Have you ever looked at your multiples and thought – they could be models? We all know the story of Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen who became mega stars playing the same baby on Full House!
But what is the industry really like? How do you get in and how can you trust the people you are working with?
Nix and Naomi caught up with twin mum Kelly who has twin girls working in modelling to find out the ins and outs of what’s involved!
Choosing a daycare for twins or triplets can be a big decision.
Whether you are looking at sending them to daycare because you need to go back to work or if you want to give them a bit of time to socialize and get to learn new and exciting things, it can be difficult on you as a parent.
It is a time when you start to be away from your children, they learn a lot more independence and you have to learn to spend your days not chasing after their every need (which can be a nice feeling).
When choosing a daycare for twins or triplets there are a few things that you should consider.
There are a few different options when it comes to daycare and each system is set up a little bit differently.
It is important before choosing your centre that you have a chat with the owner or the director of the centre along with the staff that will be looking after your children so that you can find out a bit more about the centre and the way that it runs on a day to day basis.
This is a good time to chat with the staff about any concerns that you may have in regards to learning for your children and whether they are able to cater to this and assist with the learning process.
Finding out about the menus is also another good point to check with the staff. Some centres require you to bring your own food. This means you need to know which foods are able to be brought in and which are not (due to allergy risks). For those that supply meals it is important for you to raise any allergies or intolerances that your little ones may have.
Another question that you should ask is whether your children will be in the same room or in separate rooms.
If there is the option for them to be in separate rooms, you will need to decide if this is something that you would like to do.
There are benefits to both having them together and having them separate. However this is a personal choice that only you can decide on.
The most important thing when choosing a daycare option for your twins or triplets is your personal opinion on the centre and how you feel when in there. It is a good idea to organise to go into the centre, get to know the staff and how the centre works.
This will help to make you feel comfortable with the centre and decide if it is something that you are happy with and confident in sending your children to.
Without a feeling of security and comfort within the centre you run the risk of spending your days worrying and feeling insecure.
Its important to understand that choosing a daycare for twins or triplets can be a lengthy process. Finding a centre with availability for multiple children can be tricky. Particularly if you have set days you need. Start the process early, as, depending where you live, daycare can be limited.
You may find that you may have to start them a bit earlier than planned, just to hold the spots, for when you do actually need to return to work. This can be unexpected and frustrating.
Starting daycare can be a big thing for little people. Talk to them about it and get them excited for the next chapter in their little lives.
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Lauren Sinclair joins Nix and Naomi to talk about her twin journey including delivering twins via emergency c-section and her NICU experience.
We talk to Mum Lauren who had a set of twins as her fourth pregnancy!
Lauren discusses the challenges of raising a set of twins with three other children, balancing different ages in one house, the surprise of multiples and even renovating a house!
Author: Chloé Miller
Choosing to go ‘eco’ with a baby is a big decision. Some choices mean a little more work and possibly a little more cost, BUT… some choices are easy and save you money too. Which is a big plus when you are juggling more than one baby at a time! Whether you can make a few small changes or go the whole hog and commit to everything doesn’t matter. It’s all about doing what you can to reduce your impact and help create a future for your babies which is safe and healthy.
Traditional baby stuff (wipes, nappies, lotions, baby bath, clothing) contributes a huge amount to landfill. I want to take you through a few examples and show you how you can really make a difference by making some small changes.
And just think! With twins or triplets, you’ll be making double or triple the difference!
You go through approximately 7000 nappies with each child. If you are buying traditional ‘disposable’ nappies, i.e. plastic, they are all going to landfill and contributing to landfill emissions. Nappies stay in landfill for approximately 500 years before breaking down into microplastics that stay in the environment forever.
If you would like to reduce your carbon footprint with twins and triplets via nappies, you have three main options:
These consist of an outer shell and an insert that are washed and reused. Yes, there is washing involved, but once you get in the swing of things, it becomes a habit. Your investment per child is around $350 for about 10 nappies (compared with an average of $3000 for disposables). You can usually use the same nappies repeatedly until your child is toilet trained. If you want to try reusables, but don’t want to face the washing, there are cloth nappy washing services you can use.
And its not as hard as you may think. Read our tips on using cloth nappies for twins or triplets HERE.
These are readily available in mainstream supermarkets and are made from natural, biodegradable material. They aren’t any different to use than plastic-based nappies and in fact are better for baby and the planet. These are not the number one choice because you still need to send them to landfill where they will take a very long time to biodegrade, but a great option when you are juggling multiple babies at once.
This may seem like a funny one but the earlier you can get your kids out of nappies, the better for the planet and you! No judgements here on how long that process will take, as we all have our own approaches and all kiddies are different, but if you have the patience and time to get this going early, you’ll reduce the number of nappies you send to landfill.
Another way to reduce your carbon footprint with twins and triplets is to be careful about baby clothing. Babies and children need quite a few items of clothing due to all the ickiness that takes place, but what are the best sustainable options that are kind to the planet and baby? And which options will help you with twins or triplets?
If you can avoid buying new clothes, especially cheap, ‘fast fashion’, you are already doing your bit for the planet. Fast fashion is very attractive as it is cheap and cute, but the problem is that it isn’t made to last so there is a cycle of discarding and replacing because it is so affordable. Aussies on average buy 27kg of clothing a year and discard a whopping 23kg of that to landfill each year! There is also an ethical issue with fast fashion as most of it is made overseas in sweatshops where workers are underpaid and overworked.
