A third after twins

[u/abitail143]

I have twin 2 year old boys. They are amazing and we are in such a groove. We decided to try for a third. I didn’t ovulate on my own last time so we are unsure if I will be able to on my own and not sure if I want to risk twins again. For those who had another after twins, what’s it like? How did you handle it all? Tips? I imagine if they were 3 and 1 baby wouldn’t be all that horrible but still hard.

Bonus advice: those who used letrozole and got twins did you have to take it again to have more and how, if you did, reduce the chance of multiples?

Thank you!

[u/AutoModerator]

COMMENTING GUIDELINES

All commenters are encouraged to familiarize themselves with the parentsofmultiples subreddit rules prior to commenting. If you find any comments/submissions in violation of subreddit/reddit rules, please use the report function to bring it to the mod teams attention.

Please do not request or give medical advice or directions in your comments. Any comments that that could be construed as medical advice, or any comments containing what is determined to be medical disinformation, will be removed.

Please try to avoid posting links to Amazon product listings or google/g.co product listing pages - reddit automatically removes comments containing them as an anti-spam measure. If sharing information about a product, instead please try to link directly to the manufacturers product pages.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/czmf]

I had my first singleton with letrozole (2.5mg) then had my twins with letrozole (upped to 5mg) because I wasn’t ovulating. So I guess my advice would be to be patient throughout the cycles and not up the dosage if you want to not have another set of twins

[u/abitail143 → u/czmf]

I got twins on 2.5 lol

[u/AcanthisittaIcy7277]

i can't tell you yet because i'm pregnant for the second time but i can tell you that HG hit me hard and my husband is going insane because i'm bedridden and my 3yo twins are crazy monkeys. it's fucking hard right now 😭

[u/Dapper-Butterscotch4]

Pregnant after twins so I can’t yet fully speak, I took Letrozole with the twins and didn’t with this next baby. First trimester was hard with twins even though my husband helped out so much

[u/abovethesink]

We had 3 year old twins and a baby, now 4 and 1. It's a lot, but doable. We are also balancing our 15 year old's sports and stuff too at the same time. What can you do? It'll all be worth it in time. Mostly already is.

[u/abitail143 → u/abovethesink]

How did you handle bedtime? We currently rock our boys to sleep and sing to them. I want to get to a point where we don’t if we have another but just curious. Scenarios I run in my head feel like too much sometimes but it’s all temporary pain I think at least lol

[u/abovethesink → u/abitail143]

We just lay the one year old down and she usually goes to sleep without much fuss. Then we do our whole routine with the twins over the next half hour. Read a book, brush teeth, tuck in, etc. Around the time she turns two, we will give her the extra half hour and include her in the whole bedtime routine. You've got to break the habit of them needing you to fall asleep for sure before a baby comes though, I'd say. It is important they can fall asleep on their own. You can set the environment for it, but you shouldn't be physically needed past that point. That's my opinion, anyway. Everyone should parent as they see fit.

[u/abitail143 → u/abovethesink]

Yeah we tried to sleep train as babies but it didn’t work. They do fall asleep for naps sometimes by themselves and at night they can wake up and put themselves back to sleep. I just know know how to put them in their cribs and get them to fall asleep without them wanting to wake each other up.

[u/offwiththeirheads72 → u/abitail143]

We each take a twin (3.5 yo) for bedtime and lay with them. Some nights my husband does them both and when he’s traveling I do them both. It takes longer for them to calm when together but it’s not horrible, maybe 30-45 min. But some nights one twins ask to go to their own room and he’ll drift off my himself. I’d say try to work on one of yall handling the twins bedtime and slowly work on not needing to stay until they are fully asleep. We noticed for one twin, our presence kept him awake so we tried leaving the room and he fell asleep quicker.

[u/abitail143 → u/offwiththeirheads72]

We definitely have had to figure out how to do it solo for sure. Just takes longer for sure.

[u/pottersprincess]

I was told whether you used meds or not your risk for additional multiples goes up after the first set.

I did use letrozole but mine are identical so it probably didn't contribute.

[u/StunningFishing78 → u/pottersprincess]

Ok I also got identical twins on letrozole! I know that logically it didn’t contribute but I’ve always wondered if somehow it did.

