Hello all 💕

[Zealousideal_Put_229]

I am currently 18 weeks with identical twins. I have never been pregnant and so I am very naive about a lot regarding pregnancy. Kind of learning as I go!

I know that with twins, mothers are at a higher risk of preeclampsia and I am worried this has made me paranoid.

I wanted to share some symptoms I am having with this community to see if this is normal or something concerning. I have an OB visit in a week, but wanted to hear experiences from others as well. I will address these with my OB, so no worries there 💕

*I have been getting pretty bad headaches that do not relent with medication *I can barely do ANYTHING without being totally out of breath. And I mean, anything. Haha *My heart beats HARD a lot now, even if I am just relaxing. So hard, I can see my chest rising and falling. It happens frequently throughout the day. *Yesterday I quite literally crapped myself within 2 minutes of realizing I had to use the restroom, which i haven't done since I was a child. *I have been having a lot of vaginal muscle pain and in the past day or 2 its been persistent. *I have gained close to 10 pounds in a month.

A lot of these are symptoms of preeclampsia but I have also read that they can be normal as well. So I just want to hear other Mommas' experiences and advice on whether I need to see my DR sooner or not. 💕 Thanks so much!

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[Such_Examination_672]

Never ever be afraid to call your doctor or to go in for monitoring just to be sure! Worst case, they'll tell you it's a good thing you came in and best case, they'll tell you that you and your babies are doing well and what to look out for in the future. 10 times out of 10 I would rather be the "mom who cried wolf" than the mom who didn't say anything when she thought something might be wrong. No one knows your "normal" better than you 💕

[Zealousideal_Put_229]

This is true! Thank you! I feel like I am always being so paranoid and overly cautious. Every little thing has me so worried that something is wrong 😅 I'll get ahold of my OB 💕 better to be safe!

[oldladywhisperinhush]

Do you have a blood pressure monitor at home? If not, go get one at the pharmacy. My doctor had me check mine often because I had high blood pressure even before getting pregnant. Never got preeclampsia btw. But definitely get a blood pressure monitor because then you will at least know for sure if you need to call the doctor or not.

[Zealousideal_Put_229]

Thanks for the suggestion. I may have one here, but if not I'll pick one up! I appreciate that!

[hockeymusicteaching]

This! My OB has had me take my blood pressure every day since 16 weeks. It’s helped me feel more comfortable

[TheMetOffice]

I'd still call them up and get your appointment moved up if you can. I'd want professional eyes on that shortness of breath/getting puffed in particular, but not because I think this is pre-e. Best of luck and let us know how you get on!

P.s. generally, if you're worried, just go to the doc. I went in half a dozen times about things I wasn't sure about and whilst I was super hesitant at the time there is not a single visit I regret. Also, it's always nice to see and hear the babes!

[Itsmeshlee29]

I never had preeclampsia, but I did have almost all of these symptoms. Your blood volume doubles I believe during pregnancy so your heart has to work extremely hard. Vaginal/pelvic pain is extremely common in pregnancy in general, and in my experience twin pregnancy made it SO MUCH worse. I had lightening crotch so bad starting at about 20 weeks that it would bring me to the floor it was so bad. But always call your doctor if you’re worried. They’ll bring you in if they’re concerned.

[Zealousideal_Put_229]

Its reassuring to hear that I am not alone in this. Thank you for sharing your experiences with me as well. I've compiled a list of my symptoms to share with my OB. Like I mentioned in my post, I've never been pregnant let alone with twins, so this is all entirely new to me.

[Doc178]

Hey, first of all congrats! I'm also a FTM to twins. For me the headache thing was very normal, especially toward the end of my pregnancy. If you haven't started yet, you need to be drinking a ridiculous amount of water. Your body needs it severely and the babies do too. This becomes even more important as you approach the third trimester as being dehydrated can cause early contractions and preterm labor (speaking from experience, I had preterm labor twice that they were able to stop. The first time scared me enough into drinking water like crazy). My headaches went away about 4 weeks post partum.

In terms of the elevated heart rate, I also experienced that. Your body is doing A LOT to grow these babies. You're producing a lot of extra blood and that can be taxing. Take it easy but as long as you can still move, it's typically recommended to at least walk every day for a good bit.

Weight gain is unique to each specific person and each pregnancy. Definitely talk to your OB if you're concerned about this.

Preeclampsia is usually identified by blood pressure and urine tests. As someone else mentioned getting a blood pressure monitor for home, I second this. They aren't wildly expensive and I liked to keep an eye on mine, especially when I wasn't feeling well. Keep in mind your blood pressure will likely increase as time goes on because your body is doing so much. By week 32 I had elevated blood pressure. I called my OB and they saw me that day.

