Singleton Vs. Twin Pregnancy

As you’ve probably heard by now, all pregnancies are different. My goal is to not scare you with my experiences. I remember trying to google the difference between singleton and twin pregnancy when I was pregnant with my twins. I realize that this article is for a very specific audience but I’m hoping I can help someone who has the same questions I was asking.

***Remember everyone experiences pregnancy differently. Some women feel amazing and at their best when pregnant and some feel awful, and they both have healthy babies. Take my experience with a grain of salt.

Stretch marks

About 90% of women develop stretch marks in the later stages of pregnancy. There is a genetic component to this, so if your mom or sisters got stretch marks when pregnant, then you will most likely develop them too. The good news is that they do fade some over time!

With my singleton pregnancy, I developed some mild stretch marks in the last month or so of my pregnancy. I remembered my skin was so itchy all the time, so always have lotion with you! My stretch marks did fade away completely after 4-6 months after my baby was born.

With my twin pregnancy, I once again had an extremely itchy stomach and back, just from the stretching skin. My skin was so shinny, like it was pulling so tightly that it was going to rip any second. My husband said it looked so painful. I got the classic pink diamond patch near my belly button, like many multiple moms get. Surprisingly many of the lines shrunk and faded with the exception to the pink diamond patch near my belly button, and I have a forever partial outtie belly button.

Apparently the best way to soften the lines or to prevent them is to use creams with vitamin E and gain weight slowly at a steady pace. I don’t like this answer though because it always makes me feel like I had something to do with it. 90% of us get them and we are beautiful! Wear them proudly like a badge of honor and appreciate them, especially if they fade away<3

Baby(s) Bump

With a singleton pregnancy, belly size may vary same, maybe measuring a couple weeks above or below your baby’s gestational age. With my daughter I usually measured at gestational age or a couple weeks below, and she was healthy! For buying maternity clothes, I was pretty safe to buy my normal size.

Twin pregnancy bellies get big! It is not uncommon to measure many weeks ahead of their gestational age. I averaged measuring 6 weeks ahead of their gestational age! I’d heard of some women measuring up to 8 or 10! When buying maternity clothes, make sure you are comfortable. I easily got uncomfortable with anything that was tight around my hips, belly, or rib cage. I went up two sizes in maternity clothes.

Morning sickness AKA all the time sickness

Singleton Pregnancy

Morning sickness, or all the time sickness, is pretty genetic. My mother had it extremely badly with my brother and myself, and my grandmother had it badly with all 8 of her children. It’s awful and I didn’t even have hyperemisis graviderium. I feel for those women, they are so strong and I don’t know how they can have more than one child!

In my singleton pregnancy, the morning sickness seemed to have started right away, this was one of the main reasons why I took a pregnancy test in the first place. Everyone experiences this differently but mine lasted from about week 4 to 17. I was pretty good during the second trimester but it came back in the last trimester. It was really awful again during the last two weeks before birth. I don’t know if it was a stomach virus or my body preparing for labor but I had to go to the hospital to get fluids. If you’re ever on the fence on if you should go to get fluids, go! It makes you feel so much better in a short couple of hours.

I was working at the pediatric office at the time I was pregnant with my first child. I tried my best to hide my morning sickness, but I didn’t do very well. We only had one bathroom in the office and it was in the break room. There was no way that people didn’t hear me vomiting! I remember during a flu shot clinic, I had to keep running out of the room after patients where done getting their shots. The runner was supposed to bring another patient back. We were supposed to go fast and my runner was getting very frustrated with me. I had to keep telling her I didn’t feel good and needed to leave. She thought I was hungover or something (Not something I would do anyways). OR SOMETHING INDEED! At the end of the work day, I only gave half as many shots at my coworkers. Hey, I was just glad I didn’t vomit on anyone!