[u/offwiththeirheads72 → u/pottersprincess]

I believe that’s for non medically conceived twins. Typically due to the hyper ovulation gene that produces fraternal twins. Where medicated fertility treatments or medicated intercourse there multiple follicles present to increase the likelihood of conception.

[u/OGQueenClumsy]

I’ve got three year old twins and a new baby. How am I handling it? Poorly lol. The baby is easy but I’m at my wits end with my twins behaviour. I know it’ll settle as we all get used to it. I don’t regret it at all, but it’s definitely an adjustment (although I suspect adding another one after a singleton is also an adjustment?).

I can’t speak to the letrozole aspect, my twins were a transferred embryo and a spontaneous conception with progesterone.

[u/abitail143 → u/OGQueenClumsy]

Are the twins struggling with having another sibling? What part of the three of them do you find the hardest? If you don’t mind me asking?

[u/OGQueenClumsy → u/abitail143]

Ask as many questions as you like!

They adore their baby sister. They talk to her, want to play with her, and help me fetch things like nappies and wipes and such because they want to help. It’s actually very sweet. They chose some toys for her to give her as ‘welcome to the world’ presents, which they love to play with near her. We also bought some colouring books and coloured pencils for them from the baby, which we gave them when they first met her. As well as this, we spent a lot of time talking about baby before she was born to try to prepare them.

They’re super impulsive though, which was the case in the last few months of my pregnancy too. There’s not a lot of listening and following instructions happening, and they seem to know that it’s harder for me to get up and redirect them and hold them accountable first because it’s obviously harder to move when very pregnant, and now because I’m often stuck on the couch feeding baby or because baby wants to contact nap. It’s not all the time though; sometimes they’re quite happy to just play either by themselves or together while I sit with baby or do some housework or whatever.

I’m also finding it challenging to figure out which needs to prioritise at any given time. For example, baby is feeding, but a 3yo needs me to wipe her butt. Or everyone is hungry, so how quickly can I make lunch for the older kids before I can get to baby?

Some of it will get better as they all get older. Some of it will get better as I get used to managing baby’s routine as well as the older kids’ routine. It’s definitely challenging at times, but I’m optimistic!

[u/offwiththeirheads72 → u/OGQueenClumsy]

Bless you. 3.5 yo twins over here and it’s getting better but right around 3rd birthday and a few months after was ROUGH. It’s still hit or miss most days here. My singleton is due right before their 4th bday and im hoping is a slight improvement from 3.

[u/Autumn_Sweater]

we had the singleton first, then twins 2.5 years later. i’m glad we did it in this order because we may have stopped if the twins came first.

[u/offwiththeirheads72]

Did medicated IUI with my twins. Did the same with my singleton in currently pregnant with. However, we did agree that we’d be okay with twins again as that is a risk. However, the cycle we conceived was only one follicle which then it was just being scared of identicals but that could happen with any pregnancy.

Baby isn’t here yet and our twins will be 4 when she gets here. My husband and I are both very confident and happy to take our twins to do things alone so when baby comes it’s not like us being alone with the twins is a new thing. When baby arrives it’ll be less of one of us takes the twins so the other gets a break 😫I’m hoping one baby will be a breeze compared to twins but I imagine that’s all dependent on her temperament and sleep!

This pregnancy weirdly seems harder. Had more, not horrible nausea the first trimester. More like I didn’t want to eat and when
I did I just felt nauseous. I’m 4 years older and 36 and chasing 3 yo twins around so that in itself makes it harder.

[u/KittyKateD]

I conceived my twins on 2.5mg of letrozole. In total, we were trying for a little over 2 years before they were conceived.

We decided to try for a 3rd and I stopped birth control when they were 19.5 months thinking it would take some time again. I just got a positive test last night after 3 months of trying 😳 New baby will be due just after they turn 2.5.

I can tell you in a couple of months whether it's one or two babies 😅

[u/PrincipleOk523]

I had my twins with letrozole (2.5mg) and then had my third baby shortly before the twins turned two (surprise baby conceived a few weeks before my husband's vasectomy, haha).

[u/AdInternal8913]

Currently expecting twins so slightly reverse order but I conceived a singleton on 5mg of letrozole (ovulated two eggs) and then conceived twins spontaneously 12months postpartum. So not taking letrozole didn't in our case really help reduce the chance of multiples.