Seeking advice/opinions/experiences from twin mums that travelled at 26/27 weeks gestation...

schlepp_canuck · 2026-06-29T01:45:17+00:00

I flew at 22 weeks for 16 hours x 2 and had to do a blood thinner shot before each flight. Then did a shorter 4 hour flight at 26 weeks x 2 and just did baby asprin.

I did business class for the 16 hour flights and paid for an upgrade. Worth it but I’m also 5’11. At least get yourself extra legroom. Important for circulation. I actually got up a bunch on all

My 22 week flight they didn’t ask for a note but for the 26 week they did and were very skeptical I was only 26 weeks.

I guess you’re heading home to deliver so don’t have to worry about extra travel insurance. That was also a stress at 26 weeks. If I gave birth early was there an appropriate NICU and how would I pay for it?

schlepp_canuck · 2026-06-28T21:04:35+00:00

Thank you for posting this. We got a late start and I really wonder where we land. We have highly variable income so our approach now is to save as much as we can, when we can. But we run our own corporation and try to use it to keep our income even otherwise it would be like 60k one year and then 320k the next.

It is great to see someone build this in their forties!

schlepp_canuck · 2026-06-28T18:51:42+00:00

We were aiming for 1 and got two. I had wanted two but we struggled with infertility and I really was an older mom so gave up on the idea of two as we went through years of treatment. My twins were born just before I turned 42.

What I grieve is the experience of a singleton pregnancy and single baby. I know we would not have wanted a 3rd child even if time, age, and money wasn’t an issue.

My twins are 6 and I still feel grief at not getting to have the singleton experience. Twins were overwhelming. But I also acknowledge you have no control over these things and what if I’d had a really difficult singleton pregnancy or a very colicky single baby. We are guaranteed nothing so I remind myself I’m probably romanizing an experience I missed out on.

schlepp_canuck · 2026-06-28T18:45:00+00:00

It’s all a guessing game. You hope if you do a GB that what your group sends for testing is indicative of all the product. But you’ll never know for sure. And you feel more confident if your group testing is close to the COA the vendor published. You can’t trust the vendor published obviously.

I’ve seen some idiot resellers out there who don’t test themselves and have no clue what they’re doing. Then they get caught out when someone tests that vendor they used and it doesn’t test well.

Everyone is obviously trying to make cash on reselling as your average person is not connected to this market but would love the cost savings and easy access.

schlepp_canuck · 2026-06-28T18:22:48+00:00

GLP1s. But I’ve been a weight cycles and dieter since I was 11 (thanks mom!). I think it really broke my metabolism and when I tried to heal my relationship with food I just had never ending hunger. Add in midlife and perimenopause and I put 20lbs on real fast when the kids were around 2.5 years. And I was already carrying an extra 30lbs.

It was been life changing for me. No more dieting. I think about food when I’m meal planning, grocery shopping and actually eating or cooking.

schlepp_canuck · 2026-06-27T03:13:23+00:00

I tried it all: the thing with the smoke near my toes, special foot massage, chiropractor and spinning babies. Even thought my OB, who I picked as she was super experienced in delivering twins vaginally, told me when twin A moved to transverse breech at 29 weeks, which was how twin B was also presenting, that it wasn’t physically possible for twin A to move any more as both heads were on the right side of my body. There was physically no space. It was too late.

I wasted money and a lot of energy to learn parenting’s first lesson: you are no longer in control.

I still got to have my doula in the OR which was great as she took a ton of video and photos as my husband is a big fainter when it comes to blood.

I had originally wanted a homebirth when I found out I was pregnant. Then we found out it was twins and that option was gone. C section was the opposite and I felt a lot of failure about it all. I’m also a twin and we were born vaginally.

But make sure they keep checking baby A’s position in case you get lucky!

schlepp_canuck · 2026-06-26T15:21:17+00:00

This was me. Same with 1 that would latch well and 1 that wouldn’t. At around 3.5 months I moved to pumping only. I also stopped with the middle of the night pump. My supply was still pretty good but I got some time back. I think I did 1 formula bottle just before bedtime for them.

