what do i need to buy to get ready for twins/preemies?

I was just wondering if anyone could help me prepare for what I need for the upcoming arrival of my twins possible preemies?

I was thinking of getting a co sleeper so the babies could sleep together next to my bed??
Is there a better double stroller?
Did you use the preemie inserts for the car seats?
What type of swing and how many?

Thank you

 

I have the Double Snap-n-go and love it. DH went back to work within a week of the boys being home and I can't imagine going anywhere by myself without it.

We didn't buy the preemie inserts. At the NICU discharge class, they said not to use them. Something about how its not approved by the carseat manufacturers because they don't do crash tests with them. Instead, we used a receiving blanket rolled like a snake and then put in a U around their head for more support. Does this make any sense??

We have 2 swings, the Fisher Price Aquarium ones. They swing side to side and front to back, which is nice cause my boys arent really fond of the front to back way. We also had to use receiving blankets for support in the beginning. We have 2 and they are definately worth it!!

Good luck!!

 

We have the same swings as the pp. One broke early on, but we were OK with the one. We have used the Graco duoglider. Our carseats do not fit into the Double snap n go. I like the stroller - its a bit heavier than the snap n go, but still manageable. Our babies were measuring just around 6 pounds in the last ultrasound, so we bought one or 2 packs of preemie onsies - thats it. They used them for about 2 weeks. No preemie insert for us. We have always had one crib in our room and one in their room. They share a crib, and sleep at night in our room. GL!

 

Mine were pretty close to being 7lbs each when they were born, so they never wore preemie sizes. The newborn clothing was probably the right size, but I hardly bought any as I figured they wouldn't be in it for very long. I just put them in 0-3 month clothing even if it was a little big.

Ditto the double snap n go. Ours have grown out of theirs now, but it was good for them for the first 6 months. It was so easy to load the carseats onto, complete with sleeping babies. Incredibly lightweight to lift in and out of a car, and you can steer it with your little finger. The basket room is ample.

I couldn't live without my 2 boppy pillows for feeding and letting the twins nap on (supervised of course).

We have 2 fisher price rainforest travel swings that we used literally every day multiple times up until about a month ago. Those things were incredible for soothing babies that wouldn't sleep, and relaxing them.

We do have a pile of other things that I use all the time, but it really depends on what you personally like. I love my bottle sterilizer, and use it daily for nipples and dummies, but I'm sure that is something other people could easily do without.

With regards to the car seats, we had the graco snugrides, and found that the head support piece included turned out to be fine, but like PPs have said, a rolled up receiving blanket or towel may be the way to go if you need extra.

 

Let's see... we have only 1 swing (boppy rocks front/back) and 1 bouncer (fp aquarium). It's been fine to rotate them between them.
Carseats- we did the rolled up receiving blankets trick too.
Preemie clothes- there is some inexpensive preemie assorted clothes at Walmart. I love the preemie clothes that don't have snaps but have velco.
This helped when we visited them in the hospital. They out grew all their preemie wear within 4-5 wks. (born 3-4lbs each)
Sleeping? We kept them in the same crib until recently in their nursery. We chose not to have them in our bedroom.
Stroller? We haven't used their stroller At all so far! (winter babies not allowed out, rsv season) So I can't help you with that.

You didn't mention about Preemie diapers... we didn't use any at all. We just used Newborn sized with the front folded over. That's what they did in the hospital too.
If you buy Anything, Keep your receipts! Many stores have changed their return policies (bru) making it really tough to get your money back!

 

Congrats on your twins!

We originally planned on having the girls sleep in 2 bassinetts in my bedroom, but we ended up just having them sleep in their crib. As it turned out, they hated the bassinetts!

We have Peg Perego car seats and the Peg in-line double stroller that goes with them. We also have a Peg side by side stroller and we like them both.

The NICU would not let us put the preemie inserts in the car seats, so we did like PP and used rolled up receiving blankets.

We have 2 swings, FP Smart Stages Rocker Swing and the FP Rainforest take-along-swing and love them both. I also highly recommend you get 2 bouncers and 2 boppys. You don't have to buy a lot of preemie clothes and preemie diapers because they don't stay that small for long! In fact, if I were you, I wouldn't buy a lot of diapers at all, just buy gift cards that you can use later for diapers, once you know what size you need. Also, when buying clothes, don't buy that many, mostly sleepers and onesies. We made the mistake of getting LOTS of clothes before they were born and they didn't wear 75% of them! I ended up selling 20 Wal-Mart sacks full to Once Upon a Child! Be sure to get mostly zippered sleepers because snaps take forever when you have 2 screaming babies!!!

