So let's talk dressing them alike/different

I've dreamt about dressing my twins alike from the moment I found out I was carrying same sex twins last time. I didn't know if they were boys or girls, but knew they were the same sex. For the first few months after the birth/loss, I cried every time I bought clothing for Moshe.

This time, we're having two girls :wub: and I can't wait to dress them alike. My friend gave me beautiful, almost new clothing from her daughter. They are expensive, top brand clothing. However, she obviously only gave me one of each, as her daughter's a singleton. So now my dilemma is what to do. I KNOW that I will be using her stuff and perhaps coordinate colors, but it's a bit of a bummer to me that I'm having this dilemma now. She gave me a Petunia pickle bottom crib bedding set as well as a stroller bunting etc...

What are your plans in dressing your same sex twins?

 

Well mine are big boys now .. but everyone knows I've dressed them alike since they were born. Now they insist on it. I think it's fun .. I always have.

 

How exciting! Can I share what I did? Dressed them alike! And I still do pretty often. I remember around 2 I was getting flack from a few other twin moms who wondered when I was going to stop dressing them alike. It made me feel guilty so I thought about stopping it. And to be honest, it made me a bit sad because I've enjoyed it. Then I read a post from another MoM on here who said she felt it was a privilege to dress them alike. So true! So I stopped feeling guilty.

I say enjoy it to the fullest! Use your friend's hand-me-downs, but get out there and definitely get a fair share of matching outfits if that's what you want to do! :Clap:

 

Look at my guys Michelle ! They're almost 7 and they still WANT to dress alike. I wouldn't even care if anyone said anything .. I leave it to the boys now .. and they say they want to.

 

I dressed mine in coordinating outfits forever...still would if it weren't for the fact that they pick out their own clothes for the most part. Here's what I don't get, when i had twins people were always saying, "You aren't going to dress them alike are you?" but yet, I have several friends and people from church who have girls of different ages who are constantly buying matching outfits for them. why is okay to dress siblings alike that aren't twins, but I shouldn't since they are twins? Crazy..I say go for it!!

 

Mazel Tov on girls, I didn't know you found out! I am, at this very moment, searching online for matching dresses for mine to wear for their naming ceremony! I will get Naomi something special for that day that is a coordinating color.

I say dress them alike if you want, but it doesn't have to always be that way. I have a ton of clothing that is hand me downs from Naomi because she got clothing from FOUR people so I could honestly probably dress quads in almost every size. However, a twin mommy friend sent me some tiny matching outfits because I just needed some. I have enough clothes to coordinate color or theme most of the time, but the babysitter said if they are anything close to identical or hard to tell apart that she'd prefer they not match completely every day. LOL - she doesn't want to mix them up on us!

Oh, and the bedding set? Check Ebay to see if you can find a matching one, I would totally be doing the same! We are just using sheets and breathable bumpers this time around because we had most of it, but I love a coordinated nursery.

 

For the boys there are days I have them dressed the same, days were they were the same outfit but in different colours or somthing completly different. What I find funny though is when I do dress them alike and I have people over, the first thing they say is, "You're dressed like twins today!" LIke being dressed differently makes them not twins??

 

Tomorrow it'll hopefully be confirmed. The tech said 95% both are girls.

I actually found it on 50% sale now, but it's still a heck of a lot of money. I'm also not sure I'd purchase this set, I find it a bit too somber, so I have to decide what I want to do.

 

My girls are the same way. It's their choice to match now

 

Me and my husband are deciding to NOT dress our twin girls alike once they arrive. How ever that could and possibly will change and as they get older it will be up to them. But since this our first set of twins i think we are both a little worried about getting them mixed up if hey look too much alike.

 

That is why the baby sitter asked us to not dress them exactly alike all the time. She is worried she will manage to mix them up and we won't be able to fix it. I don't think they're identical, but I've known fraternal twin girls who I can't tell apart unless they get different hair cuts.

 

I think you should dress them alike if you want to- I used hand me downs, primarily, too. I just got really good at 'closet memory'. I knew what I had so I just really tried to be on the hunt to match it. If the items are a certain brand you can always check craigslist or garage sales for a 2nd. Now when I buy clothes I only buy them on extreme clearance and won't buy it if it's isn't super cute and I can get 2. I figure I have to clean up after them, feed, them, etc. They can look super cute!

As to the crib set, if I didn't like it I'd probably really graciously let my friend know that it's beautiful, but I think I want to coordinate their nursery and ask if she wants it back to sell.

