Follow along with twin mom Claire’s pregnancy journey from 30 weeks pregnant through delivery! Here’s her 31 weeks with twins update!
Week 30 of twin pregnancy got real for Mommy Claire! But week 31 with twins is when she started to really feel it.
This Alabama twin mom checked in with Nat this week a little more tired, a little more uncomfortable, and a lot more honest about what these final weeks actually take out of you.
Claire’s week 31 with twins update is all about getting ahead of the hard parts before delivery day. Watch Claire’s Week 31 twin pregnancy check-in or keep reading for her biggest takeaways for this week.
1. At 31 weeks, “feeling it” is completely normal
For most of this pregnancy, Claire felt relatively good, and then came the third trimester. Now, the second she stands up, she has to pee or feels a practice contraction. As Nat reminds her, that’s her body doing exactly what it’s supposed to do.
The discomfort around 31 weeks with twins usually isn’t a sign something’s wrong; it’s a sign you’re carrying two humans into the home stretch.
Have you taken your expecting twins class yet? We offer a great class on demand so you can take it on your own schedule! There are so many video modules covering everything from your twins’ baby registry to your first week at home with twins! Sign up today to get started before your twins arrive.
2. After 30 weeks, you can’t really make plans
Nat has been saying it for over a decade: once you pass 30 weeks with twins, plans go out the window. Some moms feel great right up until delivery; others feel every ounce of it.
It all depends on where the babies are, how they’re positioned, and how you’re doing overall. Instead of fighting that uncertainty, the move is to ride the wave and keep your expectations loose. That’s not to say you can’t go out and enjoy yourself if you’re feeling completely fine. But with your delivery day inching closer, it can be helpful mentally if you don’t create too many plans that ended up getting totally derailed.
3. The twin comments will come
Claire has been carrying her twins more compactly, so she’s been getting a lot of “Are you sure there’s two in there?” Of course with a MoDi pregnancy, this can trigger fears about small babies or other complications like TTTS.
Claire’s reframe of these offhand comments is one every twin mom can borrow: most people who say thoughtless things aren’t trying to hurt you. They’re imagining themselves in your shoes and can’t picture how they’d cope. Ultimately, it’s their perception, not your reality. So as best you can, let what others may say go in one ear and out the other.
4. Protect your mental health
Claire is refreshingly open about her first birth with her singleton: a planned home birth that became a hospital transfer, missed epidurals, a NICU stay. This turned into a postpartum season that was marked by depression, anxiety, and PTSD so intense her body would vibrate as the sun went down.
It was so overwhelming, at one point she looked at her husband and said, “I hope you only want one.” And yet here she is with twins, doing it differently. The biggest difference this time around? She has a therapist she trusts (and has kept seeing throughout her pregnancy). And she has a close friend who just had di-di boys and truly gets it.
If any of this sounds like your experience, this is your reminder that you don’t have to white-knuckle it alone. Talk to your provider or a perinatal mental health professional and line up your support before the babies arrive.
Twiniversity tip: It’s never too early or too late to get support from a licensed mental health professional.
5. Have a “what if labor starts today” plan, including a plan B
Claire and her husband have mapped out their ideal plan as well as a back-up plan. This includes: looping in colleagues at their practice, having parents four streets over with their ringers on, and a plan to close the office for the day if needed.
Nat urges her to take that plan one step further by having a plan B because driving yourself in full labor isn’t ideal. (Even members of the Twiniversity team have ended up doing exactly that). Know whether 911 in your area will take you to your delivery hospital, and decide now who your backup driver will be if needed.
Twiniversity tip: Be sure to create your own birth plan for your twin delivery so that you can think through what’s most important to you and communicate that to your care team.
6. Pack your hospital bag the moment you hit 30 weeks
This is Claire’s number-one to-do, and Nat is firm about it too: after 30 weeks, everyone should have a hospital bag packed for their twin delivery. It’s not because of how you feel, but because you won’t have more time next week.
Claire’s real-world additions to her hospital bag include: comfy pajamas she won’t mind retiring, a heating pad, and disposable postpartum underwear (anyone who remembers the ice-pack-and-pad situation knows why). Pack for the version of delivery day that could happen tomorrow.
7. Handle the boring logistics now (hello, autopay)
Expect the best and at the same time, have a general plan you can implement if less-than-ideal moments unfold. Setting up automatic bill pay before the babies arrive is a tiny task that saves a huge headache if you deliver early or end up in the NICU. It’s just one less thing to think about.
Nat speaks from experience here. Having an unexpected month in the NICU meant some missed payments and years of credit repair for her family. The takeaway isn’t to be fearful or to over-worry about all the tiny details. It’s to simply realize that a few small setups today make an unpredictable delivery day far less stressful.
8. Plan for the invisible “magic” work, aka the stuff that stops when mom stops
Many households run on invisible mom labor: the laundry that “disappears,” the dishwasher that “empties itself.” When mom goes off her feet, that magic stops–sometimes even with an incredible partner with the best of intentions.
For Claire, home tasks are well covered, but the practice is where her specific roles live: insurance emails, billing, the daily checklist. She and her husband are figuring out coverage now so the office keeps running while she’s out. No matter your work situation or your division of household tasks, if you’re expecting twins, it helps to do an audit for your own autopilot tasks.
10. Advocate for the best care
We send people to physical therapy after a knee replacement and even send a nurse to follow up with them at home. And yet a mom recovering from childbirth and a major abdominal surgery (if a C-section) is sent home to care for two newborns with no mandated support and little to no follow-up.
This is why so often issues like diastasis recti, which is common with twins, often go unmonitored. Again, we don’t share all of this to worry you, it’s to give you permission to seek out support proactively!
Therapists, mom’s groups, parent support groups, chiropractic care, physical therapy, postpartum care—whatever you can get access to helps! And at the very least, it’s good to know where the help is before you need it.
One decision worth making before your twins’ delivery: cord blood banking…
While you’re checking logistics off your list during twin pregnancy, here’s one more worth considering. Your babies’ cord blood is a one-time source of newborn stem cells that’s collected right after birth (or otherwise discarded) to be used down the road should there be a health need for it.
If cord blook banking something you want to explore, this series’ sponsor CordBlood.com offers special twin-family pricing with code DUO2.
Watch the full episode:
Watch Claire’s full 30 weeks with twins conversation on our channel, and follow her whole journey to delivery in this playlist! This Week 30 update is part of a larger playlist following Claire’s twin pregnancy through delivery. See the full playlist here.
Connect with Mommy Claire:
Claire and her husband run Reignite Chiropractic. Show them some love by following along with them on Instagram or Facebook.
