Firstly I'd like to say after several months of trying, we're expecting our 3rd child(or more). Hooray!

Secondly, I know this topic will be controversial but all the same, this is one of the fun things that woman who are waiting for their first US can talk about just to pass the time, so please don't jump on the comments calling people names or saying it was all in their head as whatever one person experiences, the other may never and that's totally ok!!

Finally, the real topic! I've been testing positive since 6 days prior to the first day of my missed period and it was a pretty obvious positive then. I know when I ovulated because I experience something called Mittelschmerz pain, which is pain associated with ovulation and let me tell you, I get it pretty bad around both sides of my back.. so let's just say I spend the majority of the month dealing with ovulation pain for a few days and AF pains. Along with my Mittelschmerz pain. I also CP check, CM check, and I use OPK tracking before, during and after.

All of those line up for the same O day, not to mention my Glow <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.glow.android">ovulation tracker</a>, <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.glow.android.eve">Period tracker</a> which also does an ovulation prediction and then Kindara. While using all of these methods, every one pointed to the same day, which might I also point out- according to my first set of positives, those predictions were spot on, just really dark.. really fast!

I've heard many different stories about all of the symptoms that are experienced when pregnant with twins. I'm just going to name a few that I suspect might be why I am highly suspicious I'm carrying twins.

Here goes:

1. I'm overweight for my bmi and a tall gal compared to most of my family/friends. Although this has really never been proven to cause twin-happenings, scientists believe that woman who carry more weight and have twins might've been because mother nature seen the ability for them to maintain that pregnancy. Once again, not proven and I know many smaller ladies that were under weight and had twins.

2. A previous twin pregnancy. When I was pregnant with my first daughter, I was quite far along before I went to be "checked"(about 8-10 weeks). When I did, it was just a health unit checkup. The nurse who listened for a heart beat asked me if I had twins in my family, said it seemed like she heard two and proceeded to say that I would need an ultrasound to verify. Times were stressful at work, and I didn't pick a doctor until I was almost 4 months along. With that being said, there was just one at that point but likely I had two before. I was extremely malnourished and under weight while throwing up so much that my throat would bleed but much younger and much less informed on taking care of my body while pregnant with a baby.

3. Natural Twins in family. This one is the one I would say has the most relevance to the twin theory in my case. My dad's brother and sister were natural fraternal twins and I take after my dad and grandmother so very much. I carry my dad's blood type and I'm almost identical to my aunt who was a twin. That means that my dad could've passed that to me although scientists believe that a man's chance to have direct twins with his partner are not amplified, he passes that to his daughters and there's a high chance of twin conception for them. Even though scientists believe that is the situation, it's hard for me to believe that completely considering my mother said she lost a twin with my older sisters' pregnancy and that side of our family doesn't have any trace of twins. With that being said, twins certainly run in my husbands side and my side so the chances are greater for twins with us genetically.

4. Remember me mentioning Mittelschmerz pain? So this one is another I'm not sure has been proven to be connected but.. I have pretty intense ovulation pain and with in hours it felt like I had ovulated from both sides this cycle. It was at seperate times and they weren't very far apart but it was painful/sharp pains on each side about 5 or 6 hours between eachother, followed by a couple more days of swollen crampy lower back pain that never really completely went away until after I got my BFP sometime. I'm not sure how many people have experienced this and then found out they were pregnant with twins but it seems like a good sign that I may've ovulated twice.

5. We're just getting older! Some woman have a higher chance of twin conception as their bodies get older and they experience hormones that release more eggs. I'm not sure that 25 years old would qualify for these statistics but I feel like I've been dealing with some strange hormonal changes for about 2 years that could be related to anything but definitely make me think it could be causing my Mittelschmerz pain which could also be caused by dropping more then one egg.

6. This will be my 3rd pregnancy! I've had two other children, 5 and 3 years old. Since this is my 3rd pregnancy, it does make me more likely to conceive twins.

7. Really early dark line! Since about 3 days before my missed period I was getting dark likes that were almost as dark or as dark as the control like on the HPT's and I've been testing + since 6 days before the first day of my missed period. I've taken so many different brands, some really cheap, some really expensive and now the lines are so dark that they're literally taking from the control line to make the test line abundantly darker! I don't know for sure that this is a likely sign of twins but I've heard that high levels of HCG will cause a test to have an extremely dark 2 lines or even darker test line, and darker HCG has been linked to multiples. I've never had this happen with my two children prior. I was testing pretty often and even later into my pregnancy too just to watch the levels and never once did I have a test that's test line was darker than the control line! Coincidence or a sign?

8. I'm so extremely sleepy! I don't remember feeling this way with my other two children in early pregnancy. I literally feel zonked all day, all night and just down right sleep deprived!

9. Insomnia! The insomnia is real!! Once again, I never remember struggling with my two previous pregnancies. I will toss and turn all night, I'm always too smothery feeling, my back will get sore and stiff if I stay in one spot too long, and I have many nights where I can't rest at all. I don't think this is related but could it be?

Basically, these are just some of the things I can think of off the top of my head. I've tried really hard just to think about things like baby showers and gender reveals.. lol.. but it's so hard to think about any of those things to distract myself while thinking about the baby or babies.

What are some of the tell-tale signs that you noticed were different when you were expecting twins? Did you notice anything different? Did you experience any of these things and then find out you were expecting twins?!

I could really use the distraction! So, lets hear it y'all!!

The photos I'm sharing with you are the two dark ones I took two days ago and the light line was a very aparent line in person but can be difficult to see in the photo due to resolution. The frer(the test pictured with the flowers) is the test I took 6 days before the first day of my missed period. The First response rapid response is a test you can take the first day of your missed period. I basically just bought it for photos and memories sake but was extremely surprised to see that line pull so dark & that was 2 days ago! Either way.. just a reference photo to one of my symptom/signs I mentioned.