“Pregnancy looks good on you!” comments a stranger at the store.
But all you think is, “I feel like a house, my feet are swollen, and I haven’t pooped in days!”
Growing a baby is wild! Being pregnant with twins, well, is a pretty incredible journey! No matter how you slice it or dice it, your body is working hard. Appreciate it how powerful the human body is, love it…even on those days where you can’t put on your own shoes.
One of the top questions we hear from newly pregnant moms who visit our site in search of twin pregnancy resources and support is…
“What will I look like?” or “How big will my pregnant twin belly get?”
Since no two pregnancies are alike and women’s bodies carry babies in completely different ways, we asked some of our favorite twin moms to share their pregnant twin belly photos and what being pregnant with twins was like. All of their pregnancy experiences were quite different, but amazing in their own right. We hope to give newly pregnant moms some insight into the weeks and months to come. These amazing women were gracious enough to share their stories, and for that we are thankful.
Being Pregnant With Twins – Experiences from 10 Different Women:
Raffinee Esquivel @raffinee
I always knew that I was going to have twins. No really. From the moment I took a pregnancy test and found out that I was pregnant, I was sure it was twins. And I was right! My first trimester was tough. I lost 12 lbs. because I was throwing up all the time. I could hardly keep any food down, but the twins developed just fine regardless of my food intake or lack of rather. Around 18-20 weeks, I finally started feeling better. I stopped throwing up and could finally enjoy food again! I would still have waves of nausea.
My second trimester and the beginning of my third I felt great! I had energy again, which felt like such a win! My back and hips would hurt, but I remember warm baths curing that almost instantly. At 32 weeks we got into a car accident- literally my worst nightmare. We went to the ED immediately, they did a fluid check and put on fetal heart monitors. Everything seemed fine so after 24 hours of observation, they sent me home.
A little over a week and a half later, at 33 weeks and 3 days, my water broke! I was sitting on the couch. It literally felt like I sat on a water balloon and it popped beneath me, which was such a weird feeling! I went back to the ED and they confirmed that my water had in fact broke. They admitted me to the hospital and gave me steroids to help with lung development.
The goal was to keep me pregnant until 34 weeks. At 34 weeks and 1 day, they started an induction. Nothing really happened until 34 weeks and 2 days. On my final day of pregnancy, I developed preeclampsia and I had pretty high blood pressure. Despite this, I was progressing and they allowed me to vaginally deliver both babies. It was such an incredible experience- words will never do it justice so I won’t even try!
Despite being preemies, both babies were healthy and could breathe on their own just fine so they sent them to the step-down NICU. After I delivered my pre-eclampsia had progressed into HELLP syndrome. My blood pressure skyrocketed, my clotting factors and liver enzymes went haywire and I was out in seizure precautions. It was really scary. Thankfully while I was going through all this, the twins were doing just fine. After getting magnesium things finally started to turn around and two days later I was discharged. The twins ended up needing to stay for another 18 days as their suck reflex developed and they gained enough weight. They were discharged with no lasting health issues. We all are lucky and I’m forever grateful that everything turned out the way it did!
Jennifer Hanks @cocoscaravan
Pregnancy wasn’t easy and to be honest I didn’t really love it. It was hard to have no control over my body as it changed. It was painful to breathe, sleep, or move around during the last trimester. Looking back on my pregnancy I learned a lot about myself. I learned that I can do really hard things, that hard things don’t last forever, that my body and my mind are strong, and I learned that my twin boys are worth any pain or stretch marks. I look at my pregnancy in a whole different way now. My twins were worth it all!
Jessica Dean @jesscdean
I would describe my twin pregnancy as both amazing and difficult. In the early stages, I struggled with spotting, morning sickness, migraines, and strong food aversions. The second trimester was more of my sweet spot because I was no longer sick. One of my twins was breech at that point and I had horrible rib pain that didn’t ease no matter what position I was in! I felt them move around 17 weeks and they never stopped after that.
Seeing my belly move with hiccups, kicks, and rolls was such a treasured, special experience that I miss to this day! When I reached the third trimester, I was very large and uncomfortable. I went through a lot of belly support bands and my shoes no longer fit! I had constant contractions and went to the hospital at 34 weeks for preterm labor, which was able to be stopped with medication. My water broke on Christmas Eve night and the twins arrived via c-section four days before we’d been scheduled at 36 weeks and 3 days.
Maida Moreno @maidam28
The biggest question I had when I was pregnant with my twins was, “Is my body strong enough to grow two human beings?” You quickly are surprised by how strong you and your body are when you are not given a choice. I knew this new chapter of my life would put my faith to the test.
