bestoftwins, Author at The Best of Twins

bestoftwins

Should Twins Share A Crib?

Jul 132012

When you find out that you’re having twins or triplets, there’s a swirl of emotions – joy, excitement, and disbelief in particular. At some point the practical side of you speaks up: oh crap, how are we ever going to survive? Emotionally and financially, that is.

Before we found out we were having twins, we were pretty confident. We had a little girl already and had just transitioned her to a toddler bed. The baby room was ready. We had a crib, a stroller, and a boatload of pacifiers. And then life threw a curveball: two heartbeats on the ultrasound instead of one.

Twins Sharing A Room

As for whether or not the twins would share a room, we really had little choice. There was only one room available! Besides, having shared a womb for 34 weeks, we expected they might not mind so much. Many parents of multiples are keen on fostering the unique bond that twins share, and we were all for it. Plus, it’s efficient. We keep the diaper changer, clothes, diaper genie, and other essentials in one place.

And there are some adorable setups you can have for a shared nursery. Just check out our Pinterest board called Twins at Home.

True, there are times when two babies in a room is inconvenient, such as when one wakes up crying in the middle of the night. For me, nap time is the hardest thing about two babies in a room, because inevitably one of them doesn’t want to go to sleep or decides to wake up after 45 minutes. Luckily, twins seem to adjust to one another’s cries and fusses. Often they’ll sleep right through it whereas any other source of noise would wake them up. We routinely manage to extract the wakeful twin while his brother snores on.

One very helpful innovation in the past few years is the video baby monitor with multiple cameras. Some of these even transmit right to your smartphone or iPhone, so you can check on the twins from anywhere. Check out these wireless video monitor reviews for detailed comparisons of the bestselling monitors.

Twins Share A Lot

Let’s be honest: twins are going to end up sharing (or fighting over) a lot of things during childhood. Things that ours have shared in their first year of life include:

Bottles and pacifiers. Yes, we had the high-minded goal of always keeping things separate. That didn’t last forever.
Pack-N-Plays. For brief stints, our boys are happy to play together in confined spaces, as long as there are enough toys for both.
Swaddlers and blankets. Usually the rule is “whatever you can reach” when we’re tucking babies in. Each twin has certain preferences, though.
Clothes. It depends on the type of twins you have, but if you get two of the same gender, this is a big money-saver.
Baths! Oh, the cuteness and fun of it.
Toys, swings, and other baby entertainment. They’re pretty good about this, though there are disputes. More often it’s with the older sister, though. On a related note, see our article on 6 ways to contain and entertain your twins.

Some things we do try to keep separate: bibs, for example, because that’s otherwise kind of gross. Also, each twin has an assigned car seat which just seems to make road trips go a little more smoothly.

Twins Sharing A Crib

Another thing our twins don’t share is a crib. They each have their own crib and it’s assigned bedding, with the fussier one in the crib closest to the door. Safety was our primary concern: both our baby class teacher and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended against twin crib sharing. Yes, it’s a common practice. But there’s an increased risk of SIDS when twins share a crib, and besides, the older boy outweighs the younger by a few pounds.

The downside, of course, is that you have to buy two cribs and squeeze them into the same room. You might think about mini cribs, which are just like regular cribs (sturdy, wood construction, and stylish) but are about 30-40% smaller. That’s still plenty of room for even a 2-year-old. You’ll realize when you put your newborn into a crib for the first time that standard cribs are HUGE. I found some nice mini crib and bassinet reviews that compare the most popular models.

Flickr: childsplayx3

Twins Don’t Need Two of Everything

There are certain types of baby gear that twins can share…. you only need one bath set, bottle brush, diaper changer, etc. You will want to get a double stroller and you’ll almost certainly need two high chairs. Look into the Tripp Trapp Chair which converts from high chair to kid’s chair as they grow. But the toys, the blankets, and hopefully the clothes can be shared between twins.

Many parents have been kind enough to offer us baby gear that they don’t need any more…. that’s a perk of having twins. Take that free stuff unless you’re certain you don’t need it! Worst case scenario, you can always pass it along to someone in need.

