I know that I'm not the only mama pregnant around here with twins (and full of questions) and I also know that there are many of you who've already gone through having twins, so I'm calling on you twin mamas for help!
What item(s) was it essential for you to have two of? Just nice to have two of? Also what gear do you need specifically for twins that you wouldn't have purchased for a single lo?
Please feel free to share any other twin tips too. Thanks!
honeydew / 7230 posts
My babies are going down to sleep now, but I'll be back later/tomorrow to comment!
persimmon / 1420 posts
I loved having two boppies and two bouncers, as well as a carrier for each parent. They were both great as kid receptacles, and I used a boppy to tandem nurse- I hated anything bigger, but I think I'm an anomaly. One cradle for our room, and eventually one crib. They didn't use two cribs until 7 or so months. Both of mine hated the swing, so I'm glad I only had one, and it was used. Only one pack n play..... Hmmm, I'll think on it. Congratulations! What a great turn of events from your first ultrasound!
pomelo / 5041 posts
@twodoghouse: Thanks!! Can't wait to hear your suggestions.
@meganmp: Thanks for sharing all of these. I'm glad that I least I have one of most of them from my son - just need to get another one.
clementine / 770 posts
@marionberry: I was actually just browsing on my phone, but i had to log on to my laptop to respond to this.
SLEEPING: OK, I have learnt a whole lot in the 5 short months i had my B/G twins. And unlike most twin mums, I had 2 cribs from the start because at about 8-9 weeks, i noticed my boy liked to do a complete 360 turn around in his sleep and he always woke his sister, who by the way started sleeping through the night at about 10 weeks old (just about the same time i placed her in her own crib) Although i heard that sometimes placing them side by side helped them sleep better, but that certainly was not the case for us. They slept better separately, although co- sleeping in our Cal-king bed was a breeze. i just chose not to co-sleep. I also go the dual camera video monitors- One per crib.
STROLLERS: We also had a double stroller with bassinets which we used for daytime naps. It also had car seat adapters, so that helped us a whole lot with getting around. Otherwise, the double snap and Go would have been just perfect for those initial Dr's Office trips and church.
GEAR: As most other mums have mentioned, not every gear works for both babies, One baby hated the swing, the other would not go to sleep without the swing. The bouncer was a fail for both babies, so i'm glad we only had one. The jumperoo however was/is a hit for both babies, so we have 2 of those. the love jumping in tandem and blabbing to each other in them.
We had and still have about 1 dozen bottles and millions of bibs and sundry.
CLOTHES: Something that i found that was smart and super convenient for me was to get a number of neutral sleepers and onesies, that way, it really didn't matter who was wearing what. At least until their sizes become drastically different.
BREAST FEEDING: I had the double/twin brest friend, but i barely used that too because my daughter often got distracted by her brother and forgot to actually nurse, so i had to nurse each kid separately.
CARRIERS: As for carriers, i got the twin baby carrier and then two individual carriers. Funny enough, My son hates to be carried, so the twin carrier did not work for us either. So, I only use an individual carrier. I actually put up the twin carrier on the Classified boards.
That's all i can think of for now, but i'll be sure to update as i remember.
pomelo / 5041 posts
@Apex: Thank you, thank you, thank you! This is so helpful. I really want to make sure we're buying a more minimal amount that we can add to instead of the whole store and then nothing gets used.
hostess / wonderful apple seed / 16729 posts
Bumping this thread. Starting to think about the baby registry. Should I ask for only one (bouncer) and if I need another one, I should buy it ourselves.
How many changing pads did you use? I think 2 would be overkill because the other twin can just wait til I'm finished with the other.
Video baby monitors... I have one on my registry because I need to figure out if the cribs will be side by side and therefore only need on monitor that pans and moves.
Looking at the Table for two feeding system. Hoping I can find it used at one of the MoM sales.
