Twin girls, HELP!!!

[CENTEXHUSKER]

So my wife and I have known for a while that we were having twins, but now we have found out they are IDENTICAL GIRLS!!! We have a 6 yr old girl and a 3 yr old boy and we were on the preverbial fence whether to try for a thrid. We let the powers to be decide for us and, well...we're going to blessed with two more girls. Trust me, I am thankful for the babies' progress and health so far, but its gonna get crazy here in a few months.

So for BRI and anyone else, tell me what to expect. Do I stock up on Red Bulls and No Doze now? Do you all get your kid gear through Sam's or Costco? Should I get a thrid shift job at the Home Depot? Have you thought about withdrawling a couple grand and running for the hills (j/k)?

Seriously, any help/tips/pointers is appreciated....

 

[WVhuskerXX]

Tips: Make sure they like football

 

[T_O_Bull]

Congrats.

Look for stores that sell things that have been gently used. You can find lots of things that are still new and some that even still have the tags on them. Lots of good things for maybe a third of what they originnaly cost.

T_O_B

 

[Minnesota_husker]

First off, Congrats!

I would take advantage of the Grandparents if they are still in the picture.

You can find many good cheaper clothes, you just have to look. I would suggest not taking anymore time at work because your wife will need all the help she can get.

 

[BIGREDIOWAN]

Well first off congrats on the news of the twin girls. Secondly RUN NOW!!!! Just kidding, it's a ton of work and I laugh at people that say they are busy and tired with one kid. Obviously you've got a few kids already so you know what to expect from babies and you're prepared for that part of it. Just take everything you dealt with and multiply it times two. I'd suggest getting the book Baby Wise right now as this will help them get on a good sleep schedule so you can get away from the up all night feeding, crying, changing stuff as quickly as possible.

As far as what to expect with the whole formula aspect and the cost associated with it, I'd suggest your wife use a breastpump for as long as possible. My wife has been doing the breastpump thing for 6 months now and is still able to keep up with the boys and their feeding schedule. Don't let her worry about thinking she won't have the supply to keep up with them. As long as she stays on top of her pump schedule she'll be able to keep up with them. Most women think they can't do it, but they can if they stay focused on the goal at hand. It's a ton of work, but the wife is saving us a ton of money a month by not giving up. You can figure twins will use four cans of formula a week or so. That adds up to about $400.00 a month just for formula. Every kids different so I'm figuring on the high side a little.

Diapers is another story, obviously some diapers are more expensive than others for a reason. Some cheap diapers just plain suck as you probably found out with your other kids. We love the Babies 'r' Us brand of diapers and they are about half the price as say Pampers. Try all kinds of diapers because you'll probably go through 10 a day or 70 a week for the two of them.

Lastly, you might as well plan ahead and just figure they are going to be born premature. It's fairly rare for the mom to go full-term so start looking at hospitals now and pay particuliar attention to their NICU's. Pick the best one in the state and you'll be happy you did. Some NICU's release the babies too soon and it makes it more difficult for you at home. Put the homework in on the hospital and you'll be glad you did.

What other questions do you have?

 

[CENTEXHUSKER]

Appreciate the congrats from all. Good point, TO. I think my wife has every one of those kid stores pinned in her GPS already, :thumbs lol

Thanks BRI, alot of good tips. My wife bought one of those pumps with our first child and she did it for 9 months. She's already talking about it again. It did save alot of $$$. Definetly gonna check out the Babys R Us diapers. As far as hospitals, there are two in Austin with the higher level NICU that we have checked out. She is planning on the kids coming early, but assuming a healthy and sucessful delivery, about how long of a hospital stay should I expect?

Also, what type of car seats did you get? There are alot out there, but I'm looking for the most safe and practical ones, you know the ones that don't require a PhD to operate

About how long did it take you to get the kids on a consistent sleep/feed schedule? This is the part I probably dread the most :bang lol

Thanks again man

 

[HuskerfaninOkieland]

Congrats Centex!!

 

[killer cacti]

Why did I think this thread was going to be about women problems...I was prepared to say, "don't choose one, choose both!"

Anyways...

Step 1: Start saving for weddings now. You're already a year behind.

 

[BIGREDIOWAN]

Appreciate the congrats from all. Good point, TO. I think my wife has every one of those kid stores pinned in her GPS already, :thumbs lol

Thanks BRI, alot of good tips. My wife bought one of those pumps with our first child and she did it for 9 months. She's already talking about it again. It did save alot of $$$. Definetly gonna check out the Babys R Us diapers. As far as hospitals, there are two in Austin with the higher level NICU that we have checked out. She is planning on the kids coming early, but assuming a healthy and sucessful delivery, about how long of a hospital stay should I expect?