Twin Pregnancy

When I was pregnant with the twins, the nausea and vomiting started at week 5/6. We were about to fly back from a trip to Florida when all of a sudden the sickness hit. It hit hard. I had to have a bag with me constantly and I tried to not draw attention to myself so they would allow me to get on the plane. Morning sickness can be worse with twins or multiples because of the extra hormones. I felt my nausea and vomiting was just as bad as my singleton pregnancy. Except this time around, I did accept medications to help me get through. Not sure if the feeling was worse or my tolerance was lower with also caring for a toddler. When I was on the medication, I did notice significant improvement. I was able to sleep more, I was able to function better, but I still had nausea and vomiting. Again not to scare you, but on medication I would still actually vomit 3 times a day, but I would dry heave up to 12 times a day. The OB said this was normal, especially with twins.

GI

While I’m pregnant, I seem to have heightened gastrointestinal symptoms and discomfort. This was the same with both my singleton and twin pregnancy. I normally have GI symptoms when I eat certain foods but when I’m pregnant my stomach seems to be more sensitive. They are literally parasites, as my OB so loving called them. It’s true, they will take everything they need from you. It’s crazy how during my third trimester I wasn’t gaining any weight but my babies were growing well! I gained roughly 25 pounds with my singleton and nearly 35 pounds with my twins – both were considered healthy weight gains.

Fatigue

Fatigue during pregnancy is a very common symptom because of the baby hormones and because you’re growing a person(s) inside of you. The fatigue during pregnancy is like no other. I hear so many women say, “oh just wait until you have the baby, you don’t know what tired is.” Personally, I disagree. Being mom tired is rough, but I usually feel better with a nap or a good night sleep. Pregnancy fatigue for me was like when you take a bunch of Benadryl and you are so medically drowsy all the time, and no amount of sleep can ever lift the fog. My fatigue was much worse with the twin pregnancy. Again, could be because of the heightened hormones from the twins, growing two humans, or because I also was raising a toddler.

Postpartum depression and anxiety

Many people think postpartum (antepartum) depression and anxiety occurs after pregnancy. This is true, but it also can occur when someone is pregnant. I did not have antepartum depression and anxiety with my singleton but I had it with my twin pregnancy. Life was much different though the second time around. With my singleton I was working and saw my friends frequently, so it kept me happy and busy. With my twin pregnancy, we were living in a new state and town without our close friends. We were going through some hard family conflicts and my daughter was having some medical issues. It was no wonder with all the twin pregnancy hormones, lack of sleep and all the extra stress, that I was having PPD.

I ended up seeing a therapist once a week and loved going. I looked forward to going every week and really wished I could go more often. My husband could really tell a difference in my mood on the days I would go. My therapist did discuss medication with me but I didn’t feel like I absolutely needed it, although if it hadn’t gotten much better with therapy I would have taken it.

There is absolutely no shame in the feelings you are feeling and the thoughts you are having. You are not alone in your thoughts and the good news is you can get help! Insurance usually covers some therapist in-network with only a small copay with each session. Some will even make an adjustment if you can’t swing the copay. My husband and I think mental health is very important and think everyone should see a therapist at some point in their life. If I had time now I’d love to go see my old therapist.

Body pains

Singleton pregnancy

I had all the usual aches and pains but I really remember getting the waddle around 30 weeks when I had some preterm labor. I also had a lot of round ligament pain and sciatica nerve pain. The round ligament pain was more significant with my singleton pregnancy than with my twin pregnancy. This probably was because this was my first pregnancy and it was really stretching things out for the first time. It was so painful, I had a very hard time laying on my sides without feeling like my stomach was going to detach and ripe off. I needed my husband to help me roll over in bed because of the round ligament pain pulling. My OB said this was all normal and I could use some of that athletic tape if it helped. I don’t think I tried that, I just figured out better positions to lay and move. The sciatic nerve pain was more significant with the singleton pregnancy as well. At work, I would have to do a lot of fast sudden movements, and this would agitate it. It would literally stop me in my tracks for a second until I could re-situate. I didn’t have this as much with the twins.

