Not gonna lie, the first trimester was rough and not just physically. I was the most sick during weeks 8 and 9, hardly wanted to eat, threw up a bunch, lost 4 pounds. Then slowly around week 11 my appetite started to come back. 98% of all smells are still awful and send me into dry heaving fits but at least I'm wanting to eat. We had to put the crock pot of pork carnitas for Lachlan's birthday in the garage! And Thanksgiving was really hard to endure which made me sad because I LOVE Thanksgiving foods normally. I even puked by looking just veggie lo mein!
And then mentally, I was a nervous wreck. I think I was in shock for 3 weeks after that first ultrasound! Finding out I was pregnant naturally was so amazing thing after everything we had to do for our son, but then discovering it was twins threw me into full panic mode. Panic on how would I handle pregnancy with two in there and all the risks involved, premature birth, possible NICU stays, how would we survive with TWO newborns and sleepless nights with a toddler who needs to stay on his routine of getting out of the house. I would go back and forth between complete happiness for giving our son siblings and complete fear. And I think the worst of it all, was not knowing if they were healthy or not. Being 35, my risk for chromosomal abnormalities increases so much. With IVF, we got to test our embryo for genetic abnormalities so we knew right off the bat, he was healthy before I was even pregnant! But with a natural pregnancy, we knew none of that and had to wait until 10 weeks when I did the Natera blood test. So there were so many sleepless nights worrying about if they were healthy or not and what would happen if they weren't. The results came in about 8 days later that I was low risk for everything PLUS we found out we're having a boy and a girl. Such a relief!
I'm in the second trimester now and am feeling better except for the hugeness of my belly already. I feel like I'm going to burst most nights, and I look about 20 weeks pregnant even though I'm 14 weeks as I write this. Like most things in life, it's going to be hard but totally worth it in the end.
Here are some of the things I really needed during my first trimester with twins:
Tums
Altoids
Puke bags
Yoga pants
Tons of water
Benadryl for sleep
Lotion for my belly
Saltines
Twin resources like Twinversity, Mom's of Twins Support Group Facebook group, and talking to other twin moms
I can imagine that being pregnant with twins first came as a shock. I asked my Mom and she said she was initally shocked, although she found that the "extra" work with two newborns wasn't much more than with one and she said we often entertained each other quite well. I admit though, that she didn't have a toddler at the same time. I am sure you'll figure it out.... it's so amazing that you got naturally pregnant with twins. What a miracle.
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