Twins!

Giggles24

Anybody here have experience with or have newborn twins. I just gave birth a week ago to twins, a boy and a girl. Sleeping patterns are all over the place at the moment and I was just looking for advice from anyone who has experience with twins Thanks!

silja

I had twins in H Street, they are three years old now. Honestly, the first year is a bit of a blurr... but it does get better! Sleeping patters will be all over the place for a while. What we did overnight is that when one woke to feed, we'd wake the other too, so they'd both be fed and hopefully sleep. Also, I breastfed but at 4 weeks, we introduced half a bottle of formula overnight so my husband could do that feed and I could get some sleep.

Main tips: sleep when they do, take all the help you can get (even from people you may not 100% get on with such as in-laws), don;t worry about how the house looks, and get two bouncers- they were life savers for quick naps, keeping them quiet, and feeding once we went to bottles.

Orion

I've 7 year old twins myself. It's tough in the early days - double the feeding, nappies, etc. But it does get easier over time. Hopefully they'll settle into a routine where they wake/sleep together.

When they get a to sitting up stage they are great company for each other and don't require the constant attention that single kids need - simply because they always have company.

Tip: get a double buggy with large wheels (like bicycle wheels). We got a small wheeled buggy and twins get bery heavy very fast.
http://www.ecobaby.ie/ used to do a discount on nappies for twins - worth asking them if they still do.
Try not to 'twin' them. You will notice their own personalities very soon. We never dressed them the same and rarely referred to them as 'the twins'. They are individual despite their many many similarities.

Be prepared for great fun as they grow. They made us laugh a hell of a lot - they are such a double act.

minotour

Giggles24 wrote: »

Anybody here have experience with or have newborn twins. I just gave birth a week ago to twins, a boy and a girl. Sleeping patterns are all over the place at the moment and I was just looking for advice from anyone who has experience with twins Thanks!

Congratulations, well done.

I would echo the advice above, especially the taking help from all available sources. (including HSE, thats what we pay those heavy levvies for)

Also, get a system going with your partner, this will happen naturally but it helps to add some defined structure. Decide who is "on duty", and when "off-duty" get some sleep or simply some downtime. Its good for your individual sanity to take time to yourselves.
Unlike parents of single kids neither of ye will ever be truly "off-duty" but just going to another room for an hour here and there can be a life saver.

In terms of sleeping, hopefully they will align their patterns soon enough. Feeding at the same time is a good idea as it creates routine for them and routine is mandatory, in every respect.

Stock the freezer with as much EBM as possible, it will allow for nights off to have a pint or glass of wine without consequence.

My girls are a year old this week and have just recently become the fun little people i was so looking forward to, the year ahead will have its moments for you but it will fly by too, honestly.

quozl

I have 7 1/2 month old twins. They were a little early and a little small, so had to stay in special care for ten days.

It's been a bit of a blur and it's still very busy but it has gotten easier and easier month by month.

If ever it seems like it's a constant never-ending circus remember that it does get easier.

The Irish Multiple Birth Association is at http://www.imba.ie/ and there are monthly meet-ups. You can have a chat with others who have gone through the same thing and get advice if you want it. It's been good for us, very friendly crowd, lots of good advice and having two babies of the same age really seems to be a world different from having one or one and a toddler so it's nice to talk with other parents of multiples.

Take any help that you can.
Don't worry too much about the place being spot-less (or remotely near to it!).
Don't worry about the babies being spot-less. If you only had the one you'd probably change their outfits multiple times a day, but there's enough washing of clothes and manic activity with two newborns as it is.

Don't let people come over to just play with the babies unless it actively helps you. People should be either doing things for your when they're over or if they're capable and confident then keeping the babies away from you for a bit so you can grab some sleep. It's no use people coming over and making things harder while trying to help. So make sure you let them know what they can do to help.

At the start my wife and I took shifts where I'd deal with the babies until 4:30am, she'd express from 4 till 4:30 and then take over till 8am. That was because they needed feeding every 2 hours and were so small (and daft!) they took 90 minutes to feed. So somewhat constant. I think my wife had to express every 3 hours but it's hard to remember tbh now. I hope you're not having to do anything like that but if you are then what worked for us was doing shifts so that someone was off duty and could sleep.

If you're breast-feeding them, or expressing to bottle feed them, then try and keep your spirits up if you're worried it's not working. Our lads really couldn't breast-feed at the start and my wife was certain it would fail with all the bottle feeding (which they were also appalling at!) of EBM. In the end it has worked out perfectly and my wife says that being able to breast-feed them rather than bottle feed has made things much easier. There was also a fair stage where it was almost the only time they got to cuddle as everything was so insanely busy You can hire (for a quite reasonable price) a private lactation consultant if you're having trouble. My wife did and found her very helpful.

Can't really think of anything else to tell you. Except, once again, it gets easier. So much easier, and I've been reliably informed that it continues to get easier. Thank ****!