I am currently 30 weeks pregnant with twins and wanted to share my pregnancy journey as Lupus pregnancy blogs and experiences are hard to find, never mind twin lupus pregnancies.
I will write a separate blog post about our journey to conception and signs and symptoms that told me it was twins so keep an eye out for that 🙂
A bit of background, with my first singleton pregnancy, throughout the whole pregnancy I had next to no symptoms, cravings or pains. If it wasn’t for us “trying to conceive” (TTC) taking regular tests and my growing belly, I wouldn’t have known!
Step by step first trimester
Let me tell you, this time I had all of the symptoms in the first trimester (and beyond). As we had been TTC and I had been tracking my cycle using ovulation sticks from amazon, I have a good idea which days of my cycle symptoms began:
*DPO = days post ovulation
Pregnancy symptoms
Morning sickness. Just to clarify – it’s not just in the morning.
Week 3
At 11 DPO ~ 3w 3d pregnant – pregnancy tests were negative, I had very slight sickness to begin with and progressed to actually needing to throw up a week later. This continued throughout the first trimester and half way into the second.
2 days later, at 13 DPO ~ 3w, 5d pregnant – I got 3 positive pregnancy tests. Clear blue was showing 1-2 weeks – which would be correct from conception. I notified my consultants the next day as this is the protocol when you have Lupus, just so that they are aware and can begin to plan.
Week 4
Fatigue hit me like a bus, I could not stay awake and had to take naps throughout the day. If anyone knows me, I am not a napper in the slightest however, I was exhausted from barley doing anything.
I also started to experience weird and vivid dreams. I can’t remember what exactly happened but they were very strange, I would have these dreams most nights and it lasted for a couple of weeks.
Week 5
My breasts became extremely tender and full. They hurt to touch, and when I took my bra off it would be very painful for a couple of minutes until it settled – I have large breasts for my size, so the weight of them contributed to the pain due to the fragile state.
The low energy continued throughout the first trimester, I would sometimes just sit there staring into space not realising it, because I would be so out of it from the tiredness.
Week 7
Bloating and constipation began. My belly felt so full and round without me even eating. I had hardly been eating due to the sickness and loss of appetite since week 3.
My appetite was extremely low, I could hardly stomach anything and everything made me nauseous. I lost 2.3kg in the first trimester due to nausea. We were worried of course, worried that the babies were not getting enough nutrients and able to grow. After reading online forums and groups it is quite common in the first trimester so this put my mind at ease.
Week 9 – finding out it’s twins!
All of the above symptoms continued, and of course this all made sense (the complete opposite of my symptoms with my first) as this week, we found out we are having twins!
That’s when everything clicked, that’s why my symptoms and hormones have been everywhere.
It was a complete shock to the system, we didn’t believe the sonographer (as the couple before us had just found out they were having twins too and they told us how the sonographer broke the news to them – which he did the exact same to us). We still didn’t fully believe it until our 12 week scan to be honest, it was just madness to us!
I had always wanted twins, so to find out that we are actually having twins was an absolute dream come true and it didn’t feel real in the slightest – I was so excited! Johnny (my partner) was in complete shock, as I had always joked about – what if we have twins next – but of course never did he think it would happen.
Telling my Lupus consultants
I knew that the next conversations with nephrology, rheumatology and fetal medicine would be interesting as they had already been on edge about me being pregnant again. They have been 100% supportive of me having another baby, however they have always voiced their concerns and worries that could come from me being pregnant again. As with my last pregnancy is when Lupus Nephritis started and throughout that pregnancy they were all holding their breaths!
So knowing that I had to tell them it was twins was slightly daunting I’m not going to lie! I myself had been feeling worried and anxious about the future of this pregnancy and how things would pan out since finding out there’s two as you just never know how your body will react. The main question was “how am I going to fit 2 babies in my belly?!” as I’m only a tiny 4ft 10″ women.
I had joked previously with them about it being twins and we all just laughed it off… oops! The main reaction I got was “so it’s twins…” haha. To be honest they took the news quite well and seemed to remain calm (probably for my benefit so not to worry me). They didn’t seem overly more concerned about it being twins, just a similar level of concern to me being pregnant. I think in their eyes, they don’t start to worry or get too involved until much later on (26 weeks onwards) in the pregnancy, once viability has been reached.
Until next time!
We feel so extremely happy and blessed to be on this incredible journey.
That’s all for todays post, I believe I have covered everything major in my first trimester. Keep an eye out for my second trimester post and a post on my journey to conception with Lupus.
For more current updates, please follow my instagram and tiktok page @casa.de.castily to keep up!
Thank you as always for reading,
Much love,
xXx