This was my last pregnancy and I wanted to enjoy it as much as I could. I took weekly pictures. Just when I thought I couldn’t get any bigger, the next week’s picture proved me wrong.
As my stomach grew bigger by the week, I felt a sense of calm that I never experienced with my first pregnancy. I read and heard many scary stories, but as a person of faith, I feel nothing is done by mistake. I’ve learned and experienced that nothing will be put in your path that you can’t handle. God knew that not only my body could handle this but so could I. And that feeling only got stronger as the weeks past.
Besides my feet hurting like never before, my sciatic nerve throbbing, being unable to get up from a seated position, and even having difficulty walking sometimes; I considered myself fortunate and blessed.
Thankfully, I delivered my healthy twin boys at 37 weeks and became a member of the elite club of twin motherhood!
Meghan Brazier @meghanbrazier
Being pregnant with twins was an absolute shock to the system. While I go through IVF, we only put one egg in. So as you can imagine, when I found out at my 7-week scan I was having twins, I was a little surprised. I was living in Sydney (where I’m from) and my husband had already moved to Chicago (I would follow a few weeks later once my job wrapped up). When I called him to tell him there were two heartbeats, his first thought was our baby had two hearts! Ha!
Anyway, I was incredibly sick for the first 20 weeks. I was throwing up and had no appetite. I didn’t want to eat anything unless it was salt and vinegar chips and Sprite. By week 28, I could no longer walk upstairs without having to pause and catch my breath every two steps.
By week 33, I had developed Cholestasis (a liver disease). This causes intense itching, which meant I had to be monitored closely. I also had to be monitored because the doctors were worried about twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome, meaning one twin was taking more food from the placenta than the other one. At 35 weeks and 6 days, I was supposed to be induced when my water broke putting into labor naturally.
I labored for about 12 hours and had an epidural (thank GOD) and pushed both babies out within 3 minutes of each other, which was a surreal experience. I didn’t get to hold my babies straight away as the medical team needed to check them out ASAP.
It was a tough pregnancy but incredibly rewarding. I was thankful to have been able to keep them in my belly for as long as I did. My smallest twin stayed in the NICU for a couple of weeks which was difficult but a great opportunity to learn so much from those amazing nurses. They just turned 5 and I can’t believe it!
Laura Kennedy @twinjamjam
My pregnancy was such a miracle and I was in awe of it every second. I’d spent so long trying to get that point that even after the heartbeats were seen and heard I would still blame all the sickness to something I ate (my babies could never be the cause). Ha! One of my favorite parts of twin pregnancy was to be pregnant over ALL of the holidays: Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas! I got to snuggle, wear comfy clothes and eat delicious food. When you’re pregnant with twins you have to take advantage of the few comforts you get, and I did just that.
Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t great all of the time. At 19 weeks my cervix started to thin so I had to have a very uncomfortable procedure. My heartburn was so bad that I had to get a reclining Sleep Number mattress! I also had to place heel inserts in all my shoes because of all the weight I was carrying. One thing is for sure though, it was all worth it.
Michelle Joyner @twinsidescoop
I truly had a textbook twin pregnancy. It was an extremely smooth experience (and one that I loved!). While the struggles were real (like the struggles of exhaustion, needing to go to the bathroom all the time, back pain, and being absolutely HUGE), I had no morning sickness, no stretch marks, and I was able to carry my twin gestation to full-term at 37 weeks + 4 days. It was one of the most incredible experiences of my life—an experience that I feel so lucky to have had. Plus, how cool is it to say you’ve had 3 hearts beating inside you at once?
Jenn Bonicelli @twocametrue
My pregnancy journey was a marathon, not at all a sprint. I found myself looking at each week as another milestone under my belt. It was a slow crawl to the finish line. Did I love being pregnant with twins? NOPE! I was sick (throwing up for 36 weeks), hot, and majorly uncomfortable with rib and hip pain. I learned to love my oversized bump and found it surprising that I wasn’t phased by the stretch marks that came with it. Waking up one morning to find my belly covered by bright red “scars” was shocking. To this day, those stretch marks have become a constant reminder that I carried my two boys full term.
Paige Brettingen @mama_steps
Funny story: I didn’t know I was carrying twins until 20 weeks! My 8-week ultrasound showed one baby, but suddenly it made A LOT of sense why – at 16 weeks – I looked the same size as when I was 8-months pregnant with my firstborn.