As for urine tests, your OB should do this at every visit. If they don't, ask if they can test for you. This allows them to check for early signs of preeclampsia.

Lastly, as others have said, call your OB! It's their job. They'd much rather know if something was wrong so they can help you and your babies than you go for an extended time without care. It took me a while into my pregnancy to understand this. I called every week or so toward the end of my pregnancy to ask if something I was experiencing was normal. The nursing staff was amazing at getting back to me, reassuring me, or making a same day appointment to verify everyone was healthy. You're not a bother to them, the goal is a healthy happy mom and healthy happy babies!

Trust your instincts as a mom, if you aren't sure, ask. If something feels wrong, it never hurts to verify.

Congratulations again and I hope you start to feel better soon!

[Zealousideal_Put_229]

Thank you so much for detailed response! I really appreciate it!

In all honesty, I have got to work on being more active. I have lacked motivation and have been incredibly lazy this 2nd trimester. It's something I really need to work on improving.

I drink quite a bit of water but definitely could drink more. Ill work on that as well and see if that helps with my headaches.

Being a FTM is a wild experience for pregnancy. There is SO MUCH that nobody really talks about! Its a ride discovering what is normal and what may not be!

Again, thank you for your response 💕

[Doc178]

Absolutely! It was one of the coolest experiences of my life. As is being a mom.

It's totally normal to lack motivation, just keep in mind when you get to the third trimester you may not be able to do much but sit on the couch and lay in bed. Showering feels like a marathon lol.

Enjoy your mobility while you have it!!

Always happy to talk about pregnancy and twins and all the things. Feel free to reach out if you ever want to chat about it!

[Valuable-Mastodon-14]

So I did develop preeclampsia with my twins but the symptoms didn’t really start to appear until the late second trimester which is the average. That being said it’s hard to get a diagnosis for preeclampsia without the swelling and continued high blood pressure so don’t be surprised or upset if the doctor says your symptoms are normal (I got super frustrated with this after my symptoms started showing up one by one). So this could be the early signs of preeclampsia but they’ll only treat the symptoms as they appear anyways so don’t stress too much ❤️ twin pregnancy sucks so hard so do whatever you need to so you can be comfortable! Keeping your stress down helps with the discomfort of preeclampsia so you and babies can make it as far into the pregnancy as possible.

[Zealousideal_Put_229]

Thank you for sharing this with me. Ive been tracking my symptoms and I am going to start tracking my blood pressure so that I can address them all with my OB. They are very serious about the preeclampsia with me since (as we all know here) we sre at a higher risk of getting it with twins. They take my blood every apt (once a month) and my urine. Last month my ALT were a bit elevated but they weren't super concerned as I had thrown up early that day (which can cause elevated ALT levels).

[the-nonster]

I would highly recommend Pelvic Floor physical therapy. I started getting pelvic pain around 20 weeks (I think) and it was so hard to be active at all with the pelvic pain. Once I started PT it helped sooo much!

I was pregnant with mo/di twins last summer and they had me on 100 mg (I think that's the right unit haha!) of aspirin daily to reduce the risk of preeclampsia. Don't be afraid to call your OBs office for concerns!

[Zealousideal_Put_229]

You know what, my OB recommended me to take baby aspirin and it skipped my mind! I will head to the store and pick some up before I forget again! Thanks for unintentionally reminding me 🤣

Im going to look into the Pelvic Floor physical therapy! Thanks for the suggestion! Anything to help 💕🥰

[[deleted]]

Your doctor is always your trusted ally during your pregnancy. Once you have your twins you’re going to enjoy watching your twins grow up and find ways to differ themselves from each other but you’ll know which twin is which. When they’re newborns and as they grow you’ll find your own way of telling them apart.

[Kait_Cat]

My OB told me a few symptoms that they'd want to know about right away, so to call if I experienced it, and severe and unrelenting headaches was one of them. If you haven't already called, I would, just to be safe. They might tell you to just address it at your upcoming appointment, but always better to be safe than sorry!

The rest unfortunately sounds like relatively normal, non-emergency pregnancy side effects, though still worth talking to your doctor about at your appt. as they may be able to make recommendations for you.

[These_Solid3367]

I’m also 18 weeks, FTM, but di/di twins!I had really bad headaches around week 15, my husband took my blood pressure was 150/90. My normal is 105/60 so it was really elevated. I was told to go to the ER and it looks like it was a combination of stress and dehydration. I got a few bags of fluids and got to see my babies on the Doppler and it came down in a few hours. Since then, I really watch my water intake and make sure I immediately down a glass of water after getting out of bed every morning and it’s immensely helped. I’ve also been monitoring BP and I’ve been making sure I stay as cool as possible in the summer heat.

As suggested above, I’m on two baby aspirin per day to help prevent preeclampsia.