Parent to Parent By Jodie Lynn
Moments for Mom By Elisabeth Corcoran
Ask A Twin Mommy By Cheryl Lage
Mothering By Heart By Cheri Fuller
Jelly Mom By Lisa Barker
Family Check-up By Sheila Wray Gregoire
Simplifying Motherhood By Trish Berg
Making the Most of Marriage By Paula Friedrichsen
Best Timing for a Twin Baby Shower?
April, 2007
By Cheryl Lage
QUESTION:
Cheryl,
I love your book. I bought it early on in my pregnancy and needed to
put it down. All of the information is a bit overwhelming after
learning of a twin pregnancy. I've been reading it now (17 weeks) and am
loving it.
Can you recommend a good time for a baby shower? Singleton moms typically have one month before delivery or in that time frame however twins can and do arrive early. Any suggestions on an appropriate time frame?
-Twin Mom-to-be Julie
ANSWER:
Hi Julie-
So glad you like Twinspiration, and boy oh boy-----do I EVER remember the feeling of the early twin pregnancy “too much information”! You were wise to “put it down”, and I am glad you’ve gotten to a place where you could pick the book back up! J Hopefully you will find some of it helpful once your babies arrive…or that at least it’ll provide some “leaping points” for developing your own ideas and methods for plural parenting that will be most workable for your family.
To your question, what a good one!
You are exactly right about most twins arriving before their singleton
counterparts. Whereas a singly born baby typically arrives around 40
weeks; twins on average are born between 36-37 weeks…and yes, they can
come even earlier.
What definitely comes earlier for most twin expecting women is discomfort…feeling clumsy, excessively fatigued, breathless, hyper-emotional, etc. While ALL of those afflictions are bearable (and remember, they’re only temporary!) you may want to pre-schedule shower(s) to ensure your ability to enjoy it/them more fully…before you are feeling “full” yourself!
As you mentioned in your e-mail, singleton moms typically have their showers 1-2 months before the arrival of the baby----sometime between 32-36 weeks. It’s not all that unusual for them to occur even earlier…especially if travel for the expecting mama-to-be is going to be required. Both airlines and OB-GYNs have recommendations/guidelines re: travel for those expecting. Late in pregnancy, even basic car travel of any duration was my personal nemesis….just couldn’t get in a comfy position.
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Logically, women expecting two babies should back-time their showers by a very MINIMUM of 3-4 weeks (the “predictable” earlier factor) from the typical singleton shower, so sometime between 28-32 weeks. However, I think that’s pushing it a bit too late. I would NOT plan ANYTHING significant after 28 weeks….and might even suggest timing it sometime between 24-28 weeks. Twin pregnant women typically measure “more progressed” pregnancy-wise than the single-baby bearing population. (To illustrate, at 29 weeks into my pregnancy, my belly/fundal height was measuring the size of a singly-pregnant woman at 37 weeks! See what I mean?!?) With greater girth, you are likely to experience less mobility, quicker exhaustion, as well as more overall discomfort. Now by NO means am I saying you wouldn’t be thrilled to have a shower at any stage, or that you will undoubtedly be “miserable” in your latter weeks. You may feel PERFECT right up to 38 weeks, and I hope that you do….but err on the side of safety. You should plan to enjoy your shower, so see if it can be planned “early”!
Of course that means you should register early, too. What fun that process is! When you seek out your preferred items for your infants, their pending arrival seems all the more “real”…and after that shower? When you see the items for your babies in your own home, ready to greet your little once when they arrive? Have some tissues handy!
Wishing you all the very best for a healthy, happy pregnancy…and for a fantastic shower!
Best and blessings-
Cheryl
www.Twinsights.com
Feel free to contact me with your experiences in twin potty-training, or with any twin parenting dilemnas you may have at http://www.twinsights.com. I hope to hear from you!
© Cheryl Lage, 2004-
Author of "Twinspiration: Real-Life Advice From Pregnancy Through the First Year" from Taylor Trade Publishing (2006), Cheryl is a fully-mobile, full-time mom to four-year-old fraternal twins, Darren and Sarah. Cheryl's unabashed honesty, vigilantly supportive style, and willingness to share "what works" have made her a requested speaker on a broad range of topics, twin-related, and otherwise. Check out her website @ twinsights.com.
Read Cheryl's Ask A Twin Mommy column at C'Moms