Parenting Twins and Multiples Book Group discussion

Hi Twins Mamas and Papas - Thanks for joining me over here at the Parenting Twins Book Group. If you are the parents of twins, triplets or multiples of any age, this is the place for you!

Please add your favorite twins books - either fiction or non-fiction to our bookshelf to get us started.

Shelby

When I was pregnant with twins 14 years ago (yikes), I read Having Twins by Elizabeth Noble. Lots of moms with twins thought the book focused too much on the negatives, all the things that could go wrong with a twin pregnancy, and therefore didn't like the book. I, however, thought it was well written. Although it's scary to think of the "what ifs," they are important to know nonetheless (after all women expecting twins ARE high risk). I've never been the type of person to put her head in the sand so I didn't see the scary senarios as threatening. The book did lack the practical aspects of having twins such as surviving the first few months.

In recent months, I've picked up a copy of When You're Expecting Twins, Triplets or Quads by Barbara Luke. I actually have read Dr. Luke's published studies on which the book is based where she has shown that the more weight a pregnant woman with twins gains during early pregnancy, the greater the chance she'll deliver big, healthy babies. Once again some women criticize Luke for her high fat, high calorie diet and feel that they can't possibly meet the dietary expectations. But I think women should use them as a guideline and try their best! Luke's research proves her ideas work. Last year I interviewed a mom of triplets for an article I was writing. She followed Luke's diet and delivered her trio to term, each baby weighing around 6' each. Amazing. Still, the book only focuses on a twin pregnancy and doesn't touch upon life with young twins.

Christina wrote: "When I was pregnant with twins 14 years ago (yikes), I read Having Twins by Elizabeth Noble. Lots of moms with twins thought the book focused too much on the negatives, all the things that could go..."

I haven't read that book, but I have to agree that, while it can be scary to read about all the "what ifs..." it is important to at least have a general understanding of everything that can happen, so that if the worst does happen, you can recognize the situation early enough to achieve a happy ending.

I remember reading books about all the things that can go wrong with a twin pregnancy, and I finally just started skimming over things (and eventually stopped reading entirely)... so, while I had seen the term "Twin-to-Twin-Transfusion-Syndrome" and sorta kinda knew what it entailed, when I started experiencing symptoms of it, I shrugged things off as, "Well, having twins is harder than having a singleton, and my doctors don't seem worried, so..."

Luckily (miraculously, even) we did have a happy ending and now have two bright, beautiful, healthy girls. But, we came VERY close to tragedy... my one little girl Anna was basically stillborn. The doctors were able to bring her back, obviously... but at the very least, the whole birth experience wouldn't have been nearly as traumatic if I had had a better understanding of TTTS and the early warning signs....

Out of curiosity, though, does the book give tips on HOW to gain weight early in the pregnancy? I was trying to desperately to gain weight, but I had such horrible morning (noon and night) sickness that I was actually losing weight in the beginning... I just couldn't hold anything down. I finally started drinking Ensure shakes which I think definitely helped! For whatever reason, I was able to hold most of those down :-) But, I wish I had known about them sooner... it wasn't until I was about halfway through my pregnancy that I finally started gaining a little weight (of course, if only I had that problem now :-p)

I'm looking through the text as I write this....I'm laughing at the chapter title, "Potential Hazards of Multiple Pregnancy." Under the sub-heading, Low Birth Weight, within that chapter, she does write, "Studies show that caloric intake in the presence of high protein, more than any other factor, helps avoid low-birth weight babies and infant death." (That's where Dr. Luke's book comes in....)

To answer your question, though, yes, she does stress diet and weight gain in "Chapter 9: How to Give Your Babiess the Best Chance with Optimal Nutrition."

I should also point out that I'm reading the second edition published in 1991!! The book is now in it's third edition published last in 2003. Although I haven't compared the two editions, I'm guessing it's less scary.

P.S. I credit my 60' weight gain (my boys were 6'8" and 6'12") to my appetite for In-N-Out burgers (a chain here in the West). I'd pick up a double-double (two hamburger patties with cheese) about 3x a week on the way home from work!

Great conversations Christina and Jennifer. The 3rd edition of Elizabeth Noble's book is hard to get now - I believe it is on its way out of print. The 3rd edition was printed in July 2003.

Out of the two books I liked Barbara Luke's book When You're Expecting Twins, Triplets or Quads better. It was the first book that I bought after finding out that I was having twins. Although some people have complained that it was "scary" to read and too structured. Personally, the more info the better and I really like structure.

The book does include very helpful information on nutrition guidelines for each trimester, recipes, and suggestions for moms experiencing morning sickness.

I will be the first to admit that I took Dr Luke's advice and made it into an art form - I overdid it and ended up gaining a whooping 90 lbs during my pregnancy. If Dr. Luke recommended a certain amount of protein, I would add more. Part of the weight was water, part of it was being on bedrest for 13 weeks and part of the weight gain was food.

But, on the flip side my twins were born at 34 weeks and weighed 5 lbs 12 oz and 5 lbs 2 oz. The hospital had never seen such big twins for being 6 weeks early.

Jennifer - that is an amazing story about Anna! Bless that little fighter.

Christina - Those are great weights for your boys! Funny about the burgers. We don't have an In-N-Out burger place in New England, but it sounds yummy.