Twin Pregnancy: The things they don’t tell you

I didn’t have too many “symptoms” when I was pregnant with my girls. I had a little bloating in the beginning but that went away in a couple of weeks. I never had any morning sickness and my blood pressure was always good.

However, one thing that started very early on….probably around the beginning of my second trimester, was swelling. It was mainly in my legs and feet and would get worse later in the day. Swelling is normal in twin (multiples) pregnancies because you have so much blood volume and fluid flowing through your body to accommodate TWO or more growing babies. My doctor assured me it was very normal for a multiple pregnancy and to just put my feet up as much as I could. In some instances swelling is an indication of high blood pressure but this was not the case for me. In fact, I had pretty low blood pressure during my pregnancy.

Toward the end of my pregnancy the swelling got so bad I could barely wear shoes. Even if I would have my feet up most of the day the swelling wouldn’t go down.

So my advice on swelling…get your feet up as much as possible and be sure to have regular blood pressure checks and just know that swelling is very normal.

Another “symptom” I had during my pregnancy was numbness in my hands. It started out pretty mild but about a month after it started, I could barely write. This is also normal because the babies are putting so much pressure on your body that they’re bound to be pressing on nerves. My doctor suggested wrist braces but they didn’t really help. Just another annoyance to deal with but is also totally normal. I will say though that they numbness didn’t go away until a few weeks after the girls were born.

Be sure to check in on Monday when Amanda gives you her take on her twin pregnancy.

Also, if you have any questions about twin pregnancy that we don’t cover, feel free to email us!