Marvelous Multiples

Today we went to our first class at the hospital. It was called marvelous multiples and was an 8 hour class focused on things like nutrition during pregnancy, labor and delivery, and relaxation (which apparently I’m really bad at…). Similar to the MOMs group, it was mostly couples having fraternal twins. We all had different doctors, so it was interesting to hear the differences in information that we had been given.

Part of the class was a tour of the hospital. There was a decent amount of standing/walking between looking at the different rooms and nurseries. I get tired just taking the trash out, so it was more than I was prepared for. My back had been bothering me already that day from sitting so long, and about halfway through the tour I was digging in my purse looking for the Tylenol. It quickly got worse and people started asking if I was okay. I tried to fake a smile and said I was fine, but apparently I wasn’t very convincing because one of the women in the class went to the instructor and asked for a wheel chair to get me through the rest of the tour. Embarrassed and in pain, the tears started coming. Although I was definitely the shortest in the group, I was the least far along out of every one, so I was very frustrated that they were doing just fine and I wasn’t. I’m quickly realizing that bed rest is coming sooner rather than later.

In the afternoon a guest couple came in to talk to the group with their identical 10 month old twin boys. Like our babies, they had shared a placenta and had been warned of the possibility of twin-twin transfusion. It sounded like she hadn’t received any special treatment during her pregnancy and they were surprised when the doctor wanted to deliver at 36 weeks. Although the babies were born with a weight difference of almost a pound, the smaller one caught up in size pretty quickly (I think she said within 3 wks?) to the larger one and they had been exactly the same height and weight ever since. I was comforted to hear that the pregnancy and delivery was pretty normal. The boys spent some time in the NICU because of their small size but hadn’t had any major health issues. After the MOMs group story earlier in the week, it was good to hear of someone with the same situation as us that ended up with 2 healthy (and very cute!) babies. The things that this couple had been surprised by/unprepared for were things that we were warned about very early on by my doctor.

Our next class is in 2 weeks to learn about “Life with Baby.” That one isn’t specific to multiples, but I think most of the stuff should still apply. Fortunately its only 5 hours long, so hopefully I won’t make a scene in that one.