Recovery After Having Twins

This post is for anyone expecting twins. I had wondered what recovery would be like, and found very few people who had shared their experience …

• Many people ask, has it taken forever to heal? Though I delivered two babies, they were small (4 lbs. 10 oz. and 5 lbs. 2 oz. ) so I had very little tearing. Less than my other two deliveries.
• I was much more hormonal and emotional after delivery than I was with my other two. I cried over everything, especially over the fact my boys were in the NICU. It was exhausting to have to get ready, and drive 20 minutes to the hospital each day.
• I’ll admit I cried looking at my stomach after delivery. Most of my stomach is covered in stretch marks, along with my thighs. And my skin is stretched out. I’ve been told that bio oil helps with stretch marks, so that’s what I’m using. But for the stretched out skin, everyone tells me surgery is pretty much the only option. Now, seven weeks later, my stomach is looking a little better, but I have a long ways to go.
• I had other twin moms tell me to wear a postpartum support belt to help shrink my uterus and help tighten my stomach muscles. I wore it for six weeks, and I really think it helped. The first couple of weeks my stomach muscles were sore when I took it off at the end of the day. There are probably better belts, but this is the I wore here.
• As hard as the NICU was, I think it was a blessing, it allowed me to sleep, and recover before taking on two newborns.
• I didn’t gain too much weight during pregnancy, (22 lbs) and didn’t swell at all, not even my feet. I give credit to the gestational diabetes diet. So I was alarmed a few days after delivery when my entire body became swollen, including my eyelids. I was HUGE, I mean massive. My legs looked like tree trunks, and I looked more pregnant than I did before delivery, I was forced to wear my maternity clothes, which fit tighter than they did while carrying the twins. After a week, I called the Doctor’s office and they explained it’s quite common with twin moms. Due to all the fluid that was pumped in me before delivery, and all the extra blood flow it takes to carry twins, I was left with an unreal amount of fluid in my body which could take up to 4-6 weeks to get rid of. I was told to keep my feet elevated as much as I could and drink as much liquid as possible. The only way to get rid of it was to sweat or to pee it out…

I slept with my feet elevated every night, and it was not only painful to get ready in the mornings because within 30 minutes of standing, my legs and feet would be completely swollen, but making a trip to the NICU became embarrassing. I could barely walk because it was difficult to bend my feet at my ankles. And I swear the entire town of Rexburg either works at the hospital or eats lunch there. I tried to hide from everyone… sorry if I came off unfriendly. Looking back I wish I would have taken a picture, I was sooo big. Now I find it pretty funny, but at the moment, I didn’t. I’ll admit I cried a lot over it. Dang hormones. (These are the only pictures I took of myself until the swelling went down. And they still don’t really show how big I was).

    

Long story short, about two weeks after delivery, I googled the problem and other twin moms said to drink a lot of Gatorade. I drank three large Gatorades each day for three days straight, and after two nights of staying up to use the bathroom, and having night sweats (Gross I know) I lost 15 lbs of fluid within 48 hours which put me 5 lbs. under my pre-pregnancy weight. Though I weigh less, I don’t look like it, well maybe my chicken legs do. I lost nearly all the muscle I had in my legs. I guess that’s what happens when you sit on the couch for months because you’re too big to move.

Postpartum depression? I luckily haven’t struggled with this, but from talking to other mom’s and what I’ve read, it’s much more common after a twin pregnancy. I asked Pat to be on the lookout of symptoms for me. I figured if it was something that presented itself, I wanted help at my six week appointment, or ASAP. Taking care of two newborns is hard enough, let alone dealing with depression.

Now seven weeks later, I’m ready to begin working out, start eating like I did with gestational diabetes. I’m ready to start saying goodbye to my baby weight!