Eat Like a Trucker for Triplets: Nutrition for a Pregnancy of Multiples

As soon as I found out I was pregnant with triplets I put a hold on all the triplet themed books at the Calgary Public Library and that first weekend, I sat and read them all. The most startling thing I found was all the food that they recommended that I eat. Images flashed through my mind of eating Denny’s Grand Slam type breakfasts every morning. Eating the recommended 12 breads & cereals was equivalent to eating about a loaf of bread a day, and it should be soaked in milk. I could not imagine it especially because my morning sickness was severe; the thought of eating anything made my stomach churn-again.

It completely made sense to me that if I ate enough healthy foods while pregnant that the babies would stay in me for as long as possible and that each day they were inside me, they were getting stronger and less likely to have chronic health problems.

I knew that the last stage of the pregnancy meant it was hard to eat because of the pressure on your stomach. I quickly calculated that if triplets were usually born at about 33 weeks, and because I was already at 19 weeks, it meant that I had less than 14 weeks to pack on about 50 pounds from nutritious foods. 

I had to force myself to eat, even when I didn’t feel hungry; I had to layer my meals with nutrient dense foods, eat more often and eat more. Instead of a lunch of a glass of water and a ham sandwich with just 2 pieces of white bread and 2 slices of ham and mustard, I switched to multigrain bread with ham and mayonnaise, tomato slices, lettuce and a slice of cheese plus a glass of milk. I set an alarm to have a 2/3 cup of trail mix and a plum at ‘snack time’. With supper, instead of a slimming salad of a few leaves of lettuce and a little salad dressing, I would have a side salad with full-on calorie salad dressing, a sliced hard boiled egg, parmesan cheese, tomatoes and toasted sesame seeds sprinkled on top. I never skipped dessert. 

Muffins in Oven commons.wikimedia.org 

At one point, I was so thirsty, I would stand at the fridge, fill up and drink one glass of water, then another, then another, then take one more to bed with me to get me through the night. I found out that the amniotic fluid is completely replaced something like every 3 hours so I felt like I was contributing to a sparkly clean uterus if I drank water like crazy, even if it meant going to the bathroom constantly. 

Like all things with multiples, everything is intense, starting with the food you eat while you are carrying them, food is no longer just fuel or simple nourishment, but it has to be intensely nutritious. As people start asking you what they can do, respond quickly “muffins” and get friends filling your freezer. Your love and your care of your children can be expressed by you giving your kids excellent nutrition, by being a great incubator, even from the beginning. So say yes to creamy desserts, say yes to cheese on everything and feel good about dropping food on your shirt.   


Previously published in the September 2010 Multiplicity Newsletter for TTMAC: Twins, Triplets and More Association of Calgary. www.ttmac.org  Republishing permission granted. Thank you to L. Nielson for editorial work.