@marionberry: @Apex: @meganmp: @twodoghouse: Any updates?
honeydew / 7230 posts
@bluestriped bee: How is your house set up? We ended up with doubles of a lot of things not because both babies needed to be in them simultaneously, but because we wanted one upstairs and one downstairs. This included swing, bouncer, pack n play, playmat, changing table. It's hard to get them both up or down the stairs so it was useful to have doubles on each floor. We did have two jumperoos because they loved bouncing at the same time and interacting that way. I really liked the Boppy lounger to stick one baby while feeding the other. My twins were so small that they couldn't be proper up in the regular Boppy for a long time. We used the Boppy lounger from early on when they were itty bitty! (I'll dig up a pic because they were so cute in it!) I would not waste money on the double pack n play if I were you. We had two and they are only a little bigger than a regular one but way more expensive. The bassinets weren't useful for long and Alice slept in the swing anyway so we didn't need the double bassinet part. Baby wearing is really useful with twins! DH and I each wear one and it's so much easier than dealing with a big stroller. I'll see what else I can think of. I can barely remember the newborn gear days, though! It's been almost a year! 
persimmon / 1420 posts
I ended up with two Boppies (useful to help them sit up in the PnP when they were first learning, as well as a kid receptacle when they were small and also later on when they were drinking bottles- I would lay them in there so they would be propped up). I used a Boppy to nurse, though, which everyone has told me is nuts but I liked it the best, even for tandem nursing. We had two bouncers as well. The SnugaBunny ones are great because they nest together really well. We had 1 Pnp, but we only have a 1 story house. We had one changing table/pad, 1 crib to start out with- we got the other one with registry discount at around 5 or 6 months... I think. We had an audio monitor only, which worked fine regardless of crib configuration (which, by the way, has changed as they've gotten older). We ended up with a bunch of different bottles because my son was picky (and daughter was not). I had two pumps, one at home that I got from a friend and one at work that I got through insurance.
I also just realized that I had already replied on this thread after I typed all of that. Ugh.
hostess / wonderful apple seed / 16729 posts
@twodoghouse: We live in a rancher so just one floor.
Aww, cute picture!!!
pomelo / 5041 posts
@bluestriped bee: Here's what we've done. We constantly use our two bouncers (FP my little lamb) in the living room during the day or our twin z pillow (which is basically like a double boppy). I use the twin z for feeding them at the same time or for the occasional times that I breastfeed them both at the same time. To sleep at night we have two auto rock n plays which have been the best option for us. For changing the twins, we usually change them on the couch during the day/night and occasionally in our pack n play at night up in our bedroom. The pnp we have is not the twin one (since we bought it with ds1) but it's the one with the changer on it - which is pretty useful. Those have been the primary gear needs for us thus far.
clementine / 770 posts
@bluestriped bee: Ok, let me answer your initial questions, and then add a few more tips.
Regarding the bouncers/rockers, I suggest you go ahead and register for 2 each, but don't open both at once. kinda test one out and see how they like it before opening the other box.
As for changing pads I only have one. but it does make sense to have 2 if you had a multi level home.
With the video monitors, I know a few of them have the capacity to add on more cameras if and when needed, so maybe 1 would work for now, but as I mentioned above, I went ahead and bought 2 since I know that at some point in the future, they might move to their own rooms.
I REALLY did consider the table for 2 system, but I didn't bother anymore because I was never really alone with them, and I always had help.
Anyways pretty much everything we bought past 5 minth old was bought by 2's, except toys. So 2 bumbo chairs, 2 walkers etc. except toys.
So do you know what genders your babies are yet?
hostess / wonderful apple seed / 16729 posts
@twodoghouse: @meganmp: @marionberry: @Apex: thanks for updating. Lots of great advice/tips here.
pomelo / 5041 posts
@bluestriped bee: forgot to mention that we bought a Motorola video monitor with two cameras for the twins. We love our single unit from ds and eventually we can connect all 3 cameras to one unit. We haven't needed it yet though since the twins are in our room.
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