Must-Haves for Twin Babies (and Mamas!)

Let me start by saying… HAVING TWINS IS NO JOKE. But it has been such an amazing blessing to watch two little tandem lives grow and develop right before my eyes. I wouldn’t trade it for anything!

You might have twins, be expecting twins, or know someone that is… and this post is to share some ideas and products that will make that first year easier… for mommy, daddy, AND babies (aside from an abundance of diapers, burp cloths and bibs of course). And if you’re a twin mommy too, feel free to chime in via the comments at the bottom of this post if I forgot anything!

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For various reasons, the rate of twin pregnancies has risen 76% since 1980, and there’s a lot more support amongst twin mama’s (like this Facebook group) as well as products that cater to caring for your twosome and making life SO MUCH EASIER. Because sometimes there are SO MANY THINGS you feel like you need, and you want to know what’s tried and true from other parents that have been through the trenches of twinhood.

In addition to my own personal experiences, I’ve also done TONS of research for this post, as well as surveyed over 200 twin mom’s like myself! The items below were some of the most popular answers for ‘Twin Must-Have’s’.

Let’s do this!

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By far the most popular answer I got from the twin-mama-survey (and something I too couldn’t have lived without) is the Baby Trend Double Snap n Go Stroller. This stroller frame is SUPER lightweight and easily folds up. The infant carseats just click right on! No need to take your sleeping baby out of his/her carseats to run into the store. Just click ‘em both in and you’re off.

Baby Trend Double Snap n Go Stroller

Conversely, when the twins grew out of their infant car seats, we utilized our umbrella strollers a lot because they’re so easy. When I was out and about with the girls without the hubs to help, I used these Umbrella Stroller Connectors that are freaking genius. You can connect two single strollers together whenever you want! This was so handy! And we would separate them when Nick and I were both taking the girls on an outing so we each had 1 stroller to push and could split up if we needed to.

Umbrella Stroller Connectors

Another popular Must-Have amongst the twin mama’s (even though it isn’t a twin-specific item) is the Rock and Play. I personally didn’t use these, but MANY twin parents sing their praises and swear they couldn’t live without them. I just had two simple bouncy seats (this one) that I could easily take from room to room and didn’t take up much space.

Rock and Play

If they had twin carriers when my twins were babies (they’re 5 now) I didn’t know about it. This thing would have come in so handy on MANY occasions. I hope whoever created this thing is a millionaire, because SO SMART. This TwinGo double carrier also has an option for single carrying too!

TwinGo Double Carrier

The next item is a must-have even if you just have a singular baby… doorway bouncers. HELLO. Babies love these things and it’s so fun and hilarious to watch them. I like the Graco Bumper Jumper because it has that rubber bumper around the edges so they don’t hurt them selves bumping into the doorway or each other (which they will. often). These gave them countless hours of fun for them… and subsequently countless hours of peace for me.

Graco Bumper Jumper

Speaking of doorways, once your little one(s) are on the move, you’re gonna need a baby gate …or 5. We use the Retract-A-Gate and absolutely LOVE that it retracts into a neat little roll when it’s not in use. It’s SO durable and we’ve been using it for the past 4 years without any problems. I wrote a post about it when the twins were babies (here), but my favorite feature is that you can open it with one hand (which is IMPORTANT with twins!) and is certified safe for the top and bottom of stairs. Game changer.

Retract-A-Gate

Here’s another one that I didn’t personally use, but from the sounds of it, it’s awesome if you have your hands full with twins and don’t or can’t feed your babies exclusively with breast milk. The Tommee Tippee and the Baby Brezza make the perfectly warmed bottle for your babies with the touch of a button. Obviously you can live without this, but it sure would have made things easier for me during those stressful midnight feedings. The only real difference I can find between these two machines is that the Baby Brezza actually measures/adds the formula FOR you… like a baby Keurig.

Tommee Tippee / Baby Brezza

While we’re on the topic of bottles, how did I not know about these Podee Bottles?! To see a bunch of pics of these in use, click here.

Podee Bottles

A fellow twin mommy gave me this book when she found out I was pregnant with twins (hi Crystal!), and it changed my whole outlook on twin babies, being a twin parent, and how to handle the crazy times. This author is so funny and knowledgeable. If you know a twin-pregnant mama (especially if she’s on bedrest and needs some reading material) give her this book Twinspiration!

