Twin Tips- Recovery After Twins… Expect the Unexpected (Guest Post)

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So, you’re having twins and you need tips, pointers and advice? Well, you’re in luck! This week our Twins {& MORE} Board tackles the topic of Recovery After Delivering Twins.  Erin kicks us off with her point of view after delivering her beautiful identical twin boys.

Nothing can ever prepare you for child birth, much less a multiple child birth. Not a book, a TV show, or what your girlfriends tell you.

I am lucky though, as I was my best friends coach for the birth of her first son. So at least I got an idea of what to expect. If you ever have the opportunity to watch the birth of another, I highly recommend it.

I did not do anything special to prepare for the birth of my twins. Well, besides painting and decorating the nursery, and washing, folding, and putting away all of those tiny little clothes. I prepared the nursery very early, which I urge all expecting moms to do in case of early delivery and of course because you will be much larger earlier than expected.

As with many multiple births, my twins came early, nine weeks early to be exact. My water broke while eating a BLT over at my parents house while my mom chatted with the Avon lady. I could go into detail writing the events preceding the birth of my twins but I would need several days of your time, and frankly you would get bored and give up reading. 🙂

Most hospitals have a multiple birth protocol. Even if you are to deliver vaginally, they have you deliver in an operating room in case of an emergency C-section or for some lucky women, to deliver one vaginally and the other via C-section. Thankfully I delivered both of mine vaginally (props to those poor souls who had to endure both).

I have to say, the birth of my twins was not the excruciating painful experience I mentally prepared for. The hemorrhaging part was the most painful part. I would have twenty more children if I don’t ever have to endure what I had to immediately after their birth. Once the bleeding was under control, I received several stitches (I asked “how many?” the doctor replied, “enough”) to my nether regions, and endured a burst blood vessel in my eye from pushing. I tried for several days to just deal with the soreness, but finally I decided to take some ibuprofen and that was all that I needed to get through the healing process.

My twins unfortunately did not come home with us. I was released after two days and they spent 28 and 31 days in the NICU. It has its benefits though, as I was able to heal without having to take care of the boys full time. The mile long walk however, to and from the NICU did not help the stitches and their healing. I was too proud to use a wheelchair 🙂

Because of their stay in the NICU, my husband went right back to work. We decided it would be best for him to take the time off once the babies came home. Once they were home, my husband took a week off so we could adjust to our new busy lives together. After that week, he was back to work and I was on my own. We did not have family stay with us at all. That is just not something my family does. I am jealous of those families that do that kind of thing. It really would have been nice to have a little help, the chance to take a nap, or someone to clean or make dinner.

All in all, recovering from the birth of my twins was much better than I had anticipated. I encourage all new moms to rest as much as possible, take your ibuprofen, and say YES to all of those people asking if they can help. I urge you to get the nursery ready, pack your hospital bags, and make some meals and freeze in advance. You never know with multiples, when they are ready to make their grand entrance. My best advice though, is to expect the unexpected.

You can learn more about Erin here and by checking out her beautiful blog Goldylocks and Her Three Bears!