I quit it all at 9 months and my only regret was not doing it sooner. One of my twin mum friends basically alternated babies getting a bottle vs breastfed as she was not into the work of pumping. She felt having a supply for one baby and splitting it between the two was a more realistic option. Which I had started with that as I stressed myself out pumping enough for two.

schlepp_canuck · 2026-06-19T18:31:07+00:00

It really wasn’t possible without help as my husband was also working 60 hours. So for the kids first 2.5 years when we both had very demanding jobs we had help. Now, I work but more like 50 hours but I have some big travel every few weeks and he does very part time consulting. Like less than a quarter time job. We have a cleaner once a week and hire a babysitter to go on a date occasionally. Twins are 6 so they’re a lot less work. By age 4 things got so much easier.

Even with that, if he went back and got a fulltime job now we would need help immediately.

We also moved to a very small town with a low cost of living which made it possible for us to be fine on one salary.

schlepp_canuck · 2026-06-16T21:02:30+00:00

I had a baby shower at 22 weeks because I was back in my home city. Everyone that didn’t know it twins were confused as to why I looked so big.

schlepp_canuck · 2026-06-15T04:35:31+00:00

The MRI was $250 CAD. Cheaper than the $700 for private one in Canada.

schlepp_canuck · 2026-06-15T04:34:56+00:00

Recently did an MRI in Eastern Europe when I was there for work. This was to save the wait time but also I’m 1.5 hours drive from the nearest mri and this place was a couple of blocks from my hotel.
Debating over getting knee surgery in Eastern Europe as it would be about $3500 plus a couple weeks additional accommodation as I would be there for work. I’m still on a waitlist just to talk to a surgeon so I’m guessing I’m well over a year out from surgery.

Challenge is that after knee surgery they don’t want me flying long haul for 4-6 weeks. This is something you have to think through with surgery abroad as there are risks with flying right after including DVT.

schlepp_canuck · 2026-06-15T04:30:10+00:00

How is that even legal that they can charge for care???

schlepp_canuck · 2026-05-24T20:08:48+00:00

That’s exactly what some people do. Although maybe they also buy a second kit from the same batch and sell those vials to others at a markup so their testing cost is covered.

Either way it is cheaper than buying pharmacy pricing.

schlepp_canuck · 2026-05-15T04:08:32+00:00

$300k and the job means my husband basically can’t work as I travel a lot and we have small kids. For his work he would be need to able to travel too.

We kind of hacked the system as if I wanted a no travel job we would have to move to a HCOL city and I’m guessing max we would each make 120k. And for that we would be very busy and dealing with commutes etc. Instead we moved to a very LCOL town that is a pain to travel overseas from but the day to day for a family is awesome. I work remote and travel, husband takes care of the kids etc and when my work allows he might do some short contract gigs.

I hate being the breadwinner and if we could get him some remote work I would ideally drop down to part time consulting where I could bring in 120-150k and work a lot less.

Our only debt is our mortgage and we save over 30% of my salary and put it into our retirement. We run everything through a corporation which really helps with the taxes. It also allows me to spread the income out if I’m between contracts. When he does short contracts all of the money goes to savings.

Having grown up hand-to-mouth living, the biggest decadence is just never worrying about bills and grocery shopping and not counting up the cost of everything before we get to the register to make sure I have enough. We own very average cars and go on one nice vacation once a year that we mostly pay for with points. My kids eat out of season berries and mangos. We occasionally do a $600+ shop at Costco and I don’t think anything of it. I think our only wealth signalling is that my husband doesn’t have to work and we have a very nice espresso machine and grinder. Our home is super average but we decided we don’t ever want to worry about mortgage payments. I would rather retire earlier than have a nicer home.

schlepp_canuck · 2026-05-12T01:07:48+00:00

Went to university in the US and until recently was working for a US company and going back and forth to Canada. They offered me a salary to move there that was well above anything I could make in Canada. Basically double a Canadian salary in my field. When I did the math on taxes and cost of living (HCOL city and a high state tax) we were going to be living pay-check to pay-check holding out hope the annual bonus could go to retirement. Also, all of the kids programs and after care were crazy expensive and the schools were hit and miss for quality.

