we did. We walked me around. We had me breastfeeding twin 2. We had me squatting but the contractions just slowed right up. No one had ever said I would have two separate labours - the second one lasting about 6 hours on the same day - separate ones for each twins.

The births registrar had never had two twins born in different London boroughs.
They do however share a birthday.
They have always been very happy babies and then children and get on really well. I think the good pregnancy and birth at 40 weeks was part of that.

It might well be that had I not gone to hospital for the drip to speed up twin 2 he might have been born at home too but on the other hand I made the decision to go to hospital (the midwives were keen to try at home for longer). In the past some twins were born 2 days apart and infection risk increases with long delays. I felt able to make a rational decision about it all at the time and the fact I felt I was deciding things definitely made it a very good birth for me. I am not saying it was pain free however. We got through a lot of gas and air at home and I found the TENS machine not very helpful but compared to many I got off lightly.

Hi. This is long, so i apologise in advance!
My id boys are now almost 13, but thought id add my story here.
Found out on 12wk scan I was expecting twins, it explained why I had been so sick! i cried for a week, DH walked around with the biggest grin possible . At the 20 wk scan they found that I had twintotwin transfusion syndrome, and dt1 had a tumour on his lung . This meant fortnightly trips to London at 90miles away, with trips to Cambridge 50mile away, in between (during the fuel strikes!)
At 26 weeks the T2T got worse, and so I was only the 3rd person to have in-utro laser treatment, which was successful to a point, but I started having contractions, so I was rushed to Cambridge as I was told that because of the tumour, I couldn't have the boys in my local hospital, but needed to go to a hospital with a paediatric intensive care unit. They stopped the contractions that time, but when they started again at 28 wks, and T2 went into distress, I was rushed in again, (DH did the trip that time in 40mins!!) , but they had no NICU beds, so they were going to transfer us to London!! The ambulance had arrived, and i was just about to be put on the stretcher, then they did a final ultrasound, and decided they didnt have time for a transfer and I was rushed in for an emergency c section, which had to be under a GA as the spinal didnt work!. (some other poor mum and babe got transferred instead).
While they struggled to get ts1 (3.3lb) breathing, ts2 (2.2lb) was rushed to NICU. Meanwhile, I was bleeding, a lot! they finally stopped that but I needed 5 units blood, and meanwhile DH was agonising over ts1, who was struggling badly with his breathing. ts2 was doing well on a ventilator, despite his size. They made the decision to do a partial lobectomy on ts1 at 3 days, which was, thank God, successful, and they improved from there on in. I, however, developed a huge haematoma under my incision, (which the midwives dismissed as "just normal bruising ) until the wound burst open, and I had to go back to theatre. .
The boys continued to improve and all 3 of us finally got transferred back to our local hospital just before Christmas, but I was still losing blood PV. They did an ultrasound, and found I had still got clots, so I ended up in theatre a 3rd time.
It all has a happy ending though, the boys and I were sent home when they were 10weeks, 2 weeks before their due date, even though we had to continue with oxygen and tube feeds for a while.
As I said at the start, this was 12+ years ago now, and I have 2 lovely, bright sons, who, although still a little small compared with their peers, are healthy, even though they now going through the terrible teenage angst! Their treatment at the Rosie in Cambridge was impeccable, even if mine left something to be desired, but it all was ok in the end.

Mine was rather quiet compared with Bubby's saga!

Non identical girls, 33+5, dd1 was 4lb 1.5 oz and dd2 4lb 0.5 oz. Their due date was perilously close to my own birthday, and the night before in the bath I'd told them very firmly not to arrive that day, three birthdays on the same day would be bad... I didn't mean arrive a good month before though!

dd1 very sensibly came out head first, but dd2 had gone transverse. I can remember a registrar being very urgent to do a c-section, however my birth partner (my mum) and the senior midwife both backed up a second opinion from the consultant. Since I'd had epidural as a just in case, the manipulation to get her pointing in the right direction didn't hurt. It felt like someone doing washing up in my abdomen!

However, although she was now aligned in the right general direction, her feet were first. Cue wittering registrar banging on about a section again. By this time I was getting heartily sick of the sound of that young man's voice.

Consultant laughed and said 'Oh I don't think that'll be necessary!' And gently guided dd2 out by the ankles.

Both in SCBU, three days in the intensive room then three and a half weeks in what my dad (horticulture background) called 'the hardening off' room.