Babyproofing for Twins and Multiples

Parenting Twins 11 Responses »

Jul 092012

Babyproofing is not a one-time process that removes every possible hazard. It’s a continual battle, a war of attrition as babies discover new dangerous and/or forbidden things in your house as fast as you can remove them. With twins, proactive babyproofing is critical, because there’s twice as many searching eyes and probing fingers. As soon as they start crawling, they can and will team up against you. I swear that there have been times when one of my boys creates a distraction in one room while the other goes for an unattended laptop, iced tea, or unzipped purse.

With multiples, nothing is safe! Here’s a guide to babyproofing as much as you can.
Contents:
Babyproofing the Nursery
Electrical Hazards
Choking Hazards
Babyproofing for Physical Hazards

Babyproofing the Nursery

Let’s start in the nursery, a room where your little ones will spend much of their time. First of all, decide if your twins should share a crib. It’s safest if they don’t. Hazards in and around the crib should be the top priority. You’ll want to address:

Loose items in the crib. The American Academy of Pediatrics takes a strong position on this one. The baby should be the only thing in the crib. Swaddling is fine, but no loose blankets, pillows, stuffed animals, crib bumpers, or anything that could prevent air flow.
Anything they can reach from the crib. Even before they can crawl, babies are able to scoot around in the crib. They can and will grab anything outside the crib that they can reach. Watch for loose curtains, miniblind cords, electrical cords, and choking hazards. Secure any heavy objects that might tip over and fall into the crib.
Climate control hazards. Maintaining a comfortable ambient temperature in the nursery is an excellent idea, but use extra caution with things that heat or cool the air. Point fans, vents, and especially space heaters away from the crib. Even from across the room, a space heater directed right at a crib will turn it into an oven.

Electrical Hazards

Kidco Outlet Plug Cover

We live in a world ruled by electricity, which creates all kinds of potential dangers for babies. I’m sure you already bought outlet covers, but that’s just a starting point. Unused outlets are easy to cover up. What about things that must remain plugged in? At 12 months, my boys were crawling, sitting up, and quite capable of unplugging things like lamps and televisions.

Luckily, there are outlet plug covers like the one from Kidco (pictured at right) that secure plugs and keep outlets safely covered up. See how the cord wraps around on the inside to prevent the plug from being pulled out?

While we’re at it, watch for dangling cords of any kind that could present a strangulation hazard: Mini-blind cords, curtain tie-backs, and too-long electrical cords. Rubber bands, twisty-ties, and tape can be used to secure these tightly out of reach.

Power strip safety cover

Power strips and surge protectors are common in the household these days. They accommodate the power needs of all of your entertainment devices (TV, DVD player, DVR, etc.) and theoretically protect them from electric surges. Usually they’re crammed with an octopus of cords and a glowing orange or red light on the power button. Lots of things to catch your baby’s attention. A power strip safety cover is advisable if your power strip is less than 4 feet off the ground.

It works both ways, too: your electronics might need protection from your baby. No one wants to see the DVR unplugged in the middle of recording your favorite show!

Choking Hazards Require Constant Vigilance

A milestone in a baby’s development is the ability to pick something up and put it in his or her mouth. This will quickly become a favorite activity. Combine that with crawling and pulling up, and suddenly a world of small objects in your house are now choking hazards. Things that my kids have tried to eat include:

Small metal objects, like coins, keys, and screws from baby furniture. It might have been on the floor two seconds or five years. They’ll find it. It’s not just on the floor, either. Under couches, on coffee tables, in drawers that aren’t locked.
Toys for older kids: marbles, Barbie brushes, Legos, etc. These require constant sweeps, because usually there’s an older sibling always scattering them about.
Fallen food, especially popcorn, grapes, berries, seeds, and nuts. They’ll be able to eat these things eventually, but not now. They’re worrisome because your little ones see you eating them, and know that they’re food.

Babyproofing for Physical Hazards

Walk-through Baby Gate

Your home has many physical dangers for babies, especially those crawling, pulling up, or walking. Even rolling over can be a dangerous new talent for your baby when practiced on the diaper changer or another place off the ground. At our twins’ 6 month checkup, our pediatrician went out of his way to caution us about the dangers of falls.

Stairs are a particular danger. Most parents know this, and take some steps to block access to these areas. That said, if the gate isn’t correctly installed/latched/positioned, your little ones will get around it. For this reason I highly recommend investing in good baby gates. We have two of Summer Infant’s walk-through baby gates pictured at right. I like them because they’re pressure-mounted (so you don’t have to screw them into a wall) but include a gate that you can walk through.

