Can your early pregnancy symptoms be a clue as to whether you could be pregnant with twins vs a singleton?
My early pregnancy symptoms with twins were very different compared to my single baby. And because my first baby was born less than 3 years ago, I remember that pregnancy journey very clearly. The thing I remember most about being pregnant with just one baby was that, comparatively, nothing much happened! Let me explain.
When we were trying to conceive our first, we had baby-danced for eight days in a row over my fertile window that I was tracking with ovulation tests (OPKs). Yep, my poor husband. I was determined! When I took a pregnancy test and saw that first very very faint line at 9dpo, I was pleasantly surprised (who am I kidding, I was ecstatic!). But. I had no inkling that I was pregnant aside from that line. There were no unusual symptoms and no gut feeling that I was pregnant. Sure, I had hope – don’t we all wish for the best each month? But there wasn’t anything inside me that just knew I was pregnant based on some kind of unusual signs or symptoms like I did with my twin pregnancy.
I felt completely normal until the 6-7 week mark when the nausea set in and I retreated to my bedroom for days on end and ate anything but saltine crackers. My twin pregnancy though? My symptoms hit hard the day after my first faint positive and were intense. Of course, at this stage, I had no clue that I was carrying twins, so I just assumed I was experiencing a ‘normal’ variation in pregnancy symptoms. It was only when I learned I was carrying twins a few weeks later that everything finally made sense.
Morning Sickness With Twins vs Singleton
This one was a doozy. I mentioned that my morning sickness didn’t start with my singleton until 6-7 weeks. It was intense for a short while, seeing me retreat to my room and forgoing dinner for just under a week. I declined all social invitations and generally felt quite sorry for myself, though given how excited I was to be pregnant, I didn’t mind too much. I felt nauseous and I knew this was the dreaded “morning sickness that lasts all day” that everyone had always talked about.
My morning sickness with my first single baby lasted until 12-13 weeks. Definitely in my 13th week, I was back to eating a fairly normal diet, though with a few changes. I absolutely craved a rather unhealthy combination of instant noodles with baked beans and cheese. I can’t tell you why or how, but it hit the spot every single lunchtime for about four weeks. I’m guessing my body and baby just needed the energy via all the carbohydrates, and that was perfectly fine by me.
Side note: I just looked up the nutritional information labels for the first time, and I was consuming approximately 165g of carbohydrates and 30g of fat per serving, not including the cheese. Yikes!
With my twins, the morning sickness started almost straight away. With a heightened sense of smell starting the day after I first tested positive, I’d say the morning sickness kicked in within a few days after that. And morning sickness with twins is intense in every way. My head was spinning in circles and I wanted to dry heave all of the time. I ate a lot of rice crackers and drank a lot of electrolyte water. Thankfully, I didn’t actually vomit.
The morning sickness eased off and then stopped entirely around the same time as my singleton pregnancy – 12-13 weeks gestation. In both pregnancies, the morning sickness never returned.
Food Aversions With Twins vs A Singleton
The only symptoms that continued to persist even after the nausea part of my morning sickness finished up with my single pregnancy was food aversions to very particular foods, heightened by a strong sense of smell. Specifically, the smell of freshly ground coffee in the morning – a love of mine – now made me want to puke. I couldn’t stand it. And also the smell of meat cooking. I distinctly recall walking into the kitchen to the smell of chorizo frying in the pan and feeling sick instantly.
The timing of the food aversions was also unfortunate – my husband spent a lot of time and effort making me my favourite massaman curry from scratch. We ate it for dinner, and when I awoke in the morning and walked out of our bedroom, I got a whiff of the smell lingering in the kitchen and it smelt absolutely awful to me now, and I never had another bite of it.
Interestingly with my twins, I barely had any aversions. I was maybe a bit more picky as I recall letting my husband know several times that I just didn’t feel like the dinner he or we had prepared anymore and would just eat something else. (it’s okay he fully understood!). But I still enjoyed the smell of coffee, and more importantly, meat became my absolute best friend. Which didn’t come as too much of a surprise now that I think about it, given that the protein requirements for a twin pregnancy are off the charts, though I managed to achieve them. It’s like my body knew I needed to eat as much protein as possible, and so it helped me get it in and “feel like it”, even when I didn’t feel like eating much else. I did survive on just protein and chocolate for a few weeks at least.