Also, what type of car seats did you get? There are alot out there, but I'm looking for the most safe and practical ones, you know the ones that don't require a PhD to operate

About how long did it take you to get the kids on a consistent sleep/feed schedule? This is the part I probably dread the most :bang lol

Thanks again man

Well the hospital stay can vary, they say to plan on them being in the NICU until their due date. Our's were two months early, but were only in the NICU for a month. It still felt like forever and sucked big time, but it could've been alot worse. Twin B, the second one born, usually has the health problems if there is going to be any at all. Cael, our twin A, was in great health besides a little jaundice which is normal and just needed to gain weight, he was 4lbs. 11 oz. Zach, our twin B, was in okay health, but had pneumonia, juandice, and had to be inhibated 3 times due to pneumonia, he was 4lbs. 2.3 oz.

As far as carseats are concerned we got Graco SnugRides. All carseats that are sold today have to meet the governments minimum crash standards before they can even be sold. You'll see some carseats out there that are $400.00 for each carseat. No way in hell am I going to pay that just because they are Chico's or whatever. If you go to this website it'll give you the ease of use rating for every carseat. They don't give crash test results on carseats anymore according to this website due to the minimum standards. What I recommend you getting would be a carseat stroller combo that works together. Don't get a stroller that sits the girls side by side, you won't be able to get through doors and stores very easily. We have a tandum stroller that our carseats just click into so the boys sit right behind or in front of one another. With the carseats just clicking in to the stroller it doesn't wake them up if we need to take them out of the car to take them into a store. It would take forever to get them in and out of the car right now if we had to take them out of their carseats.

Now the sleep schedule can be a little difficult to nail down since every kid is different. After reading that book Baby Wise we learned that babies work on schedules best. You set the schedule up and you stick to it come hell or high water. It sucks at times, but is well worth it when you're not getting up to mess with the little ones all the damn time. Cael has been sleeping through the night since about a month after he got home. They are 6 months tomorrow so for 4 months he's been sleeping through the night. Zach was a little more difficult, he's been sleeping through the night though for 3 months so it could've been worse. What I recommend is that you feed both kids at the same time. Just come to terms with the fact that you can't just roll over and say, "hey it's your turn tonight." That won't happen, if one wakes up and is hungry, you wake the other one up and feed them or you'll be up in an hour feeding the other one. Get two boppy pillows and you can actually feed both kids by yourself if an issue arises, i.e. someone is sick, or is at work, etc. If there is one good thing about them being in the NICU it is that they basically set the schedule up for you and the babies are use to the schedule once you get them home. When we first got home with the boys our schedule went like this.

6:30am feeding/diaper change

9:30am feeding/diaper change

12:30pm feeding/diaper change

3:30pm feeding/diaper change

6:30pm feeding/diaper change

9:30pm feeding/diaper change BEDTIME

2:30am feeding/diaper change

The nighttime feedings were pushed longer due to the fact that they were sleeping okay, but we still got up at 2:30am to feed them for the first couple months. Now, once they started getting extremely tired at the 2:30am feedings when we woke them up we started letting them go as long as they could before we would get up with them. Once ours started sleeping through the night we took the nighttime feeding out obviously and then went with the rest of the schedule. We just recently changed their schedule to this:

6:30am feeding/diaper change

10:00am feeding/diaper change

1:30pm feeding/diaper change

5:00pm feeding/diaper change

8:30pm feeding/diaper change BEDTIME

What else?

 

[krc1995]

Look at a medical supply store for a good breast pump. You can buy used and just replace the tubing and valves for a lot less. A bad breast pump(like one from Walmart) is not worth a penny. I think the good brand is, o heck I can't remember but it starts with a M and it runs around $200 (look on amazon)

You can research car seats on consumerreports.org It's worth the $25.00 annual membership. You can also find reviews on diapers, playpens, etc.

 

[BIGREDIOWAN]

Look at a medical supply store for a good breast pump. You can buy used and just replace the tubing and valves for a lot less. A bad breast pump(like one from Walmart) is not worth a penny. I think the good brand is, o heck I can't remember but it starts with a M and it runs around $200 (look on amazon)

You can research car seats on consumerreports.org It's worth the $25.00 annual membership. You can also find reviews on diapers, playpens, etc.

The breast pump you're thinking of is Medela. Wife has one and it's worked non-stop for 6 months now. Great product........... :thumbs

 

[CENTEXHUSKER]

Congrats Centex!!

Thanks man :thumbs

 

[CENTEXHUSKER]

Appreciate the congrats from all. Good point, TO. I think my wife has every one of those kid stores pinned in her GPS already, :thumbs lol

Thanks BRI, alot of good tips. My wife bought one of those pumps with our first child and she did it for 9 months. She's already talking about it again. It did save alot of $$$. Definetly gonna check out the Babys R Us diapers. As far as hospitals, there are two in Austin with the higher level NICU that we have checked out. She is planning on the kids coming early, but assuming a healthy and sucessful delivery, about how long of a hospital stay should I expect?