HTH! Can't wait to hear your birth story!!!

 

Some people swear by 2 swings, 2 bouncers, etc. I had one swing and didn't get too much use out of it, but I did use my infant-to-toddler rocker quite a bit plus it turns into a toddler rocking chair for later. It really depends on how much money you have to spend. Plus most things are not used after 4-5 months of age...

I had a crib in our room in the highest position with the side rail down, worked great -- both babies in there swaddled. I also used a Moses basket and was able to put both in there in the beginning for nap time, and transport them up and downstairs. I also purchased a pnp that had a bassinet insert and a change table area all for less than 100.00. This became one nap area, and the Moses basket the other nap area.

My one daughter didn't like the swing or rocker, so it would have been a bit waste of money for us.

I love the swaddle blankets I think I used about 4 of them. Zippered sleepers are great. If they come home with monitors though you can use the zippered sleepers (so not in premiee size) but 0-3 month size and up you will get some use out of.

I liked the dollar store receiving blankets -- small and great for spit ups. The velcro bibs stick to the entire wash !! Plus I liked the dollar store wash cloths since they didn't have an edge to them.

I hated those baby towels -- buy a nice new regular towel and use for the babies. More thicker and warmer.

Don't buy a ton of bottles until you know what bottles will work for your babies.

Heather

 

First of all, don't buy too many preemie outfits. If you do buy some, keep the receipts with them in case you need to exchange for a larger size. My girls wore preemie for 4 weeks, and then flew through nb into 0-3.

As for the stroller, I love my double sng. I used it with our graco snugride seats and it was so convenient. It was light and had a big basket underneath.

For swings we originally only set up one swing because I wasn't sure the girls would like it. We had the boppy travel swing and the graco lovin hug swing. They didn't get into swings until they were 6 weeks old (0 adjusted). After that they both loved it and napped so well in it, we set up the second swing.

I also used boppy pillows for a lot of things- tummy time, propping them up to play on their activity mat, etc. Get two!

We didn't use a cosleeper, but we kept a pnp in our bedroom next to our bed. They slept together in one pnp (using the bassinet attachment) for the first 3 months. We also had a second pnp in the living room and we used that for daytime naps.

GL with the rest of your pg.

 

preemie stuff-mine were actually in preemie stuff for the first month (born at 36 weeks-5.8 and 5.3) and we had about 6-7 preemie footies for each baby. We went through about 5 things of preemie diapers as well. The thing with diapers is you can exchange them at walmart for the next size if you need to.
Also in our car seats we used snuzzlers...like many pp mentioned its genereally not recommended and you can use just rolled up receiving blankets but the snuzzlers worked fine for us.

swings-we have 2 of the papasan swings and LOVE them...couldnt live without them!

We have 2 bouncy seats-1 boppy and 1 rainforest...the rainforest one is better for when they are a little bigger and can support their head a little more but the boppy one is great for all ages.

We just had 1 crib in our room that they slept in. They napped in the pnp downstairs during the day.

Swaddle me's!!! Buy them!!! We have 4 for each baby...they still use them!

Stroller-we have the graco quattro tour duo. We have the safeseat car seats and they snap right in. We like it-of course its a little heavy but I'm 5'3" and 115lbs and lift in in/out of our suv just fine. Its very easy to open and close.
Lots of people use the double sng and then move onto a sbs...also a great option. We are in the process of buying a sbs (bumbleride indie twin)

Good luck!!

 

Clothes: My boys were bigger at birth (both over 6lbs) and they never wore preemie clothes. The preemie stuff I had was all too short in the body, but the newborn stuff was big everywhere. They wore mostly newborn for the first 3 months. At 7 1/2 months they are just starting to wear 6-9 and 9 month sizes. Both boys have long torsos so they outgrow everything in the length but around the clothes are still pretty big. Get a couple preemie things and some newborn stuff until you know how clothes will fit your babies.

Sleeping: We used a p-n-p with a bassinet for them in the begining. We had one in our bedroom and one in our living room. By the time they were 3 weeks old they were moved into a shared crib in the nursery. Personally I could not sleep with them in our room. Every little peep and movement I would wake up in a panic that they had stopped breathing. In their nursery I could see them in their crib from our bed and hear them when they really needed me, but I was no longer hopping up at every little noise or movement. It saved my sanity and my sleep. They shared a crib until about 10 weeks, by then they were waking each other up and we put them each in their own. A tip another twin mom shared was even if you plan on them sharing a crib in the begining put both up right from the start. It helps at night if there is a mess to just move them to the other crib and deal with the sheets in the morning AND you will never feel like putting the second crib up so do it before they arrive.
The p-n-p in our living room got used for naps and for changing the boys until I went back to work at 12 weeks. After that it got used very rarely and we packed it away when the boys were about 5 months old.
Car-Seats: At discharge both boys were at 5lbs. 9oz. and they went home in the Graco Safeseats. We used receiving blankets to help keep them in place and we continued to use the blankets for about a month until they had filled out the seats a little bit better. Even though they were over 5 lbs. they were still super tiny in their seats.

Stroller: We use the Graco Quattro Duo. I LOVE it. Yes it is heavy, but it folds smaller than the duo-glider and it steers great one handed. It fits great in our vehicles and it has a huge basket for stuff. It has 2 parent cupholders (I always use one for my phone) and a pouch on the handle to hold other stuff like coupons, keys etc. They boys have ridden in it without the car-seats and they seem to like it. We'll see how they do when they get older.
I have a snap and go and have never used it. I didn't have the time to figure out the configuration of the bars before the boys were born and then by the time we did, I just didn't feel like it was sturdy enough or that the seats were as secure as in our regular stroller since the boys move around so much now. I feel like I would have liked it better when they were smaller.
We also have a single snap-n-go which was great if I have to take one to the doctor or am out with just one baby. Not a must, but nice if you will ever go somewhere with just one of the babies. We use it quite a bit.
As they get older a jogger is nice for walks and we also have the Jeep sbs for trips in my mom's car with the tiny trunk.

Swings/Bouncers: We had 2 rainforest bouncers and used them maybe 10 times total. Neither of the boys really liked them so they are sitting in our bedroom gathering dust. We had 2 swings. One is the Fischer Price Papasan swing and the other was a Graco Lovin' Hug swing. I used them both a lot in the weeks before i went back to work. We stopped using the Fischer Price swing about a month ago because it only had a lap belt not a 5 point harness and both the boys would lean so far forward over the play tray that we were no longer comfortable with it. We packed it up and put it in the garage. The Graco swing has a 5 point harness so I feel safer putting them in that. Neither tolerates it well anymore since they are getting so much more active, but when they were tiny I needed them both a lot!

Other:
2 Boppy pillows. We still use these at least twice a day for feedings. The boys love to curl up in them now too so I can imagine they will be around for quite awhile yet. They were the one thing that made feeding both babies by myself a breeze.

 

I loved loved loved the big boppy pillows for infants (not the breastfeeding one but the big round one). they have been in it since day one! it keeps them cozy and props them up. I have the duoglider stroller and graco carseats. the stroller is heavy but i believe that is the best and only cheaper choice out there for two infants. One swing and one bouncer will do you! I have two playpens (one for the bedroom and one for the living room so we dont have to move it back and forth). My boys were born at 35 1/2 weeks and were 5lbs 7 oz to 5 lbs 9 oz. They lost weight to be 5 lbs even and were in preemie clothes for two weeks. The preemie diapers may be worth buying but Huggies newborn were the best and they grew into them quickly. I had bought like 6-7 boxes of diapers and are already down to two boxes now at 7 weeks old and they are in a size 1-2. I reccomend buying diapers in newborn and size 1 and stock up on them as well as wipes and formula if you are going to use it. However I didnt know what kind of formula they would use so just have a case of it when they arrive. I loved the 2 oz nursettes that just need a nipple. Especially for the night feedings and they wont eat that much when they are born. My two barely ate half an ounze at a feeding but quickly started eating more within two weeks. If i think of anything else Ill post! good luck and congrats! You will be so in love!!

 

Car seats and stroller...we used the Duo Glide with pop in car seats. I am able to go any where by myself with this.

Did not get preemie inserts. Lilly was 5.5 lbs and Brock was 4.12 lbs.

As far as cloths I did get away with preemie onsies for awhile actually. It would depend on the maker. Their coming home outfits were preemie and they were to big. I would reccomend having preemie and newborn. I ended up sending hubby to walmart to buy preemie cloths. My guys were 18 in. so maybe it would also depend on the length. I think you will be safe with preemie and newborn.

I also could not have lived without two boppies. Both mine had reflux and this helped them to stay upright and also allowed me to feed both at the same time. I did breastfeed but I also had to supplement per pedi and Im still using the boppies to feed them. They are 4 months old.

I used a bassinet next to the bed at first.

Hope this helps