Twin Pregnancy

I’m sorry, I feel like I’m majorly complaining here. Bare with me, I’m almost done! I was very uncomfortable with my twin pregnancy. My skin seemed like it was going to rip open from being overstretched and everything just ached. With the twins, I just remember a lot of positional pain. Meaning, I couldn’t lay on my back at all, not even for a few minutes, without feeling sick or dizzy (from the compressed vena cava). I had a pretty significant waddle as well with the twin pregnancy, which was caused by round ligament hip pain. I couldn’t sit in a certain position very long without causing my hips to hurt or my legs or feet to go numb and tingling (from the swelling). The worst was the pregnancy carpal tunnel. There was extra fluid in my body that was swelling and compressing nerves, causing the pain and tingling in my wrists and hands. I couldn’t do much with my hands above my waist without them feeling this way. Even when I sat down or slept, they needed to be positioned straight and below my heart or they would hurt. Sorry guys, these are all extremely common things with twin pregnancies.

I remember waddling to and from my bed a billion times to pee in the middle of the night, wondering what it was like to feel normal again. Wondering how long it was going to take to feel normal again after having the babies. Seriously, with both of my pregnancies, most of the symptoms went away almost immediately. The only thing that took some time to completely go away was the hip pain. I still had a waddle/limp for about a week (singleton)/ month (twins). My recoveries after birth with each was very different because my singleton was a vaginal delivery and my twins were c-section – but that’s for another time!

Doctor Appointments and Ultrasounds

Twins and multiples are considered high risk pregnancies. Depending on what type of twin/multiple pregnancy you have will determine how high risk your pregnancy is. My twins were Di/Di (dichorionic/diamniotic) fraternal twins. This means they were two separate eggs, in their own sacs and placenta. This is the least complicated type of multiple pregnancy, so I didn’t have to have as many tests and ultrasounds done as many multiples do. However, I still had a lot!

I had all the regular appointments, ultrasounds, and standard blood tests that a singleton pregnancy mom has. I did opt in for the genetic blood testing early on (around 10/12 weeks), which I did not do with my first born. However, anyone can choose to do these tests.

I have a history of an ectopic pregnancy, so I had a couple extra early ultrasounds in the beginning to confirm that the pregnancy was healthy. This wasn’t related to having twins. I didn’t have any extra ultrasounds until after the 20 week anatomy ultrasound. I then had an ultrasound at weeks 26, 32, 36 and the very end of 37 weeks (37+5). There are many reasons why they do ultrasounds, but one was to confirm that the babies were growing at a good rate and that they were similar in size. This can be concerning if the gap in the babies’ size starts to get too wide. Another reason is to check how the babies are presenting in utero for the birth plan.

I also had to do many fetal stress tests. Starting at 30/32 weeks I needed to do this twice a week until the babies were born. This would take at least an hour. The nurse would connect me to fetal heart monitors and check for accelerations and decelerations in the babies’ heart rates. There is a direct correlation between accelerations and the health of the baby(s). The OB wants to see a certain amount of heart accelerations in 20 minutes for the babies to be considered healthy. I enjoyed doing this because it was performed at the hospital on the birthing unit. The nurses and I got to know each other well, which made the birthday and our hospital stay so much more fun and relaxing.

Fetal movement

My favorite part of being pregnant was feeling the babies move. When I was pregnant with the twins, I pretty much felt movement all the time! With two, either one is sleeping and the other is trying to wake the other one up, or they are both having a party together and everyone can noticeably see your belly move. It’s incredible! In all pregnancies, women have to pay close attention to fetal kicks. It’s a little hard to tell in the beginning if you notice both moving. As they get bigger and you have more ultrasounds to help you identify where each baby is located. Then you will be able to keep track of who is moving more accurately. If you have any questions or concerns on fetal movement, make sure you contact your provider immediately.

It is crazy how quickly our body forgets the pain and discomfort. I don’t remember what the pain feels like, I just remember having it. I hope that if you are having twins, you will find this article helpful in reassuring that how you are feeling is completely normal! As always, people contact your provider with any questions or concerns.

Click here if you want to read how I found out we were having twins!

Click here if you want to watch our gender reveal video!

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Cover Photo by Autumn Goodwin