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Dawnie
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| Posted: Feb 05 2007 at 11:14pm | IP Logged
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Oh Rachel, YOU ARE SO LUCKY!!!!!!
I'm so happy for you!
No advice, but jumping-up-and-down-for-joy here!
DAwn
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St. Ann
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Congratulations Rachel!
it's the beginning of a great adventure!
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Stephanie
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Angel
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Congratulations!!!  It is a bit of a shock, though, isn't it? I remember my dh just turned absolutely white, and we found out *really* early that it was twins. So I essentially knew all along. My babies are 16 months old now, and I'm pregnant again, so I get to go in for an early ultrasound on Thursday to see how many it is this time.  In a way, I am hoping for just one, and in another way, I think that "just one" will be horribly lonely in there all by him/herself!  (My babies were tucked up like a pair of shoes -- one was breech, the other vertex. Which meant they were always kicking each other in the face.)
As far as transportation goes, right now we have a Honda Odyssey, and it's worked pretty well, but we're going to move up to a full size van shortly.
As far as advice goes... I think when you have multiples you realize it's all about survival. At least I did anyway. I have a twins indexon my blogwhere you can find some of the entries I've written over the past year about my babies. Not sure if they're helpful or not, but I did review a wrap once upon a time. If I had it to do over again, though, I think I'd try the two pouch route to carry the babies when they were small. Other things I wish I had were a decent breastpump and a nursing pillow specically designed for twins. I only managed to nurse for three weeks. 
There are so many perks to having twins, though. Every time I look at mine I'm amazed!
--Angela
Three Plus Two
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JennGM
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| Posted: Feb 06 2007 at 8:11am | IP Logged
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Angel wrote:
| Not sure if they're helpful or not, but I did review a wrap once upon a time. If I had it to do over again, though, I think I'd try the two pouch route to carry the babies when they were small. |
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Do you have links or names to these double pouches?
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Jennifer G. Miller
Wife to  & ds1  '03 & ds2  '07
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juststartn
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| Posted: Feb 06 2007 at 11:29am | IP Logged
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Please, all of you moms of twins, who have btdt, PLEEEASSSEE give me your recommendations for products I will need/love/find useful! LOL
And, please pray for me! And the babies! LOL
Rachel
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JennGM
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| Posted: Feb 06 2007 at 11:49am | IP Logged
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As I'm helping out a friend, I second Rachel's plea. Helpful books, too, please!
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Jennifer G. Miller
Wife to & ds1 '03 & ds2 '07
Family in Feast and Feria
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Donna
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Congratulations, Rachel.....giddy with ya .
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Rachel May
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I liked The Joy of Twins which assured me that they were not my fault.
On Becoming Babywise talks about how to get multiples on a schedule. That was very important for me, but I had a laid back friend who didn't mind her twins being on different schedules. I know people hate the Ezzo's, but I found the book really helpful, and with mothering wisdom you can tweak it.
Twins Magazine is a nice resource.
In my hospital we were given tubing for an Ameda-Egnall (Hollister) hospital grade double pump. I pumped every time I nursed for the first several weeks so my milk supply would come in nice and strong. We rented it for three months.Hollister rental info I liked the Pump in Style too when I used it after Cecilia.
Who has a stroller recommendation?
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Rachel
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Mare
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Well, I may be in the minority here. If something worked for me with my singleton, then I got extras to use with my triplets. I didn't go all out with fancy things for our mulitples.
For example, the baby swings and the umbrella stroller were big helps to me with my singleton. However, the backpack/sling things were not helpful with my singleton so I didn't use them for my multiples.
In the event that your babies will need physical therapy, make sure you don't have exersaucers around. Your physical therapist will faint. Exersaucers are a big "no-no" b/c they do something to the leg/foot muscles if a baby stays in them longer than 20 minutes a day. We passed on them. Instead, we had 3 Pack -n- Plays as a "safe" place for the babies to play while I made dinner.
I do laundry once a week. I found having at least 10 onesies/outfits/pajamas per child helped me so I wasn't doing laundry every few days. I would start the babies' laundry the night before by going through all their clothes and soaking them in BIZ and hot water. The next day, the clothes were ready for washing.
I, personally, stayed away from books on multiples and the multiple message boards. I totally freaked out reading all the stuff out there.  The various scenarios were too much for me to handle. I'm a "one day at a time" kind of girl. I just treated having multiples like I was having a singleton (just three at a time.)
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Angel
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Mare wrote:
For example, the baby swings and the umbrella stroller were big helps to me with my singleton. However, the backpack/sling things were not helpful with my singleton so I didn't use them for my multiples.
In the event that your babies will need physical therapy, make sure you don't have exersaucers around. Your physical therapist will faint. Exersaucers are a big "no-no" b/c they do something to the leg/foot muscles if a baby stays in them longer than 20 minutes a day. We passed on them. Instead, we had 3 Pack -n- Plays as a "safe" place for the babies to play while I made dinner.