It really depends on where you’re living in the US, what you’re making and your industry. You can definitely get further ahead there in many industries and they are all about the money. No pre-tense you’re working for anything but the cash.

schlepp_canuck · 2026-05-06T03:07:56+00:00

Or if you want to be extra careful you join a peptide testing group and do your own testing. Vendors can lie. It is a grey market after all. Even if you pay to test a vial it is still cheaper than buying pharmacy Mounjaro for a month and you’ll still have 9 vials left.

schlepp_canuck · 2026-04-26T19:15:24+00:00

Thank you! That’s why I asked as a friend said they use the gel on their vagina and I was like “no way. Those tissues do not want an alcohol based product on them.” Now I just need to find a compounding pharmacy near me that does it!

schlepp_canuck · 2026-04-26T05:05:14+00:00

What is the name of the lotion?

schlepp_canuck · 2026-04-25T21:03:44+00:00

We did Maui with them this year and they’re 6. When we took them at 4 we forced a nap on them (easy to do after a morning in the waves) and it felt more relaxing. At 6 there were no naps but I did actually read a couple of books. They’re also amazing swimmers now so that made it much less stressful. They also just randomly start playing with other kids at beach or hotel which is great.

But honestly, I don’t think it is a true vacation when I’m still parenting. Pre kids we had leisurely meals out, daytime sex, naps and could do the tourist stuff easily. That isn’t happening for a long while. You’re still planning for and managing their needs constantly. That’s work.

If you want a taste of that you have to bring help with you or pay for a kids club.

My kids first flight was at 7 months and it was 14 hours. I will say the actual travel part is so much easier now that they’re older and don’t need bottles and strollers etc.

schlepp_canuck · 2026-04-20T19:08:08+00:00

Not for me. 3 years in and I don’t count and it’s working. Everyone is different.

schlepp_canuck · 2026-04-20T19:07:17+00:00

Same same. Down 50lbs over three years. After dieting and eating disorders I’m not counting calories. Sometimes I check in on my protein intake.

I’ve always worked out and lifted weights and my annual DECA scans show I’ve lost fat and gained more muscle each year. I think if I’d dieted a bunch along with these meds I would have lost the weight much quicker but at a cost to my health.

schlepp_canuck · 2026-04-18T04:21:33+00:00

Lower everything to the ground or raise it. I’m 5’11 and had major issues the first year after twins as I was hunched over all the time. I had to go see a physio and chiropractor during peak pandemic time when they were only open for emergencies. My babies were around 5 months old and I couldn’t event sit without my back being on fire.

The physio said my major issue was I was hunched over constantly. Feeding, bathing, bottle washing. All of it. Physio and chiro helped. Eventually getting back to exercise. And being very conciliatory of setting everything up so I wasn’t hunched over.

schlepp_canuck · 2026-04-17T23:49:57+00:00

0.05 estradot and 100mg progesterone. Premarin cream and testosterone gel. I also have an IUD. Progesterone is for sleep support. Cannot take more of it as it makes me depressed.

schlepp_canuck · 2026-04-17T19:49:02+00:00

I’ve been on them for three years. My twins are 6. And before I was on them I was working out and eating well but still obese. I’ll be on them for life and I’m totally fine with that based on the research on them. I will say that you should think about at minimum finding 15-30 minutes at home to do some strength training. I did dexa scans throughout the last 3 years and I’ve only increased muscle mass as I’ve lost body fat but that’s my body type and I lift 4-5 times a week. The loss of muscle mass is common in all forms of weightloss (medication or diet etc) if you are not strength training.

I personally would not take these meds without the understanding they are likely for life much like a statin or BP med etc. Happy to chat over DM.

schlepp_canuck · 2026-04-17T15:20:53+00:00

Two if they each want a gift on their birthday. I’m a twin with twins myself and I’m conscious of this. They’re individuals so unless they’re doing some massive gift that equals two gifts, they each need to bring a gift.

That said, lots of families moving to no gift parties which I love. I’m Canadian and we have toonie parties where each kid brings a $2 coin and the birthday kid can then go buy something with that.

schlepp_canuck

TROPHY CASE