Twinspiration

Let’s talk about Boppy’s, shall we? They’re those C-shaped pillows that can serve so many purposes! When the twins were babies, I kept two Boppies downstairs and two upstairs. They were THE ONLY way to bottle-feed twin newborns. I would put one baby in a Boppy on my lap, and one to the side of me on the couch facing me. There was a lot of trial and error to find this perfect position that didn’t hurt my back and allowed me to feed the twins at the same time. I snagged Boppy’s at garage sales when I saw them and didn’t pay full price for a single one… because let’s be honest THEY’RE EXPENSIVE. Another option is the ‘Double Boppy’ AKA the TwinZ Pillow that can also double as a twin nursing pillow. I also had one of these that was given to me by a friend, and it came in handy on many occasions.

Boppy / TwinZ Pillow

I was determined to be super mom and exclusively breast feed my twins. But they came early, were too little to latch, and my body didn’t dig pumping… so my milk never came in. I know there are a lot of twin mommy’s that ARE able to nurse their twins, and I’m both jealous and in awe. When I was pregnant, after lots of research I bought the My Brest Friend twin nursing pillow, and it really was awesome. But I ended up returning it after realizing my milk wasn’t coming in after several weeks. I still would recommend it though for those twin nursing mama’s though!

My Brest Friend

We had the basic Bumbo with Trays for our twins, and they not only kept our girls secure in one spot and promoted sitting, they also served as an awesome ‘highchair’ when we were at a friends house or at the park. And now they make a Bumbo Multi Seat that has straps to attach it to a dining chair. All the heart eyes!

Bumbo Multi Seat

It can get expensive buying two of everything, and I’ll be the first to tell you that you can get by with one of some things (like a swing!), but for us having two highchairs was just plain necessary. We bought a couple dumpy highchairs from a garage sale because they were cheap. But I wish I had known that IKEA has these super simple and affordable highchairs. And I’ve heard they’re easy to clean too! Not to mention they go with any décor. Hehe. Also, if you don’t have to have an IKEA close by… they also sell them on Amazon here.

IKEA Highchair

Here’s a pic of those highchairs in use via one of my FAVORITE Instagram accounts to follow from BevCooks. Her twins are so cute and her captions are always hilarious.

@bevcooks

And last but most certainly not least, the BEST video monitor ever (and it’s inexpensive) …the Foscam FI8918W! This is actually a surveillance camera that connects to your Wifi and can be accessed using this app on your phone. No other handheld screen devices! Just your phone! My friend Tasha introduced me to this camera, and I’ve never looked back. It also has great picture / night vision and can even take pictures and videos. We’ve gotten some pretty hilarious videos of the girls and their tomfoolery. And when we had our 3rd child, we bought another one of these cameras to have one in the twins’ room and one in the baby’s room. And we can see both views from one screen on our phone and toggle back and forth. You can move the camera to pan across the room, and you can also talk to your kids to sooth them with your voice (or tell them to quit fooling around). ALL FROM YOUR PHONE. (we used this tutorial to set it up and hook it up with our wifi)

Foscam FI8918W

Ok ONE LAST THING… this item is absolutely not necessary, but I’m just here to tell you that there are tonnnns of funny twin memorabilia out there. Just sayin.

more here

Some of these items are pretty pricey, and I’m not saying you need each and every one. You’ll find with twins, you need to pick and choose what you need and what you can get by without. It will be different for every family! There will be a wealth of information at your fingertips, and other twin parents will come out of the woodwork offering up ALL THE ADVICE. Take everything with a grain of salt, and make decisions based on what’s best for you and your family!

And I’m sure you already know the benefits of being an Amazon Prime member, but now they have what’s called Amazon Family (previously Amazon Mom) that is an invaluable resource for parents with new baby or babies. We saved literally hundreds of dollars on diapers when our twins were young, and loved that a box of diapers would just show up on our doorstep each month (or however often we programmed it).There are also other money-saving advantages to the Amazon Family program… like the fact that you save 15% on EVERYTHING REMAINING ON YOUR BABY REGISTRY. So that baby carrier that nobody bought for you but you know you desperately need? Boom… 15% off.

UPDATE! I forgot to talk about Apps for your phone to track who’s pooped and who hasn’t, feeding schedules, and whatnot! Because believe me… you’ll forget. The Feed Baby App (Apple and Android) is highly recommended, as well as the My Baby Today App (Apple and Android). Check them out! A good old fashioned white board works great too 🙂

Please chime in in the comments below with your must-have product or resource that was/is a lifesaver for you and your babies!

~Bethany

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