While twins are extremely cute and a joyous gift they are also double the work. I have a few twin hacks that make my life a little bit easier when I am looking after them;
ROUTINE – It is definitely best to have some semblance of a routine with twins or you will literally be feeding them 24 hours a day and that is not possible you are not a robot you will need some rest.
I feed babies at more or less the same time but for mums the most manageable is about 20-30 mins apart. That way you can have one fed and lying over the pillow (I’ll come to that next) before you start the other. Both should be fed and burped in around 60-90 mins
BREASTFEEDING PILLOW – Invest in a double breastfeeding pillow. I never use breastfeeding pillows for their designed use with breastfeeding mums but they are super useful for settling babies on (as long as you are right beside them) the double pillow allows you to put each baby down when fed, either slightly upright facing you, or lying on their tummy over the pillow.
SLEEP SEPARATELY – Although it is very cute in the hospital when babies are put in the same bassinet I separate them to sleep on their own almost immediately as they will wake each other up fairly consistently. Might sound a bit tough but come to me when you are surviving on 2 hours of sleep a day and tell me that any little thing that can be done to help squeeze and extra few hours sleep shouldn’t be done because they might ‘miss each other’.
TIME SAVERS (LIFE SAVERS!) – If you are bottle feeding do invest in a formula preparing machine like the perfect prep in fact get two if you have the space.
BOUNCY CHAIRS – Not strictly necessary but when looking after twins and I see two baby Bjorn bouncy chairs (or something like them) in the home I feel a little twinge of joy knowing I can put one baby down gently post feed and bounce him/her with my foot while I attend to the other twin.
PLAY PENS – Twins starting to move around – a play pen or gated play area is a safety essential (unless you have four arms and eyes in the back of your head)
Don’t want to make this list too long. If you have twins (or triplets!!) and have a question about anything at all or perhaps have missed here please feel free to get in touch with us.
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