Also, what type of car seats did you get? There are alot out there, but I'm looking for the most safe and practical ones, you know the ones that don't require a PhD to operate

About how long did it take you to get the kids on a consistent sleep/feed schedule? This is the part I probably dread the most :bang lol

Thanks again man

Well the hospital stay can vary, they say to plan on them being in the NICU until their due date. Our's were two months early, but were only in the NICU for a month. It still felt like forever and sucked big time, but it could've been alot worse. Twin B, the second one born, usually has the health problems if there is going to be any at all. Cael, our twin A, was in great health besides a little jaundice which is normal and just needed to gain weight, he was 4lbs. 11 oz. Zach, our twin B, was in okay health, but had pneumonia, juandice, and had to be inhibated 3 times due to pneumonia, he was 4lbs. 2.3 oz.

As far as carseats are concerned we got Graco SnugRides. All carseats that are sold today have to meet the governments minimum crash standards before they can even be sold. You'll see some carseats out there that are $400.00 for each carseat. No way in hell am I going to pay that just because they are Chico's or whatever. If you go to this website it'll give you the ease of use rating for every carseat. They don't give crash test results on carseats anymore according to this website due to the minimum standards. What I recommend you getting would be a carseat stroller combo that works together. Don't get a stroller that sits the girls side by side, you won't be able to get through doors and stores very easily. We have a tandum stroller that our carseats just click into so the boys sit right behind or in front of one another. With the carseats just clicking in to the stroller it doesn't wake them up if we need to take them out of the car to take them into a store. It would take forever to get them in and out of the car right now if we had to take them out of their carseats.

Now the sleep schedule can be a little difficult to nail down since every kid is different. After reading that book Baby Wise we learned that babies work on schedules best. You set the schedule up and you stick to it come hell or high water. It sucks at times, but is well worth it when you're not getting up to mess with the little ones all the damn time. Cael has been sleeping through the night since about a month after he got home. They are 6 months tomorrow so for 4 months he's been sleeping through the night. Zach was a little more difficult, he's been sleeping through the night though for 3 months so it could've been worse. What I recommend is that you feed both kids at the same time. Just come to terms with the fact that you can't just roll over and say, "hey it's your turn tonight." That won't happen, if one wakes up and is hungry, you wake the other one up and feed them or you'll be up in an hour feeding the other one. Get two boppy pillows and you can actually feed both kids by yourself if an issue arises, i.e. someone is sick, or is at work, etc. If there is one good thing about them being in the NICU it is that they basically set the schedule up for you and the babies are use to the schedule once you get them home. When we first got home with the boys our schedule went like this.

6:30am feeding/diaper change

9:30am feeding/diaper change

12:30pm feeding/diaper change

3:30pm feeding/diaper change

6:30pm feeding/diaper change

9:30pm feeding/diaper change BEDTIME

2:30am feeding/diaper change

The nighttime feedings were pushed longer due to the fact that they were sleeping okay, but we still got up at 2:30am to feed them for the first couple months. Now, once they started getting extremely tired at the 2:30am feedings when we woke them up we started letting them go as long as they could before we would get up with them. Once ours started sleeping through the night we took the nighttime feeding out obviously and then went with the rest of the schedule. We just recently changed their schedule to this:

6:30am feeding/diaper change

10:00am feeding/diaper change

1:30pm feeding/diaper change

5:00pm feeding/diaper change

8:30pm feeding/diaper change BEDTIME

What else?

Well if they are in the hospital for any extended period of time, at least they will be on some sort of schedule (hopfully)!

We found some carseats today, think they were $80/ea. They snap into one of those double strollers you were talking about, which we plan on getting.

Man, I think there is something in the water down here, almost every pregnant person we've talked to in the past couple months is having multiples. Kind of weird....

Thanks for your help BRI, I'll let you know if I have any other questions.

 

[knapplc]

Congrats on the impending twins! This sounds like my in-laws. They had two girls and wanted a boy, so they thought they'd try for one more. They got very active twin boys, and they're still swamped four years later.

The kids are a lot of fun, though, and since you already have children you'll do fine.

BRI - I am one of those one-child parents who is always tired. I have no idea how you people do it with multiple children, and our girl is really low maintenance.

 

[BIGREDIOWAN]

Appreciate the congrats from all. Good point, TO. I think my wife has every one of those kid stores pinned in her GPS already, :thumbs lol

Thanks BRI, alot of good tips. My wife bought one of those pumps with our first child and she did it for 9 months. She's already talking about it again. It did save alot of $$$. Definetly gonna check out the Babys R Us diapers. As far as hospitals, there are two in Austin with the higher level NICU that we have checked out. She is planning on the kids coming early, but assuming a healthy and sucessful delivery, about how long of a hospital stay should I expect?