 

This is a common worry for a lot of people with newborn twins. Mine are identical and people mix them up sometimes, but in the very beginning I was terrified that I would mix them up so I painted a toenail of Sebastian's blue. I rarely had to check it but there were a few times. I will say that each babies' personality and cry is different, so even if she does mix them up, she'll quickly figure out their quirks and personalities.

 

Go and get some nice coordinating outfits and enjoy dressing them alike! Twin mums deserve some extra fun to compensate for the extra work.

But I would still be thankful for pretty hand-me-downs. I found that even if I dressed them alike as babies one would surely have a leaky diaper, massive spit-up etc. within an hour or two. I never changed both babies in case of "accidents", so the matching did not last long on most days.

As I have b/g twins and have tons of hand-me-downs I have very few matching outfits: a few identical ones while they were babies, and I try to colour coordinate for special occasions or just for fun because I feel like it now they are a bit older, i.e. a dress and pants in the same colour and matching or similar shirts or matching sweater and cardigan. Knowing what is in your closet makes it easy to find a matching, non identical outfit especially if you stick to a certain colour scheme.

 

Go ahead and enjoy dressing them alike if you want to! I do it all the time, they wear exactly the same or something matching. I am almost ashamed to admit, but sometimes if one has spilled something on her clothes I secretly hope the other does too and if she doesn't I change her anyway. Now I realize this may sound a bit neurotic, but even their onesies are coordinated. I do not have any hand me downs and truth be told I am happy for it. I think it is my prerogative as a twin mommy, lol. The reason for people to doubt if it is a good thing to do is probably because they're worried you'll not see them as unique individuals, but trust me I do and more so than any other person in this world. I won't force them though, so if they choose to wear something different, so be it.

 

That's how mine are. Some days they decide whether or not they want to match.

 

I rarely dress my girls alike, in fact it bothers me when they are dressed the same :unknw: . I have posted this before but since they are ID it gives people an excuse not to learn who's who and I have a big issue with this. I still have some matching outfits as my mother has a had time NOT buying two of the same thing (even though I have asked her repeatedly to stop ) and use these things on special occasions but always with something identifying on them. I also have a friend with frat girls who always dresses hers the same and I buy lots of her clothes second hand so my girls end up with matching coats, pants, etc to save money.

I also got a lot of second hand, high end clothes and got rid of them before my girls were born thinking that I WAS going to dress them the same since we thought they were frats. As it turns out the fact that they are twins is hard to hide so I try not to accentuate their sameness, but that's just me. They might have their own opinion when they get older and WANT to dress the same, who knows!

It's all about personal preference and they are your babies so you can do what you want. I would say hold on the clothes just in case you change your mind or you might be able to find a second outfit to coordinate and save money only having to buy one. I wish I had held on to the second hand clothes I received as I would have ended up using them.

I must say...dressing two little girls, whether you dress them the same, different or coordinate is so much fun...congrats

 

On the telling them a part, my girls are different enough that by sight if you've been around them you can tell them a part. I figure if they aren't going to take the time to figure out who's who then I'm not going to help them.

 

I also had almost all second hand clothes. I found stuff that coordinated among the clothes we had. Not necessarily the same colors, but same style.
Like two nautical themed dresses. Two lacy things. Two things with insects or turtles on them. Once they grew out of the intial clothes I recieved I usually bought the same thing in two colors if I bought new, or searched for matchy type things when I was buying used things. I really enjoyed the "hunt" for clothes for them.
They went through a stage where they insited on dressing very similarly. And now they sometimes do sometimes don't.

 

I used to be obsessed with dressing them alike. Seriously, I needed a support group I was so obsessed. Now Ava is VERY VERY VERY girly and will only wear the most girly clothing and will CRY if I try to make her wear jeans or anything that is not full of sparkles, pink and VERY girly. Addison will NOT wear sparkles or pink and girly so they do not want to dress alike anymore which I am having a hard time with lol!!! Ava will not even wear tennis shoes - her shoes even have to be covered in jewels LOL!! Addisons favorite shoes are her buzz lightyear tennis shoes.

Sara, at first your sitter may have a hard time telling them apart but by the time you leave them With the sitter, it will be easy for you. I will tell you that when you take pics of them as newborns always label them if your two look alike! My girls are probably fraternal but look a lot alike 95 % of strangers think they are identical. When they were born I could not tell them apart we left their hospital bracelets on them for a few days after we got home until I got it. Now days pics are a no brainer for me but we have so many pictures when they were newborn that I have no idea which is which! In their scrapbooks I have just guessed LOL!!

