Preparing for twins...furniture, gear,etc.

Hi there!

We are expecting twins in June, but because of the potential for them to arrive early and/or for me to be on bedrest, we're trying to decide on which baby items we'd like sooner rather than later. I find all of this so overwhelming! Who knew there could be so many decisions to be made about swings, cribs, playpens, strollers, car seats, etc! My main question is - did you buy two of everything for your twins? Obviously, we're buying two car seats, two cribs...but did you buy two swings, two playpens, two play mats, etc. as well? We were planning on only getting one playpen to start, but I'm thinking maybe two swings and/or bouncy chairs would be smart (although I'm a little worried about the space all this will take up!) and maybe two playmats as well?

Any insight anyone can provide on preparing for twins would be so much appreciated right now!

Thanks so much!

Jen

 

Some of it will depend on your twins' personalities, so you might hold off on some things.

We definitely needed 2 bouncy seats, and actually ended up with 3 swings (for awhile it was the only way to get them to sleep . . . we kept one upstairs, one downstairs, and one got carried up and down depending on where we needed it!). I've certainly heard of other kids who don't like the swings or bouncy seats at all, so maybe just buy one of each to start and then see if you need a second. I did by two activitiy mats, but only ended up using one - they liked to lie on it together.

Are you planning to have them sleep together initially? You might start off with one crib and one pack and play (you will eventually need two of each, but maybe not for awhile).

Good luck figuring it all out!

-Rachel

 

I'm still new at this...My boys are 11 weeks old...But we have two swings...two bouncers(one we are borrowing from my brother)....2 exersaucers(again one we are borrowing from my brother)...and essentially two of everything else! LOL! The play mats-we ended up with like 4 of them! We registered for one! So the extras went to the grandparents houses...And it's also good to have a bit of variety, even though we are not there yet in rotations...lol...I'm going to guess it will help having different types of toys. We only got one bouncer-but the boys loved them..and now that they are a bit older-they love just sitting in them.
If you are going to have a shower, register for 2, and only open one. If you are not having a shower, buy one and see how they both like it. We do have 2 pnp's...and have only needed one. I'm guessing we will need both eventually. I hope! LOL! Good luck and congrats!

 

These are the things we have 2 of:
cribs
swing
bouncy seat
exersaucer
high chair
car seat

We registered for all of our things. I only registered for 1 activity mat, bathtub, pack n play, monitor.

If you are registering and having baby showers..... register for 2 of anything you think you might want 2 of. You can always return it if you decide you don't need 2.

Have fun

 

We had 2 of all the big stuff, cribs, PNP, bouncy seats, swings. Depending on how you're going to use the PNP, you could just get one in the beginning and then get the second one later for overnight trips, etc. When we first brought the girls home we set a PNP up in the living room and thats where the girls napped together for the first few weeks. Being a first time mommy, their bedroom seemed SOOO far away from the living room and I wanted them close by to hear every peep.

You could try getting one swing at first and see how it goes. We got one for our shower and borrowed the 2nd from my SIL when we realized it would be handy. My girls took a lot of their naps in the swings when they were little. The activity mat, I'd say you could definately get by with just one. But when they get a little older, you may want 2 activity centers for them to sit in. Same thing with those though, I bought one, and borrowed the other. You can also try resale shops, Craigslist, yardsales, etc. for the bigger items you want 2 of.

As a PP said, extras at grandma's house are a good idea. You'll have enough stuff to haul around as it is. My mom already had a bouncy seat at her house from my niece and we ended up buying one to leave at my MIL's. We also ended up buying a travel swing to leave there for when we went home. It all came in very handy. You'll be surprised at how "dependent" you and the babies get on these things if they like them. When you're at home with 2 infants, they get used to swings and bouncy seats because Mommy doesn't always have enough hands. I know some babies don't like either one, but I'm soo glad mine did!! It made life much easier.

 

I have a great list if you like you can pm me and I will send it to you in an email

 

We only bought 1 PNP, and so far that has worked fine for us. We got 2 swings at our shower, but unfortunately my girls have no interest in being in the swing and just scream the entire time. We only got 1 playmat, but my girls aren't really old enough to use it yet, so I don't know how that is going to work out. The mats are pretty big, I don't see why 2 babies couldn't fit on it, but again I am no expert on that yet. If I could reccomend anything for you to get, it would be 2 Boppy Newborn Loungers (Not the original Boppy pillow-although we do have 2 of those but dont really use them)!! Those have been my saving grace. The girls absolutely love them!

 

We had 2 swings (rarely used and gone now)
2 bouncys (used a lot but are gone now as well)
1 playmat (we still use this) In the beginning they shared, now they take turns.
2 pack n' plays. One was on the master and one in the living room for naps when they were small. Now we use them for beds at grandmas and such.
2 high chairs ( we use these A LOT)
2 exersaucers ( we use these even more than the high chairs)
1 jumperoo (thomas loves it and elizabeth could care less)
2 cribs which we have been using both since they were 8 weeks old.
1 dresser
1 change table with dresser drawers in it
2 bumbos ( very useful )
2 boppies which I think was a waste for us as well. They do not care for them at all.

 

Here's what worked for us:

2 cribs
2 pack and plays (1 upstairs in our room to sleep in at first, 1 on our main floor for changing/napping, we still use both for travel)
2 swings (we used swings A LOT!)
2 bouncy seats - these were hand me downs from someone, my girls never really liked them, used them mostly for early solids
1 baby Bjorn
1 exersaucer
1 jumperoo
1 large playmat (another smaller one was later handed down to us, but 1 would have worked)
2 boppies (for propping mostly)

I highly recommend the book "Baby Bargains" to sort through a lot of this stuff, it gives great advice and ratings.

 

We did end up buying 2 swings (b/c they liked them) and 2 bouncy chairs (the infant-to-toddler one, though I don't think we'll keep them that long). We got one pack n' play (the twins, double pack n' play thingy), and one playmat.

our basic list:
1 baby bjorn (that we have YET to use - kind of a waste for us)
2 car seats (plus 2 extra seats we got for free which we just used in the house)
2 boppies (essential for us at first when trying to bottle feed both at once)
1 exersaucer
1 jumperoo
2 bumbo seats
2 swings (very useful for months, now gone)
2 high chairs
1 double pack n' play (though grandma has a single one at her house too)
1 play mat (which they shared when they were smaller; now they just roll around a giant blanket strewn with toys)
Furniture: 2 cribs, 1 changing table, dresser, armoire, bookshelf, toybox, and glider

 

Things I was grateful to have 2 of:

the smallest PnP; they slept in those for 8 months
Boppies; one for each to lay in, for tummy time, and even now they love them
highchairs and carseats of course

Thing I wish I had 2 of:

swing; we managed without it, but there were days I REALLY could have used 2
jumperoo; they loved it so much and it was a pain to keep switching babies back and forth

Thing I didn't need 2 of:

bathtub, activity mat, diaper bag, stroller. . . .the obvious I guess.

Good luck!

 

Here's what we're doing

2 Pack N Plays: One for upstairs in our room, one for downstairs
2 Bouncy Seats
1 crib for now - waiting for my best friend's daughter to move into a twin bed to get the other one
Currently 1 exersaucer, 1 Boppy,1 swing, 1 jumperoo (from my sons) - I could see needing another exersaucer, Boppy eventually
1 dresser - plenty for us along with the closet that they will share

 

we definately didn't buy or need 2 of everything.

I wo uld hold off on as much as possible until you see how you like ot do things.

The things I found most helpful was having 2 bouncy chairs and 2 swings. They slept in them a lot when they were fussy.

I never used my nursing pillow, let alone 2. I just used a regular pillow.

 

We had 2 of the basic stuff... we recieved 2 pnp, but only used them both while travelling or if they stay over night somewhere. We actually, its weird, got 1 sing and 1 bouncy seat....ironically one only like one or the other so we didn't have to go out buy an extra.

I say the stupidest thing we got was a diaper wipe warmer....we recieved that as a gift, but never used it. I think we gave it away.

But basically here's what we used the most:
-twin stroller
-2 car seats (that locked into the stroller when they were babies)
-1 swing
-1 bouncer (like I said either or with our two)
-2 pack n plays
-2 boppies (they loved them)

That's all I can think of...

 

The only things we started out with two of were carseats, cribs (they didn't sleep in these until 10 months), highchairs, and playpens (one was a hand-me-down). After a couple of months, we ended up getting a 2nd bouncer, swing, and baby carrier. We never had a playmat and did not have one for Dax either.

As the girls got older we had an excersaucer and jumperoo, two learning gyms (one hand-me-down), and two kick n plays (both hand-me-down) but we kept everything else individual to add more variety to playtime.

You actually don't need two of many things until they get older and start wanting the one thing their sibling has.

 

We had...

2 Cribs (went into them at 3 months)
1 Armoire
1 Changing table with draws, 1 $30 Ikea changing table downstairs
2 Car Seats
2 Swings
2 Boppies.. I used these to feed them everyday
2 Bouncers...loved those!
2 Play gym...2 different ones so I could switch them
2 Jumperoos..I had one but only bought another since they loved them
2 Highchairs (still in them)
2 Bumbo seats...they hated these
1 Bather...bathed them one at a time in the sink until they were big enough for the tub together (11 months)
1 PNP
1 Exersaucer

I think that's it