Also, what type of car seats did you get? There are alot out there, but I'm looking for the most safe and practical ones, you know the ones that don't require a PhD to operate

About how long did it take you to get the kids on a consistent sleep/feed schedule? This is the part I probably dread the most :bang lol

Thanks again man

Well the hospital stay can vary, they say to plan on them being in the NICU until their due date. Our's were two months early, but were only in the NICU for a month. It still felt like forever and sucked big time, but it could've been alot worse. Twin B, the second one born, usually has the health problems if there is going to be any at all. Cael, our twin A, was in great health besides a little jaundice which is normal and just needed to gain weight, he was 4lbs. 11 oz. Zach, our twin B, was in okay health, but had pneumonia, juandice, and had to be inhibated 3 times due to pneumonia, he was 4lbs. 2.3 oz.

As far as carseats are concerned we got Graco SnugRides. All carseats that are sold today have to meet the governments minimum crash standards before they can even be sold. You'll see some carseats out there that are $400.00 for each carseat. No way in hell am I going to pay that just because they are Chico's or whatever. If you go to this website it'll give you the ease of use rating for every carseat. They don't give crash test results on carseats anymore according to this website due to the minimum standards. What I recommend you getting would be a carseat stroller combo that works together. Don't get a stroller that sits the girls side by side, you won't be able to get through doors and stores very easily. We have a tandum stroller that our carseats just click into so the boys sit right behind or in front of one another. With the carseats just clicking in to the stroller it doesn't wake them up if we need to take them out of the car to take them into a store. It would take forever to get them in and out of the car right now if we had to take them out of their carseats.

Now the sleep schedule can be a little difficult to nail down since every kid is different. After reading that book Baby Wise we learned that babies work on schedules best. You set the schedule up and you stick to it come hell or high water. It sucks at times, but is well worth it when you're not getting up to mess with the little ones all the damn time. Cael has been sleeping through the night since about a month after he got home. They are 6 months tomorrow so for 4 months he's been sleeping through the night. Zach was a little more difficult, he's been sleeping through the night though for 3 months so it could've been worse. What I recommend is that you feed both kids at the same time. Just come to terms with the fact that you can't just roll over and say, "hey it's your turn tonight." That won't happen, if one wakes up and is hungry, you wake the other one up and feed them or you'll be up in an hour feeding the other one. Get two boppy pillows and you can actually feed both kids by yourself if an issue arises, i.e. someone is sick, or is at work, etc. If there is one good thing about them being in the NICU it is that they basically set the schedule up for you and the babies are use to the schedule once you get them home. When we first got home with the boys our schedule went like this.

6:30am feeding/diaper change

9:30am feeding/diaper change

12:30pm feeding/diaper change

3:30pm feeding/diaper change

6:30pm feeding/diaper change

9:30pm feeding/diaper change BEDTIME

2:30am feeding/diaper change

The nighttime feedings were pushed longer due to the fact that they were sleeping okay, but we still got up at 2:30am to feed them for the first couple months. Now, once they started getting extremely tired at the 2:30am feedings when we woke them up we started letting them go as long as they could before we would get up with them. Once ours started sleeping through the night we took the nighttime feeding out obviously and then went with the rest of the schedule. We just recently changed their schedule to this:

6:30am feeding/diaper change

10:00am feeding/diaper change

1:30pm feeding/diaper change

5:00pm feeding/diaper change

8:30pm feeding/diaper change BEDTIME

What else?

Well if they are in the hospital for any extended period of time, at least they will be on some sort of schedule (hopfully)!

We found some carseats today, think they were $80/ea. They snap into one of those double strollers you were talking about, which we plan on getting.

Man, I think there is something in the water down here, almost every pregnant person we've talked to in the past couple months is having multiples. Kind of weird....

Thanks for your help BRI, I'll let you know if I have any other questions.

I know what you mean about the whole water thing. While we were going to the OBGYN for check-ups. There were 18 other sets of twins that were set to be born around the same time as ours. I need to buy stock in diapers and formula!

Congrats on the impending twins! This sounds like my in-laws. They had two girls and wanted a boy, so they thought they'd try for one more. They got very active twin boys, and they're still swamped four years later.

The kids are a lot of fun, though, and since you already have children you'll do fine.

BRI - I am one of those one-child parents who is always tired. I have no idea how you people do it with multiple children, and our girl is really low maintenance.

I'm not saying that having one isn't hard, but at least if we have another one and it IS one I'll think it's easy as hell. :lol: