Here are my favorite twin stuff and baby items - I hope you find it useful!
Stroller: You can't go wrong with the Baby Jogger City Mini Double. It comes in a variety of colors, wears well, travels well (folds completely flat with one pull), priced well and is super lightweight. The other thing that I loved about it is that it fits through all standard doorways. We had issues with other double strollers not fitting through!
Double Snap-n-Go: When the babies were still in the infant carseats, this Baby Trend stroller was a lifesaver.
Nursing Pillow: For twins, you have to get the right pillow. The BrestFriend pillow changed everything for us. I know, cheesy name, but so worth it!
Baby Food: I made all of the girls baby food. (I only bought one organic jar of prunes when we were battling tummy issues.) The only way I was able to make baby food for TWO was because of this cookbook: Baby Love. The authors have twins themselves so they understood limited time and two hungry mouths to feed. This is cost-effective and time-saving. Definitely worth the money to buy!
Storage: Having two babies at once allows the stuff to multiply quickly. We love the Expidit series from Ikea and then I bought tan-colored storage baskets from Target that fit perfectly (on the cheap, too!). I also love the canvas floor totes from Pottery Barn kids - I use them for toys and laundry. They are great for travel, too!
T W I N T I P S :
Please don't take this as what you HAVE to do if you are a parent of twins. These are just some tips that worked for our family and hopefully will provide insight for yours.
Things you really do need to buy two of:
-Cribs
-Highchairs
-Boppies - I used these to set the girls on my bed until they became mobile.
-Bumbos
-Pack-N-Play* - this is if you plan on traveling often. We have traveled a lot and have to take both pack-n-plays for the girls to sleep in. We only own one and then borrow one from the in-laws. So, if you have a situation like that, just purchase one.
Items that you can have just one of:
-Swing - I'd rotate the girls from swing to pack-n-play to whatever. I think that helped them not being accustomed to only one thing.
-Exersaucer
-Bouncer
-Toys - it is silly to buy two of every toy!
For the first few months, we really stuck to Babywise. It really helps the children develop a good sleep pattern. It follows as: eat, play, sleep. Obviously with a newborn there will be lots of sleep (hopefully) and not so much playtime. As the girls grew older, the playtime lengthened and nighttime sleep grew longer. Yeah! One thing Babywise tells you to do is to have the child cry-it-out. After reading other sleep-pattern books and talking with our pediatrician, we found out that CIO doesn't work until the baby is four months old. So yes, spoil your twins. Do whatever you can to sooth them.
When one baby wakes at night, wake the other. This was instrumental in getting our girls on the same sleep schedule at night. If Claire woke up at 2am, we'd wake Emma up and feed and change her as well. Daniel gets the husband of the year award because he'd wake up with me and go into the nursery and help. While I nursed, he would sleep on the floor until it was ready to swaddle them back up! Once we switched them to formula, the girls were five months and already sleeping through the night.
Speaking of bottles, I found that putting both girls in a boppy on my bed was the easiest and most efficient way to feed them. It was a glorious day once they were able to start holding their own bottle! I finally had my hands free!
Your twins will learn to share and play together very quickly. This is where having two is better than one. :) Once the girls were able to sit up on their own, I started putting them in one crib together with lots of toys and books. They would sit there (and still do to this day) and babble to one another, play with toys and look through books. It wasn't until recently that they have started to get upset if one is "hogging" a toy - but overall, this is the best - I can typically get a thirty minute break.
Don't settle on one type of bottle - maybe just buy a few to start and then go from there. Many moms - of twins or not - will attest that some babies just don't take to certain bottles. We had all Avent bottles but Claire would take twice as long to drink as Emma. She also had a hard time latching onto it... I had a friend from church give me their old Dr. Brown's bottles to try - instantly, Claire was able to drink just like Emma. That was such a happy day!
Delegate. Find help. Let go. I am a control freak and like things in my house to be in order, clean and organized. The first six weeks of having twins is such a blur that it all runs together. I really believe the reason we made it is because we had help and we allowed our help to truly help. I had to get over the dishwasher not being loaded right and just had to be thankful that the dishes were clean. Care Calendars are great ways to enlist help!
The general public is fascinated with twins. Going on errands takes twice as long as it used to because I'm stopped all the time. People are curious about babies anyway and I guess twins just send them over the edge. Case in point: one time I only had Claire with me at the grocery store. We were not stopped ONCE. I guess it's a twin thing! I'd love to blow people off, but I'm too nice. Plus, I get to brag about my girls!
