Parenting Twins and Multiples Book Group discussion

Hi and welcome to this group! If you are the parent of twins, triplets or higher order multiples of any age, this is the place for you to recommend and discover new books about parenting twins.

Please take a moment to introduce yourself.

My name is Shelby and I'm the mom of 3-year old b/g twins. We live in Massachusetts - the state with the most number of twins and twin births. I am also the founder of Double Up Books - The Premier Bookstore for Twins, Triplets & More... I love to read about twins, but I also love reading non-fiction especially history and biographies.

My name is Gina. I'm mother to infant b/g twins. I enjoy non-fiction, best...would love to learn more about twins!

Hi Gina - Welcome to the group. Was having some technical issues, but we're back on track now. Although your twins are infants now, they grow up fast!

Hi. My name is Cassie and I am mom to a five year old son and identical twin girls who are 22 months old. I enjoy fiction-mostly mysteries. I am hoping to get ideas for books to read regarding twin development.

Hi All:
I'm Christina, mom to three boys including 13-year-old fraternal twin boys and a 10-year-old singleton. (Hi Shelby--funny to find you here!) I just discovered Good Reads. Glad to be here.

I'm also an author with a new book out--book: Double Duty The Parents' Guide to Raising Twins, from Pregnancy through the School Years. This is the second edition (the first was published in 1998). I also wrote another book on older twins, Parenting School-Age Twins and Multiples.

I enjoy researching and writing on parenting issues, especially multiples, as I find their relationship with each other as well as with their family members to be fascinating.

Hi Cassie and Christina - Thank you both for joining. Hopefully we'll all be able to help each other discover new twins related books as well as discuss some classics, like Christina's newly updated Double Duty.

Hello! My name is Jennifer and I'm a Mom to 4yo identical twin girls! My children's book "Two Snowflakes" (and my upcoming book "Two Princesses") was inspired by them... while print copies are available on Amazon, you can actually read "Two Snowflakes" in its entirety on my website @ http://www.twosnowflakes.net... I'd love to know what y'all think! :-)

Hi Jennifer - Thanks for joining. Wow, we have 2 published authors in the group (so far), that's great.

If you haven't read Jennifer's book, Two Snowflakes, it's a great book about identical twin snowflakes that showcases how each snowflake is an individual yet part of something larger. Very cute illustrations too.

Thank you so much Shelby! Both for the invite and the compliments! :-)

Lacey Leanne wrote: "I'm Lacey Leanne Dwight, call me Lacey. I'm 18, pregnant, and were thinkning its either twins or triplets. I'm 5months pregnant. It was a total, regretable accident to get pregnant. And now I'm jus..."

Hi Lacey! First, I know that this was an unplanned pregnancy, but since it is something that you are going forward with, I would still like to offer my congratulations! If it is multiples, there is a tough road ahead, but also one with a lot of joy involved.

That being said, are you sure that it is multiples? Simply the fact that the father is a triplet is not an indication that you will also have multiples... in fact, the father really has no bearing on whether or not a mother will conceive multiples :-)

When it comes to twins, triplets, etc, it's all about the eggs.

In the case of identical twins (or triplets), the pregnancy begins like any normal singleton pregnancy. However, for reasons still yet unknown to science, the egg splits sometime after conception (usually a few days to a week afterward). Identical multiples are not hereditary. It's simply the luck of the draw :-p The rate of identical twinning is about 1 in every 250 pregnancies, regardless of location, race, family genetics, etc.

When fraternal twins (or triplets) are conceived, it's because the mother has released more than one egg in her menstrual cycle (both or all of which end up being fertilized by different sperm)...

So, the father never enters into the equation (except for the obvious :-p). The best way to find out is simply to get an ultrasound... which is a normal part of prenatal care, anyway.

Good luck and let us know how things go!

Welcome Lacey and congratulations. Single babies are a lot of work...and multiples are just that more. Glad you found this group. It sounds like your boyfriends' family will be very knowledgeable as to how to handle your family when they arrive. I had a singleton, then twins. Advice I got from other mothers of multiples is accept help; don't be afraid to tell your helpers what kind of help you need...not what they want to do. Get everything done, now. You will not have time to do it after your darlings arrive. And don't forget to just "breathe" when you feel things start to get overwhelming.

As Jennifer, said...keep us posted and good luck with your pregnancy.

Hi Lacey,

I'm also pregnant right now--having twin girls. I don't have a lot of advice for what to do post-birth, but right now the best thing you can do is get good pre-natal care. There is nothing I like better than the reassurance I get each time I go to my ob and hear the heartbeats or go get an ultrasound to see how the girls are developing. Many multiple pregnancies go just fine, but you are at increased risk for complications--so see that doctor (and hopefully find out how many babies you've got growing). If you don't have insurance, your state may have resources you can tap into. Even if you have to pay out of pocket, preventive care is a lot less expensive than premie care!

It sounds like you have had at least one ultrasound since you know you are having a girl (Miley is a cute name). What did the ultrasound tech see? If you released multiple eggs (fraternal multiples) or had embryos splitting (identical multiples), that would have happened before you had a positive pregnancy test. So if the ultrasound showed twins, no need to worry about triplets.

Good luck!

Congratulations on getting through the sleep-deprived portion of parenting twins! Now is a good time to read up on what lies ahead--namely school issues, friendships, and promoting healthy twin autonomy. Most books out there deal with twin pregnancy but there are a few that deal with these issues including my book, Parenting School-Age Twins and Multiples. You can read reviews here on Goodreads. I've posted several excerpts on my Facebook page too. My website talk-about-twins.com has many articles on toddler and school-age twins. Hope this helps.

Christina, a good reminder. I have 2.5 yr-old b/g twins and read a lot about infant "stuff". I will check out your website.

Tressa, congratulations. Twins are so exhausting and so fun. As you've probably discovered, going anywhere takes a lot longer since everyone wants to tell you what they know about twins. It does get easier in a lost of ways. I have a singleton (my first born) and the twins are occupying themelves a lot earlier than she did...but sometimes what they are occupying themselves with is not in my favor (emptying boxes of cereal, crackers, etc., on the floor). Good luck and enjoy.

Hi there, my name is Michael Weber and I'm a Goodreads auther and father of twin almost 5 year old girls, Kayla and Jessica. Looks like I'm one other thing to this group, the only father :) I've written two books so far with my first, We Made Mommy Mashed Potatoes, written about the early days when the girls were nuts and my wife Robbie and I were heading that way quickly. By the way, we still are on that path!

Check out my author page for information about me, otherwise I'm looking forward to the group.
Michael Weber

Hi everyone,

I'm Katherine, and I'm 35w pregnant with b/g twins. I have read a lot of twin books already, but I love to communicate with people about ideas, techniques, etc. on raising twins. I am looking forward to meeting my babies, but I hope I can keep my sleep deprivation under control.

Katherine

Congratulations Katherine! Don't forget to load up on that protein--it's what will plump up your babies! What sort of questions do you have about raising twins? (Mine are 17.)

Hey I'm Beverly from Oxford, Ms. I am new to the "book" world and never really enjoyed it much growing up. Now I enjoy the little spare time if any lol, every now and then lost in a good book. I have 2 year old b/g twins named, Dayton and Delaney.

TMI but this is my true story: my husband and I dated 3 years before we got married. Since he is older than me and has older kids we didn't want to wait any longer to have kids. So we got married in July and I was off birth control less than two weeks when I got pregnant with twins literally on the first try, Less than a month after we were married.

Hi Beverly: This is a good website to start searching for a great book to read. What's your interest: travel lit? Science fiction?