8 Weeks Pregnant With Twins: Belly Pictures, Symptoms & Ultrasound

Note: Prenatal vitamins are Important!

Keep taking your folic acid supplement or a prenatal multivitamin. There are folic acid in prenatal multivitamin tablets. Folic acid helps prevent neural tube defects.

Symptoms at 8 weeks pregnant with twins

You may already have experienced several pregnancy related symptoms like:

• Morning sickness
• Feeling bloated and tired
• Sore or tense breasts
•  Round ligament pain

You feel round ligament pain as pain or tenderness in your abdomen. Round ligaments surround your uterus in your pelvis.

As your uterus grows during pregnancy, the ligaments stretch and thicken to accommodate and support it. These changes may occasionally cause pain.

This is completely normal and nothing to worry about. However, if you experience severe pain, cramping, bleeding and increased pressure in the pelvic area, you should call your health care provider immediately as this has nothing to do with round ligament pain.

Be aware that you – were you not pregnant – were supposed to have your second period around this time. That may cause you to experience minor spotting without anything being wrong.

What You Should Consider Buying

There’s still not much you need to shop for, but some parents like to start buying books about twins or to look at cute twin onesies. These are great choices for moms who are expecting twins!

Twin chorionicity ultrasound scan

You need to have a chorionicity ultrasound scan in your first trimester, many women get it with the dating scan at 12 weeks. Chorionicity relates to whether or not your twins share a placenta.

It’s important to know whether or not your twins share a placenta, because twins who share a placenta are more at risk of twin pregnancy complications. They are also at risk of diseases related to them sharing a placenta such as Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome (TTTS) and Twin Anemia Polycythemia Sequence (TAPS).

In severe TTTS or TAPS cases, where there is no intervention, both twins will die. However, there are treatment and surgery for TTTS you can get, also in severe cases.

Parents are sometimes misinformed about chorionicity or not told about the importance of determining chorionicity, so it’s important that you talk to your health care provider about it.

Chorionicity and fraternal & identical twins

You’ve probably already thought about whether your having identical or fraternal twins.

Identical twins stem from the same fertilized egg that split in two. Fraternal twins stem from two different eggs fertilized by two different sperm cells. All fraternal twins have separate placentas.

About 1/3 of identical twins have separate placentas as well. This type of twin pregnancy with separate placentas is named dichorionic diamniotic. It’s the type of twin pregnancy that carries the lowest rate of complications amongst twin pregnancies.

Twins who share a placenta are called monochorionic twins. About 2/3 of identical twins are monochorionic twins. They are more at risk of complications compared with dichorionic twins, and they need to be monitored more frequently.

8 weeks pregnant with twins ultrasound pictures

Here are three ultrasound scan pictures of three different monochorionic-diamniotic twin pregnancies. In this type of twin pregnancy, the twins share a placenta.

Baby size & development at 8 weeks

Your babies will measure about 1,6 centimetres (0,63 inch) at the end of this pregnancy week – that’s the size of a pinky nail. Skeletal structures are developing with the formation of spines, arms and legs.

In the beginning, the skeletal structures start out as flexible cartilage, but already in week 8 they begin to ossify, turning into harder bone. The paddle-formed buds, that are developing into arms, have grown. Wrists and fingers can be glimpsed.

The paddle-formed buds, that are developing into legs, will form into thighs, lower legs, feet and toes. The babies bodies are becoming more erect, and their arms and legs drift apart to reach their final positions.

Twin pregnancy diet

You need to eat a balanced, healthy diet when you’re pregnant. Many women get enough protein, but if you don’t – maybe because you suffer from morning sickness – you should consider upping your intake.

The amino acids that make up protein are the building blocks of your body’s cells – and of your twins bodies as well. You can get protein shakes if you’re having a hard time keeping food down.

Make sure to buy high quality shakes with as little sugar as possible.

Diet for women expecting monochorionic twins

Some research suggest that mothers with pregnancies complicated by Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome (TTTS) may have lower protein levels in their blood than other pregnant women.

That’s also why some doctors have started recommending mothers with TTTS pregnancies to consider additional protein through nutrition supplements such as protein shakes.

There’s no research that shows that a high protein diet can prevent TTTS, but there’s still a lot of research to be done in the area. TTTS can only happen to identical twins that share a placenta.