I was in awe of my body during that time and in complete disbelief that it was able to stretch further and further. Now, 18 months since giving birth to my twins, deep stretch marks and saggy skin remain, and I know I will likely never get my body “back” to the way it was before, but that’s ok.
I carried my twins to 38.5 weeks and we made history at our hospital for being the first twins born in a delivery room (as opposed to the operating room). I am so grateful for that and will never shame my body ever again for not fitting into a pair of jeans. It’s amazing how pregnancy and birth, especially the birth of two miracles at once, really puts things in perspective. I listened to uplifting, hypnobirthing meditations (called The Hypnobirthing Hub – the author gave birth to twins vaginally as well) every night as I was falling asleep, not only to prepare me for labor but also to maintain a positive mindset and know that a full-term, vaginal twin birth was absolutely possible.
Ali Dunn @me2books
After 3.5 years of unexplained infertility, countless interventions, and a failed IVF, I was pregnant after a second successful IVF. Not only was I expecting one baby, but it was identical twins. In the first trimester, I was very tired but didn’t have any morning sickness. At a routine appointment around 27 weeks, signs of pre-term labor were noticed and I was checked into the hospital for indefinite bed rest.
Over the next seven days of hospital bed rest, we did everything possible to stop the babies from coming, while also preparing for the very real possibility that it might not work. On the eighth day, one twin’s heart rate dropped. It continued to do so over the next six hours. At 28 weeks our twins were born via emergency C-section weighing less than 4.5 lbs combined. They spent 56 and 66 days in the NICU before coming home.
Lauren DeKlotz @westcoasttwinsanity
I feel extremely proud and grateful that I was able to carry my twins to 37 weeks and 3 days. After trying for several months to get pregnant without success, I determined by taking ovulation tests at home that I was not ovulating on my own. I sought help at a fertility specialist and was able to get pregnant after a few rounds of letrozole. The cycle when I got pregnant was closely observed so we knew that there were three mature follicles. My husband and I understood that this meant that we had a higher chance of getting pregnant with multiples but we were open and excited about the possibilities! I got a positive pregnancy test at home and then came into the fertility clinic for an ultrasound about a month later where we found out that we were having twins! I will never forget the doctor telling us that he could see two babies but he wanted to continue checking my uterus in case there were any more. At the time two sounded somewhat manageable and any more would have been an even bigger surprise!
Since I am a twin and my best friend recently had twins, I had two great resources to connect with over a twin pregnancy. My Mom was very sick throughout her pregnancy with my brother and me, so I went into my pregnancy expecting that I might have a similar experience. It was somewhat similar and I was sick, nauseous, and had strong food aversions from weeks 5 – 17 of my pregnancy. Although the first trimester went rather slowly since I didn’t feel well, the second trimester went really quickly and the third even faster.
I had high hopes of working out regularly during my pregnancy but with the sickness and tiredness I was experiencing, I hardly did any of my usual exercise routines. At the same time, I was able to stay fairly active until my delivery date, going on long walks and opting to take the stairs often. I slept well throughout my entire pregnancy (with the exception of needing to get up in the middle of the night to use the restroom) and I experienced minimal pain or overall discomfort other than some leg muscle cramps. I had frequent ultrasounds and non-stress tests beginning in the second trimester and felt lucky to be able to “see” my boys so frequently and hear their hearts beat. I love that they were able to bond with one another before they were even born and I am so excited to see their relationship continue to blossom. My love overflows for these two boys who made me a Mom!
Meghan Hertzfeldt @twocametrue
Being pregnant with twins messed with me a little when one day I’d feel amazing and the next I’d be pulled over on the side of the road with debilitating gas pains. I decided to write positive affirmations on sticky notes and place them in odd places of the house to remind myself, “You got this!” “This will all be worth it!” “You’ve come this far, took a million shots in your ass, don’t give up now!”
During my twin pregnancy, I tried to remain positive and active. My daily walks became slower as the weeks went on, but I kept on going. One day I was sitting on a park bench, in my third trimester, too out of breath to continue and too tired to get back up. I sat and sobbed, feeling guilty that up until this point I had loved pregnancy, but was so ready for my babies to evacuate!
Nearing the end, I looked at each day that they stayed in my belly as a small victory. I celebrated those small wins. Made it to the mailbox today! Yipee! I only cried at one animal rescue commercial. Sweet! One morning in August, the boys came into the world screaming and well it hasn’t been quiet since.
Do you want to be featured in this post and share what being pregnant with twins was like for you? We’d love to hear from you! Share your twin pregnancy journey at contact@twocametrue.com.