I was discharged after 36 hours, and benefited from three weeks of normal sleep. I would arrive at SCBU around 8 a.m. and usually be back at home about 10. For the final few days I was able to stay with the girls in the overnight SCBU suite so I could start to get a grip on nights, which of course the lovely lovely nurses had been doing.

I should say, this is a very rural area, realistically there was only one hospital choice, and it had a poor record for (a) over-use of emergency sections and (b) high complications rate for them. Hence my determination to keep out of the operating theatre. Apparently my labour and birth were the first twins to be born in that unit without a section for over six months. My consultant was a new man and afterwards the hospital's rates for natural birth steadily went up.

Anyway, they're now 14, both taller than me (and both have bigger feet too so they can no longer nick my shoes, yay!), just started GCSEs, both predicted A's and A*s, both healthy and sporty... I still look at the photos taken in the first few weeks and am amazed (and go a bit weepy )

27 weeks 6 days. Boy / girl twins. 2lb 6.5oz (twin 1, girl) and 2lb 6oz (boy, twin 2). Went into labour at 27+5 (had no idea!) Drs stopped it for 48 hrs but they were intent on coming.

61 days in Special care, home at equivalent of 36+5, each weighed about 4lb 9oz.

They're now 8, perfect.

Good luck!

Bibblebo, my case was a big exception to the norm, my boys had decided to be different and had developed unusual problems, and it was only during the pregnancy and birth that we found out that I tend not to clot easily, causing the complications with me.
We live in an area which, for some reason as yet unfathomed, there are a lot of multiples (my boys last class in Primary consisted of 20 children, and there were 4 sets of twins, the school only had 112 kids, and there were 9 sets in it at the time, and now their High school year group has 8 sets of twins and 1 set of triplets ) Most of the mums i speak to had nice, uncomplicated birth stories, I just had to bit dramatic.

Our b/g twins were born at 35+4. (We'd already opted for CS so stuck to my guns and had ELCS even though my waters had broken. Felt very happy with my choice and recovered quickly) Babes spent 10 days in hospital. It felt "normal" at the time because the nurses were so calm and matter of fact about it all. Both had feeling tubes, light therapy and CPAP. Not very nice at all if I let myself think about it. Both bouncing bonkers two year olds now though!

B/g dts born 39+2, emergency c section.
Dd 7lb 5
Ds 6lb 7

78bunion - I thought I was unique! Mine were born at 40 weeks to the day too (although by c section for me).

Macthecatsmum - I can sympathise! Mine were 7lbs 11 and 6lbs 3 and I was all bump. At 6 months I went a party and someone came to check I was alright as he thought I looked like I was going into labour (actually I was just being kicked in the ribs!). At 35 weeks I wasn't able to turn in toilet cubicles any more - I had to reverse in!!

All very good at the birth, but my DB was slightly jaundiced and then my DD lost a lot of weight so we ended up staying in for a week. Was probably a good thing though as it gave me chance to settle into a bit of a feeding routine for them whilst I had midwives and nurses etc looking after me.

Mine were born at 39 weeks via induction...gosh that was a long pregnancy!!

The girls were. 33+3 and 4lb4 and 3 lb15, premature labour when my waters popped. In scbu for 3 weeks for fattening up and temperature control

The boys were. 36+5 and 6lb3 and 6lb9, prem labour again when waters popped everywhere. Twin 1 was ok but twin 2 needed recuss and c-pap for a couple of days :-)

38+1 here, bg twins.

Went in to be induced but dtd's heart rate plummeted do ended up with emcs under ga.

Dts was 7lb 3oz, dts 5lb 7oz. They spent 4 days in scbu, mostly for dds benefit. She was tube fed for a bit but on day 3 they both latched onto the boob like pro's

All fine now, they're 2 1/2 and full of beans.

Good luck, the last few weeks are pretty grim but they're so worth it :-)

I had MCMA boys at 37+3. Dieter was 5lb 40z and Domeczek (breech) was 5lbs 90z . I had an unexpected, risky (terrifying) med free natural birth. Thank God, it was a quick birth! They are now healthy, active 14 month olds!

Then on 1st October, I went into preterm natural med free labour (complicated pregnancy) with DCDA twins at 31w exactly. Artemis was 3lbs 1oz and Apollo was 1lb 90z (he had severe IUGR & Oligohydramnios). Artemis is now home but Apollo is still in NICU. Their birth story is on the Birth Announcement thread.

Congratulations, and hope the rest of your pregnancy goes smooth despite the awful aches and pains! xx