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I didn't use pouches or slings with my singles, but found that my twins wanted to be carried more... usually at the same time. <sigh> They both liked the wrap and I actually managed to get some laundry done, but I could only carry them one at a time, even when they were small. The pouches I mentioned... they don't really make double pouches, it's just using two pouches or slings or wraps at one time... Rebecca posted links to some pictures of moms carrying twins inBabylove. I bought my Storchenweige wrap because I thought I'd be able to carry both babies at the same time in one wrap. But I never got brave enough to do that. I'm sorry for any confusion!
You know, we never used Exersaucers for the babies either, mostly because we didn't have room for two of them! It's good to know I shouldn't have been using them anyway. 
I did read one book on twins before the babies were born, which mostly convinced me to try the Brewer diet (there's another recent thread on that), but Mothering Multiples didn't come until after I could have used all the nursing advice. Other than that, I think we have just muddled through.
--Angela
Three Plus Two
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juststartn
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Well, all of mine have been very hands off so far...of course, I could end up with two clingy ones this time (uhhhhh)...so we didn't need slings or wraps or anything...I already have one swing, and yes, an exersaucer...lol. No problems with walking etc, around here. It's mainly a way for the littlest one to be "up" like the bigger dc.
I know some folks have issues with the Ezzo stuff, but I am not one of them. I've used it with flexibility with all of mine, and they've all done reallly well...but of course, we'll see how things go once we have two little ones at the same time.
Thanks ladies! Keep the ideas coming!
Rachel
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Theresa
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Oh how absolutely fun! Congratulations Rachel and I will certainly keep you and the babies in prayer.
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Theresa
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Jeanna
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We already had 2 swings, the big one and a travel one and that was all we needed with the twins. I don't know what I would have done if the big one wasn't one of the smart swings that stops when the baby falls asleep and starts again when it "hears" the baby cry. It saved so many battery replacements!
The maximom I mentioned in my pervious post is a double front pack for twins and one even fits on your back if you have triplets. I highly recommend it.
As far as strollers go, I did a ton of research on that and concluded there wasn't one in particular that I'm in love with. I loved our Schwinn Double Jogging Stroller with my two older children, but it didn't clip in the car seats which I really wanted/needed with dh deployed and 3 older yet small children to manage. The only good double stroller with the click in car seats that had good reviews was the Graco Duo Glider. Evenflo has a similar one, but all the reviewers said it was cheaply made and the wheels kept falling off. The Duo Glider has worked well for us so far but when the twins get heavier it will only be a good mall stroller and not good for pushing outdoors where there are bumps and hills. We now have a total of 5 strollers. It's a bit crazy, but they all have their different purposes.
I saw these bunk cribs, but yikes they're expensive! So far ours have slept in the same crib. They were more content together from the get go. We are about to separate them though because Baby A rolls over to Baby B and kick/pokes/grabs her. Baby B does NOT like that! We were given a second crib and will go that route.
As far as getting stains out, the oxy clean powder works as a wonderful soak. I have been able to get almost all stains out (though sometimes I have had to soak the clothing for 3 or 4 days for those really tough stains).
I ran into another lady who has 5 year old twins. She told me about a bottle that the babies could drink by themselves while in their carseats. She couldn't remember what it was called but said she found it at Toys R Us. I googled it and found this pacifeeder. I am not a fan of not holding your baby when you are feeding him/her, but there have been times when out and about I have fed them while pushing them in the stroller around a store and am going to get these bottles for such occasions. Hopefully you will be able to succesfully nurse them, but it didn't work out for us. 
Sorry for another book. 
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Jeanna
Mommy of 7 arrows.....
 dd11; dd9; ds7; dd6; dd6; dd4; ds3
"There is only one tragedy in the end, not to have been a saint."
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juststartn
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Thanks for all of the advice! I actually already have a double Duo Glider--from when my current youngest (who will be three in April) was born (my next oldest is two yrs older than she is, so I definitely needed the double!).
I'm going to aim for nursing as much as possible...but I'm a realist. If it isn't working, and I cannot function due to lack of sleep, then I will have re-evaluate. At least I have a couple of months "off" from hsing between the birth and the start of the official school year in Sept...whew. Timing couldn't have been better, in that respect.
Rachel
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Angel
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juststartn wrote:
I'm going to aim for nursing as much as possible...but I'm a realist. If it isn't working, and I cannot function due to lack of sleep, then I will have re-evaluate. At least I have a couple of months "off" from hsing between the birth and the start of the official school year in Sept...whew. Timing couldn't have been better, in that respect.
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If you do get into the situation where you're supplementing with bottles, use the wide-mouth bottles like Avent. I did not know this (you might, though), and when the babies weren't gaining and I was in pain with mastitis and we were supplementing, using the narrow-necked bottles kind of set us up for nursing not to work. (I think bottle-feeding was actually the best decision we could have made at the time, but still, I would have liked to have nursed a little longer.)
--Angela
Three Plus Two
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juststartn
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Well, I've got some of the Avent bottles--have used the hand held pump with my dds....but I'm thinking of registering at Target, just in case some of the myriad family and friends who live all over the country will be interested in getting me something useful...instead of another picture frame, photo album, etc. LOL
Rachel
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Lily 3/11/00
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4Real Forums : Tea and Conversation
Topic: Advice on twins?
