Twin Tips- Recovery After Twins… Seven Things

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Last week our Twin {& MORE} Board covered the topic Recovery After Twins. If you missed it you’ve gotta check it out. Lots of excellent pointers and tips from mom’s who have been there and done that!

Erin laid it our for us to expect the unexpected. Boy is that the truth!

Sonora assured us to trust ourselves after delivery. This was not her first rodeo!

Angela reminded us that nothing goes as expected as she recovered after delivering TRIPLETS! ‘

Hope shared her double whammy experience that every mother delivering multiples must fear!

Today, I am going to give you my two cents on the topic.

For me, twin A was breech from 28 weeks forward and twin B was transverse. My doctor would not turn twin A to allow for a vaginal birth. His experience showed that even if we turned twin A so I could deliver him, the chances were high that I would still need a c-section to deliver twin B. I disagreed, but his medical certificate trumped my full uterus. So, I bitterly and reluctantly delivered my twins by c-section. I was pretty pissed about it if you want to get down to it.

But with a smile on my face and a spring in my step I will share with you my seven tips:

1) Arrange for someone to stay the night with you each night at the hospital no matter how you delivered your babies. If you have little kids at home, your husband may not be able to stay each night with you. If your twins are not in NICU, I recommend keeping them close to you. My cousin stayed one night, my sister-in-law stay another night and then dear husband stayed the last night. This was a life saver because I am not keen on hospital nurseries. No flames, please. I just like my babies close.

2) Enjoy your hospital stay as much as possible ’cause when you get home, no one is going to bring three meals a day to your bed and pickup your room for you. Or at least not at my house.

3) This is for the family… pick a day to help. My mother came by every morning for the first week and made us a hot lunch and prepped a dinner that I could reheat or serve from the crockpot. Mama Laundry Talk has an excellent post right now covering the topic of accepting help after delivering a baby.

4) Don’t compare yourself to others. Who cares if your best friend delivered quadruplets and was up walking ten minutes later. For me, I delivered on a Friday and could not stand up straight until Sunday. Everyone is different and you are not a wimp. Someone just cut you open for crying out loud!

5) Discuss pain management with your doctor before hand. Morphine sucks! I did not know this until I delivered my twins. When I had the twins they gave me a spinal and then they hooked me up to Morphine. It made me loopy and so sleepy. Three years later I delivered my final baby via c-section and the pain management was incredible. They gave me a spinal and an epidural. The epidural stayed in for (I want to say) 16 hours after delivery. It made a world of difference in my recovery and my ability to be alert for the hours following delivery.

6) Nurse your babies if at all possible. It helps your uterus.

7) Set up a nursing or feeding station. No matter if you bottle feed or nurse have snacks and a bottles of water nearby. If you nurse sitting in a rocker, have some cereal bars and other easy to access snacks on a table or basket next to you with some bottles of water stashed in there as well. If you are not taking care of yourself, how will you take care of babies? And believe me, life can and will get so busy you will forget to take care of yourself… so be proactive. Besides, if you’re nursing, it is difficult for you to make milk if you are not eating and drinking enough.

How did you recover after delivering your multiples? Do share!

Is there a Twins {& MORE} topic you would like for us to cover? Please, leave a comment and tell us your struggles!