From twin boys to a baby girl, here’s a comparison of my symptoms, body changes, gender prediction and more between both my pregnancies.
So here I am pregnant again but this time it’s only one baby and THANK GOD! I love my boys but I don’t know what I would have done with another set of twins LOL. Not only is it one baby, it’s also a girl so we are very excited for this new addition to the family. I always get asked; How do I feel this time around, is there anything different? Here’s my take…
6 months with twins VS singleton
Morning sickness with twin boys: Compared to the horrible morning sickness stories I hear daily, I had a pretty easy experience. I would wake up, open my eyes, feel dizzy, get up from bed and symptoms would be gone instantly.
Morning sickness with a baby girl: Unlike with twins, I woke up normal but half way through the day I would have dizzy spells and an upset stomach. It only lasted a few days and It didn’t get worse.
24 wks with twins VS. singleton
Body changes with twin boys: Since the twins were my first pregnancy I didn’t really start to show until after 6 months. Throughout my pregnancy, my skin started getting darker on my neck, armpits, and belly and it all returned back to normal pigmentation after I gave birth. I also had shortness of breath and back pain from 30wks and on.
With baby girl: Although I’m only having one baby, my belly started showing earlier at 5 months. My skin color has not changed but it is very dry. I can’t tell if it’s because of my pregnancy or the winter season. At 30wks I can keep up with my twins and not lose my breath so easily but I do start having sciatic episodes if I’m on my feet all day.
With Both: I experienced low iron levels during my second trimester which is completely normal in most pregnancies.
Dark marks from twins VS singleton
Debunking Girl VS Boy Myths
I’ve heard so many old wives’ tales believed to predict the gender of the baby and since I have opposite sex, I’m here to test them all. I picked out some of the most common predictions to see how true they were based on my pregnancies and here’s my take.
Twin(boys) VS. Singleton(girl)
- Belly Shape: “A watermelon shaped belly means you’re having a girl, a basketball shape means boy”- Well my belly looked exactly the same to me until I put my belly photos side by side. OMG! I definitely rewrote this whole section�… My belly does look a lot slimmer with boys and rounder with a girl (see photo above). Homegirl what did you do to my waist?! What do yall think?
- Chinese gender prediction calendar: How true is this method? For my twin pregnancy, it predicted a boy (they are identical so obviously it’s the same sex for both). As for my singleton, it predicted I was expecting a girl and it wasn’t wrong again. So yes I guess it worked for me but that’s not always the case. My best advice is to never be too confident until you get your blood test results.
- Cravings: “Women who crave sugar are carrying a girl, whereas salty cravings may indicate boy” – OMG THIS IS SOOO TRUE! So with my twins, I remember constantly eating out of a jar of olives or pickles and even having a meltdown over potato chips. Now that I’m pregnant with a girl, all I eat is sweet stuff like cookies, ice cream, candy and etc. I even had to limit myself and stop buying most of these things because it’s not healthy and I was gaining weight too fast on junk food.
- Appearance: “Girls take your beauty away, Boys make you glow”- I was starting to break out at the beginning of my pregnancy with a baby girl but then I realized I was slacking on my usual skin care routine so I can’t really agree with this tale. I feel like I look the same with both pregnancies and I also gained weight in the same areas.
Check ups, sonograms & more
- Twin pregnancy: During my first pregnancy I was considered high risk because I was carrying identical twins that shared a placenta and I needed to be monitored frequently. I was at the hospital every 2 weeks for 30 weeks getting sonograms and other tests done to measure their growth.
- Singleton pregnancy: Now that I’m pregnant with one, I am also considered high risk because early blood test results showed low levels of PAPP A. It’s a low protein in my placenta that has been associated with stillbirth, preterm labor, pre-eclampsia and other pregnancy issues. My doctor didn’t seem to make a big deal about it. In fact, they have been scheduling to see me every 6-8 weeks and it makes me feel like I’m never at the doctors. I also did my own little research on mom-forums (always read/ask moms) and many said they had a healthy pregnancy, delivery, and baby. At the end of the day, I can’t control the uncontrollable and there’s no cure or cause to these low levels so I don’t overthink it. Now that I’m in my third trimester, I will have to see my doctor more frequently for precaution and that’s all.
So far the only difference between being pregnant with twins and one baby has been the baby weight and comfort. After 30 weeks pregnant with twins, I had to sleep sitting up with pillows to be comfortable. With one baby, I’ve been okay sleeping on my left or right side of my body. I also feel like I never see my doctor compared to the number of times I was at the hospital with the twins. Nevertheless, so far this pregnancy has been as smooth as the previous and I’m excited to see how my delivery will be compared to the boys so stay tune for that post. You can read more on my twin pregnancy on this post—-> click here. Xox