One thing that really scared me about the idea of having twins is that I don't have any experience with them. I know a number of adults who are twins, and have relatives with twins, but I hadn't met anyone that had twins in the last decade. I'm super lucky that I've gotten to spend time with my sister Laura and her adorable daughter Mikayla, and I generally felt like I knew what I was getting into with one kid. But how does that change when you have two? What would it be like to try to go back to work with two infants? What are the things I'm not even thinking about yet that will be harder with two kids? The first thing that freaked me out about raising two infants was when I saw that they have baby journals for keeping track of which kid has eaten, pooped, etc. It scared the crap out of me when I realized I might confuse my own children and feed one twice and the other not at all. Boris and I already have a plan about how to tell them apart early on (paint at least one of their toenails with a different color and fingerprint them at the hospital just in case), but other than that we had no idea how to deal with twins.
Luckily, one of my friends from high school, Hannah, had twins last year. I had harassed Hannah for advice a few years ago because she got married at the Fairmont SF right before I did, so I decided to harass her again. And I'm so glad I did! We ended up scheduling a day where I went to Hannah's house and just followed her around for a few hours to see how things work with twins. Hannah has it DOWN. She is an expert! It was slightly overwhelming to see her in action, but at least I got to see how it's done. After that day, I completely changed my plans about what to buy, how I was going to feed the babies, etc. For example, there is no need to buy a rocker (at least for now)... I need a couch! Feeding the babies together is essential (otherwise you literally never sleep), and if you ever plan to do it on your own, you need to be able to get both babies safely from their bed onto your lap at the same time. Easier said than done when their heads are floppy - can't exactly pick them both up and carry them around! So my new plan is to copy Hannah's early plan: I'll have a couch (hopefully in the nursery, or at least somewhere nearby) with two boppy pillows and the feeding pillow in the middle. That way I can pick one baby up, put them safely in their little pillow on the couch, get the next baby, put them on the other side of the couch, put the feeding pillow on, and grab each baby one at a time. Hannah was able to do this without the couch eventually (she has crazy skills), but I don't know what I'm doing yet so I need a little extra help :)
Another thing about having twins is that you need a lot of stuff... shocker I know. I grilled Hannah about what to buy and she gave me her advice about what products were the best for twins, what worked and what didn't. Since I have to buy so much stuff, I decided to pick up what I could on craigslist. While I didn't really feel comfortable buying used carseats, I wanted extra carseat adapters for the car and decided I could buy those used. I found someone selling two, and mentioned in my email that I was having twins. The seller told me she had twins too, and very sweetly offered her advice about any twin-specific issues I might be facing. I asked her about what other products I should buy and she gave some recommendations. Later I found something else on craigslist I wanted, and it turned out to be the same seller. So I arranged to go to her house to just see what twin stuff she was willing to sell. Turns out she is one of Hannah's good friends! Small world. I was stoked, not only because I felt like I could trust the stuff I was buying from her, but also because she seemed really sweet and now I had another real resource for twin info.
Hannah did warn me that the twin mom world was small... she was right! Can't wait to join the club :)
Very cool :)
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