There is endless additional babyproofing that you can do to help prevent physical injuries, such as:

Padding the edges and corners of tables, fireplaces, steps, and other things with sharp edges.
Always using the safety belt/restraint in strollers, high chairs, Bumbo seats, diaper changers, and other places from which a baby could fall.
Installing child-safe locks on drawers, cabinets, and doors, especially if they open to cleaning supplies, sharp objects, or outside.
Reducing access to hard-to-babyproof rooms such as bathrooms (by keeping the door closed).

That covers them up through the crawling stage. Keep in mind that you’ll have to do a lot more when they learn to walk (see our article on toddler safety for boys).

If you have more suggestions, I’d love to hear them in the comments section!

Breastfeeding with Twins

Having Twins 1 Response »

Jul 062012

Breastfeeding is one of the first challenges faced by mothers of twins. It can be done, though coordinating feedings and making sure that the babies get enough to eat can be difficult. In this article we’ll talk about some of the benefits of breastfeeding and offer some practical advice on how to do it.
Contents:
Benefits of Breastfeeding
Challenges of Breastfeeding Twins
Breastfeeding Positions for Twins
Twin Nursing Pillow

Benefits of Breastfeeding

I read recently that the United States has one of the lowest rates of breastfeeding among developed nations, and that’s really unfortunate. Breastfeeding has many benefits for you and your twins.

Health and nutrition. In addition to providing all of the nutrition that your baby needs, it confers natural antibodies that boost your baby’s immune system. In these days of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and hospital-acquired infections, immune systems have never been more important!
Feeding convenience. Breastfeeding and nursing in particular is convenient, especially when your babies wake up hungry in the middle of the night. There’s no bottles or formula or checking the temperature – you just hook those hungry babies on!
Big-time savings. You’ll understand this when you start buying infant formula. That stuff is liquid gold! You’ll save a lot of money by breastfeeding, even if you still have to supplement with formula.
Possible weight loss. I can’t speak to the proof behind this, but our OB/GYN told us that breastfeeding after birth would help a mother lose weight. The thinking is that you burn a lot of calories when you’re nursing, and for twins especially! It also means you get to eat more post-partum, because you’ll have to keep a high caloric intake to keep up milk production.
Bonding time. There are fewer quiet and more intimate moments between a mother and her twin(s) than when breastfeeding. Watch your newborns, talk to them, stroke their cheeks. Cherish these times. Before you know it, they’ll be asking for the car keys.

Challenges of Breastfeeding Twins

There are obviously lots of good reasons to breastfeed, but it’s not all sunshine and butterflies. Breastfeeding newborns in general can be difficult, and those difficulties don’t go away when you have two hungry mouths to feed instead of one.

Making enough milk. This is not unexpected with twins – instead of two breasts for one baby, you have one for each. Sometimes you won’t have enough. When this happens, you can supplement with formula. Plan on doing that more as your babies grow and their dietary intakes increase.
Scheduling feedings. This is related to challenge #1, but sometimes your babies will wake up hungry before you’ve had time to produce more milk. And sometimes the twin that’s supposed to eat first is fast asleep, but the other one is wide awake and hungry. These things happen.
Nursing positions for twins. It’s not always easy to find a good nursing position that accommodates two babies at once. Especially if one or both of your twins are picky about it. More on that in the next section.

Breastfeeding Positions for Twins

Some experts recommend that you nurse your twins separately (at least to begin with) to get them accustomed to it, and see how well each can do. Our boys certainly were different — one was a fast drinker, and one was a slow one. After things get rolling, whether you nurse them together or apart is up to you. Here are several positions you can try to see which works best:

Positions for Breastfeeding Twins.

The first position (top left) is the double football hold, in which both twins lay on their sides with tummies against you and feet pointing behind you. You’ll need a pillow or cushion to support them in this position; don’t rely on your arm strength alone! A Boppy pillow or the arms of an overstuffed chair work well for this.

You can also lean back in a chair or bed and let them snuggle on your belly (top middle) or lay them parallel to one another (top right). Whatever position you choose, be sure that each twin can latch on comfortably and is able to nurse.

Nursing one twin at a time may work better for you, especially in the middle of the night. You can lay in bed and let your twin lay beside you, parallel to your body. This might prove a relaxing position for both mom and child, and makes it easier for both of you to get back to sleep afterward.

Twin Nursing Pillow

Twins Plus Deluxe Nursing Pillow

My Brest Friend (yes, that’s the company name) makes a nursing pillow for twins that’s currently the #7 bestseller on Amazon. The Twins Plus Deluxe Nursing Pillow is designed to support mothers when breastfeeding multiples. It supports your back and the weight of the babies, whether you use the single football, double football, or several other breastfeeding positions.

This pillow has a super-soft cover that’s machine washable. The back support is adjustable, and there’s a handy pocket for burp cloths or other necessities. If you don’t have this, a Boppy will do… it just won’t be as nice.

About Twin Pregnancies

Having Twins 1 Response »

Jul 032012

Pregnant with Twins (Flickr: chrismar)

A pregnancy with twins is an exciting time, and one undoubtedly filled with lots of questions. Compared to our first child (a daughter), the twin pregnancy was similar in some ways, but different in many.
Contents
Detecting Twins
Pregnancy Symptoms with Twins
Medical Care for Twin Pregnancies

Detecting Twins

When you’re pregnant with twins or multiples, you have twice (or more) the amount of hormones that a normal pregnancy brings. And that’s a lot. This, and the fact that multiple babies are growing inside of you, can give some hints of what’s going on before it’s official. The raging hormones can have a more dramatic effect, especially if you’ve given birth to a single child before and know what that’s like. Sometimes a multiple pregnancy can give rise to higher-than-expected levels of hCG (the pregnancy hormone).

The official diagnosis, however, will be made by ultrasound. Multiples are often diagnosed at the same time that your pregnancy is confirmed, or at 12 weeks when a better picture is possible. Here’s the thing, though: twin pregnancies can be missed. I know this because it happened to us. They didn’t notice it in the first ultrasound. They didn’t notice at 16 weeks when we went in after a fall. It was at 20 weeks, during a routine ultrasound, when we reminded the technician that we didn’t want to know the gender and she casually remarked, “You might get one of each.”

“What?” we asked. We thought perhaps she was referring to our daughter who was wandering around the room poking at expensive medical equipment.

“It’s twins,” she said, as if stating the obvious.

I didn’t believe her until I saw both heartbeats for myself. And let me tell you, that was a special moment.

Pregnancy Symptoms with Twins

Given that the odds of having twins are around 3%, we certainly didn’t expect it. Compared to our first, the twin pregnancy was different for us in a number of ways. First, the morning sickness was worse, which isn’t surprising given that there’s twice the amount of nausea-inducing hormone in play. This time around, the OB/GYN prescribed an anti-nausea medication that, although it brought other side effects, seemed to help with the morning sickness. Even so, the other symptoms we noticed were right out of the book What to Expect When You’re Expecting, which has a great section on carrying multiples.

Appetite and cravings. A ravenous around-the-clock appetite isn’t surprising, because your body knows that there are multiple little ones to feed. The cravings can be different, too, and more pressing. With the twins, the cravings were for sweets and junk food. With our daughter, it was all vegetables and cheese.
Sensitivity to smells. Any woman who’s been pregnant can tell you that the smells are one of the worst parts of it. Things that you normally love – like onions – are suddenly enough to make you want to throw up. Cleaning agents and food smells seemed to be the worst offenders.
Fatigue. Carrying around multiple growing babies is hard work! The reasons are obvious late in pregnancy, when you’re dealing with all kinds of extra weight, but even in the first and second trimesters, the increased fatigue was really noticeable for us.
Weight gain. Speaking of which, there will be extra weight gain. Experts say that a woman carrying twins should gain 35-45 pounds. For triplets, it’s 50 pounds! So go ahead, have another cookie. You’re eating for 3 now!

Medical Care for Twin Pregnancies

Not all twin pregnancies are high-risk, but if you’re expecting multiples then you can plan on some extra medical care. Depending on the type of twins you’re having and how far you’re along, you might expect:

Extra OB/GYN visits. You’ll probably go in for extra visits for checks and monitoring. Towards the end, we were going in once a week, usually just to get hooked up to the monitors. One benefit of this is that you tend to get lots of ultrasound pictures for sharing with friends and future baby books.
Longer OB/GYN visits. Yes, here’s one that they don’t really warn you about: expect all of your visits to take almost twice as long, because each twin gets the same.
Bed rest. The possible risks of carrying twins make it more likely that you’ll be assigned to bed rest at some point, especially late in your pregnancy. And by the way, “bed rest” doesn’t mean that you try to lay down a bit more while you’re at home. It means that, except for using the bathroom, you lay in the bed! This minimizes the toll on your body and the time you spend upright.
Early arrivals. Everything I’ve read suggests that, on average, twins are delivered at 34 to 35 weeks. Ours came at 33 and a half weeks, a bit earlier than our doctors wanted (and relegating us to a couple of weeks in the NICU). So you should have your bag packed and the nursery ready extra early! If your water breaks or you get bed rest, you’re officially out of time.
Delivery options. Our first daughter was born naturally. Usually that means you’ll be encouraged to deliver future babies the same way, because you have a “proven pelvix.” For our twins, though, we had the option of choosing cesarean even if there was no medical need. It was nice to have that choice.

There’s good medical science behind all of these things, and the ultimate goal is to do what’s best for your little ones.

Twin Baby Names

Having Twins 6 Responses »

Jul 022012

I was looking through my new baby names book and came upon a list of the most popular twin baby names for boys and girls. We decided not to find out the gender of our twins in advance, so we’d picked out four names (two boys, two girls). And they were all on the list!
Contents:
Twin Boy Names
Twin Girl Names
Twin Boy/Girl Names

Twin Boy Names

Twin Boys (Flickr: clangboomsteam)

Jacob & Joshua
Matthew & Michael
Daniel & David
Isaac & Isaiah
Taylor & Tyler
Landon & Logan
Brandon & Bryan
Christian & Christopher
Andrew & Matthew
Joseph & Joshua
Ethan & Evan
Jacob & Joseph
Alexander & Benjamin
Caleb & Joshua
Joshua & Matthew
Nathan & Nicholas
Andrew & Anthony
Elijah & Isaiah
Alexander & Nicholas
Jeremiah & Joshua
Jacob & Zachary
Logan & Luke
Benjamin & Samuel
Christopher & Nicholas
Nathan & Noah
Alexander & Christopher
James & John
John & William
Jordan & Justin
Alexander & Anthony
Andrew & William
Christopher & Matthew
Jacob & Jordan
Joseph & Michael
Alexander & Andrew
Andrew & Jacob
Elijah & Ethan
Jacob & Matthew
Jacob & Samuel
James & Joseph
Jordan & Joshua
Matthew & Ryan
Nicholas & Noah
Jason & Justin
Benjamin & Jacob
Ethan & Nathan
Jacob & Justin
Jacob & Tyler
Jonathan & Joshua
Jose & Juan
Logan & Lucas
Mark & Matthew
Robert & William
Alexander & William
Cameron & Christian
Joseph & Nicholas
Joshua & Zachary
Parker & Preston

Twin Girl Names

Twin Girls (Flickr: teresia)

Hailey & Hannah
Ella & Emma
Madison & Morgan
Gabriella & Isabella
Faith & Hope
Mackenzie & Madison
Isabella & Sophia
Jayden & Jordan
Olivia & Sophia
Ava & Emma
Haley & Hannah
Megan & Morgan
Isabella & Olivia
Ava & Olivia
Emma & Grace
Emma & Hannah
Jennifer & Jessica
Makayla & Mackenzie
Natalie & Nicole
Ava & Sophia
Emma & Olivia
Grace & Olivia
Abigail & Emily
Abigail & Emma
Anna & Emma
Ashley & Emily
Ava & Ella
Emily & Sarah
Grace & Hannah
Hannah & Sarah
Madison & Megan
Jayden & Jaylen

Twin Boy & Girl Names

Boy/Girl Twins (Flickr: EtanSivad)

Madison & Matthew
Emily & Ethan
Madison & Mason
Emma & Ethan
Hayden & Hunter
Zachary & Zoe
Gabriel & Michael
Samuel & Sophia
Emma & Jacob
Emma & William
Jaden & Jordan
Natalie & Nathan

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