 

I do the same thing. I went through all the hand me down clothes that we were given and either put together the same outfits if there were any and then put together coordinating outfits like trucks, baseball, similar colors, colors that I thought went together, etc. I kept a lot of the hand me downs on hand to use just in case we're having a bad week with laundry. I also keep a few hand me down outfits in the diaper bag and car for 'just in case' outfits. I figure I'll never have to worry about not having clean cloths. Even with all that I kept, I've still passed on boxes of clothes to other moms. I also buy matching or coordinated outfits for my boys. Most days, I dress them the same or in coordinating outfits. It's just nice to have the hand me downs on hand just in case.

You're the momma- you get to decide! I get some flack for it, but I don't care. Being able to dress them alike is a part of having twins!

 

We dressed our identical twin girls differently when they were newborns. This was primarily to help us keep them straight but especially to help our family and friends tell them apart. This is what worked for us:
http://www.dadsguidetotwins.com/help-others-identify-your-twins/

As the girls got older, we styled their hair differently so then they dressed alike more frequently. Eventually they started to have an opinion about what they wanted to wear so we just went with that.

 

I think if you want to dress them alike, that is perfectly fine, and it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks. Your girls can decide when they are older if they want to dress alike. My DH's sisters (mid-30's) never, ever dress alike - they each have their own style, including clothes, hair, etc. and they HATE when people mix them up. But I know some older twin sisters (I think they are in their 60's) who are both widows with grown children. They live together and still dress exactly alike every day.

I do not dress my boys alike for a couple of reasons. First, I have a lot of hand-me-down clothes from my nephew who is 6 months older than them, and none of those match. Second, I like to shop at consignment shops and clearance sales to save money, and it is nearly impossible to find matching outfits in those situations. Third, when we take them places like the church nursery, etc., it helps others who don't seem them that often tell them apart. And finally, I like to be able to know who is who at a glance (from the back, the side, out of the corner of my eye, etc.) now that they are getting into stuff! I can say something to them from the back or whatever and be sure I am talking to the right one. :laughing: On days that we leave the house, I use coordinating outfits....days we stay home, I often use whatever I put my hands on first in the drawer.

What is comes down to is do what you want and what works for you. You can dress them alike always, sometimes, or never.

 

I dress my girls alike right now, because i enjoy it and they don't care what they are in. Once they start having a say in what they want to wear i won't dress them alike unless they want to match. I do get alot of people asking if i am going to always dress them alike, and i have to try to explain it to them which kinda gets old.. but i don't care.. I like it.

 

I would pretty much second what most people have said. Match them when you want to. If they're fraternal, it's an easier decision, IMO. My girls have always been so different that it's really not an issue. In fact, I often dress them alike when we go out because they look so different, and I guess I want people to know they're twins... no one ever thinks they are otherwise. They were 2 1/2 lbs apart at birth, now they're close to 20 lbs (and 3 inches and 4 shoe sizes) different. The hardest thing for me can be finding matching outfits in their different sizes. And then Sabrina ends up getting hand-me-downs from Sydney. Sometimes if I really like something, I'll buy it in three sizes... the two they're wearing and one up from Sydney, so when she hands hers down to Sabrina, she'll still have one. Ok, I'm nuts, I know. Sabrina would really be more than 1 size smaller, but I tend to buy things a tad baggy on her, so it'll all work. But between hand-me-downs from Sage, the mismatching of clothes because of their sizes, and such, we have lots of unmatching clothes. I either try to put them in coordinating things then, or just keep the matching things for when we're out and about and have them in the unmatching things at home. Once in awhile, if they're really beautiful outfits though, I'm ok with them wearing them and not matching.

 

You're not nuts. I think I'd do the same.

 

Oops. Double post.

 

I have managed to match the girls once so far, and I have a bunch of matching preemie outfits because I got my preemie clothes from the mother of identical twins. The girls are different lengths and what fits one doesn't necessarily fit the other properly.

 

I would never dress my boys alike and never have
I strongly believe they are individuals. We even gave them their own birth announcement.
Also, they are so different and have their own style. If it were up to Keagan he would only wear red hahah

Butt do what you want!

 

When the girls were newborns I dressed them alike a lot. We had several gifts of identical gifts so we used them. As they got older I preferred them to be in similar but different colour or patterns. Occasionally if something is too cute to resist and they only have one colour, etc. I will buy 2 of the same, but now they usually wear totally different outfits. Sometimes for pictures, special occasions, etc., I try to find coordinating outfits for all 3 of the girls. It is totally up to you as their mom to dress them the way you want. When they are older they will either want to be the same or dress totally different. If they want to dress different when they are older, let them. It is true, they are individuals.

 

We plan on mixing it up. In the beginning we will dress them alike and then switch it up every now and then.