Fatigue With My Twin Pregnancy Was Much More Severe
I was undoubtedly tired during my first single pregnancy – growing a human takes a lot out of you. And naturally, growing two humans takes even more. Especially when you’ve also got a toddler to run around after, who couldn’t care in the least whether you’ve had a good night’s sleep or not.
I took an afternoon nap almost every single day of my twin pregnancy. I felt exhausted for at least half the day. And towards the end of the pregnancy, I’d have my husband and toddler tuck me into bed around 6 pm (before the pregnancy insomnia kicked in around 3 am). Sometimes I’d just use my phone for an hour first to unwind – but I just needed that downtime and couldn’t stay ‘present’ in the real world.
I Felt Bubbles In My Twin Pregnancy And Not With My Singleton
I consider the feeling of bubbles to be the biggest indicator that I was pregnant with my twins, occurring the day before I got my first faint positive pregnancy test. I never experienced this ‘tapping’ with my single baby. I’m still not sure what it was but I’ve detailed the sensation as one of two of my key early twin pregnancy symptoms here.
I Could Still Eat Through My Nausea With Twins
I briefly mentioned this above, but I still managed to meet my daily protein requirements and keep eating even when I was nauseous with the twins. But with my singleton, I survived on a diet of just plain crackers (with the occasional bit of fruit) for quite a while.
I Was Constantly Hungry When I Was Pregnant With Twins
And on that note, I did feel like a bottomless pit at some points throughout my twin pregnancy, and never really felt this way with my first. I ate so much food, all the time, and my go-to snacks shifted from some crackers, for example, to a steak or salmon or a protein shake. My body needed the baby growing power (times two) and I happily obliged every time. I even indulged in my very first fried chicken takeout in years, opting for just a massive amount of fried chicken, minus the sides.
What The Research Says About Twin vs Singleton Pregnancy Symptoms
Honestly, the actual tangible evidence-based research on the topic is very slim, aside from a 1995 study that looked at maternal physical and mental well-being in twin pregnancies versus single pregnancies and showed that twin moms experienced poorer physical well-being, unsurprisingly. But across the board of OBGYN-written information, the consistent information typically presented includes that twin moms:
- Get way more hungry
- Feel much more tired
- Put on a lot more weight, and start their weight gain earlier
- Urinating very frequently early on
- Greater breast tenderness
- Start showing earlier (I definitely did!)
- Greater likelihood of changes in sleeping patterns
- Greater mood changes
- Are more likely to be iron-deficient
Signs You Could Be Pregnant With Twins
Too early for an ultrasound and wondering if there could be two babies joining your family instead of one? I’ve just had a deep dive into what the research says on signs that you could be pregnant with twins long before your first ultrasound. I’m going to be honest with you: everything I could find online says the same old boring things that you will have read a million times: elevated HCG levels (you can see my personal levels here for both twin and singleton pregnancies), severe morning sickness, increased fatigue, showing earlier, elevated AFP levels (not that you’d even know) – this is all the same old stuff any website can tell you. And that’s not what we’re here for.
So I put my investigative hat on and did some digging in online twin forums (which I’m very familiar with as a twin mom) and here is what other twin moms have reported experiencing that may be more interesting for you:
- Lots of gas and trapped gas
- Feeling hot – not wearing a jumper when everyone else is
- Getting tired doing simple things like walking up stairs – could be because your body wants to preserve energy to sustain two growing babies? This makes sense to me! And ties in with one of my personal earliest symptoms.
- Many twin moms reported insomnia early on. I actually experienced this intensely during my third trimester and woke at 3 am every night for weeks, but not my first trimester. Everyone is different!
- Some women had unexplained bleeding in the first trimester. Personally, this would freak me out, and I’d always recommend seeing your doctor if this happens to you. But according to the twin moms, it can be more common from their direct experience (and their babies were fine).
Hope this helps!
[…] The second ultrasound a few days later at 5+3 made it feel like it could be starting to be real. Seeing that the second sac was still there filled my heart with hope. And the third ultrasound, where we were able to see both twin heartbeats, is what sealed the deal for me. From that moment on, I knew in my heart of hearts, that I’d really be a twin mom! Although I had a few signs earlier, given that the start of this twin pregnancy was so different from my first singleton pregnancy. […]