Sooooo… if you know someone with older kids, hit them up! And, obviously, if you have older kids, save all their clothes for your bubs. You can find secondhand clothing online and at op shops and some pieces are really cool. I have been lucky enough to receive bags of hand-me-downs from friends and colleagues over the years and the kids love going through all the ‘new’ items and choosing their favourites. And the more hand-me-downs you get, the more to share amongst siblings.
If second-hand isn’t your thing, another option is to make sure you are buying ethically made clothing so that you know there weren’t any sweatshops involved, you know the growing and manufacturing process was sustainable AND once the clothes are discarded, they will biodegrade. Go for natural fibres like cotton, hemp or bamboo which are nice and soft for babies.
For clothing that can’t be donated or passed on, check out Upparel who take unwanted textile waste and recycle it into brand-new awesome stuff.
A great way to reduce the number of new toys and books at home is to join your local library and your local toy library! You can borrow books and toys for your mob to enjoy and then go back and swap them every few weeks. The kids love choosing and you don’t need to get rid of toys that are broken or old by putting them in landfill. I think this is especially handy for twins or triplets so you can avoid 2 or 3 of everything taking up space at home.
Another idea to reduce waste from toys is to use sensory and experience play rather than toys. Babies and kids love playing around in water, doing scavenger hunts in the garden, going to the park to look at all the animals and bird and feeling the breeze and sunshine on their faces.
There are lots of “little” ways you can reducing your carbon footprint with twins or triplets that will all add up.
Like nappies, you have a few options when it comes to baby wipes, the worst of which is disposable. Like nappies, they can end up in landfill for a very long time and break down into microplastics. You can use an extraordinary number of wipes with one baby. And that is only going to be doubled or tripled with multiple babies.
So, what are your options?
These are a great option as you can just wash and reuse after each use. I have made my own with cut up squares from flannelette pyjamas soaked in soap and olive oil. But an easier option is to use face washers or similar. Just use soap and water and baby oil or similar to keep them damp and then rinse and soak before washing.
There are a few biodegradable wipes available in supermarkets these days although they are sometimes slightly more expensive than disposable wipes. They are made from natural materials like bamboo and will break down in your compost or in landfill eventually.
If you do choose disposable, please do not flush them down the toilet even if they say ‘flushable’. They don’t dissolve and build up in the pipes and create blockages.
Those are my top 5 tips for reducing your carbon footprint with twins or triplets.
I hope they are helpful to you. If you are interested in other sustainable-living ideas, please take a look at some more tips and tricks below:
Author: Stephanie Ernst
Identical twin parents will all nod their heads here when you ask them what one of the silliest questions they’ve ever been asked is.
“Is it a boy and a girl?” (I seriously heard all of you out there rolling your eyes right now!)
Here’s the tea, though: It can happen, but it’s super rare. We’re talking you’ve got more chance of winning the lottery rare! But it does happen, and it can occur in a few ways.
Author: Samantha Wolfe
“How many do you think are in there? One or two?” My wife asked me as we headed for our dating scan. 5 weeks prior to that I had had a double frozen embryo transfer. This was my 4th and final attempt at pregnancy. My wife and I did reciprocal IVF to conceive our children. She carried our first (master 3, biologically mine) and then we swapped.
“Maybe one?” I replied. Although I had a great HCG level, I didn’t feel pregnant in the slightest, the only symptom I had at that stage was no period.
As the ultrasound picture hit my uterus my eyes lit up. There sat two tiny little sacks, with a tiny little baby in each. Ecstatic is an understatement. I felt like I had waited a lifetime for this.
No gonna lie, I had a textbook pregnancy up to 32 weeks.
As I laid down in the examination chair for a quick ultrasound in my obstetricians rooms, he looks at my belly just under my belly button “…is that itchy?” Pointing to an itch that had started about a week earlier. “Yes actually, why? What is it?” Thinking it was just itchy stretch marks from my skin stretching. “You’ve got PUPPP, Pruritic-itchy, Urticarial-like mosquito bites, Papules- big lumps, Plaques- really big lumps, of pregnancy”
I left the rooms that day with my induction date. My obstetrician telling me that it doesn’t harm the baby, however it causes insanity in the mother with the itch. Pfft really? How bad could it be..? Let. Me. Tell. You!
Parent Coach Jodie Thornton joins us this week to discuss parenting.
While recording this episode, NSW and Victoria are back in lockdown due to the COVID pandemic, and Jodie joins the ladies to discuss coping with life when things don’t go to plan and how to juggle life with multiples when life isn’t going to plan.
Do you give into the screen time and treats or is it time to play hard parent?
Author: Belinda Smith
There are decisions that we as parents of multiples make that parents of singletons never have to grapple with. One that garners many a heated discussion is that of separating or splitting up our multiples when they start school.
I have seen many multiple birth Facebook groups asking the same questions – “Do I keep them together? Do I separate? What has been everyone’s experience?”
As our boys started Prep this year (2021) I have spent some time over the previous two years asking myself these very same questions.
I think this decision was compounded for me because I am also a teacher. My mumma heart was saying ‘Keep them together! Starting school is a big step and they can support each other.’ However, my teacher brain was saying ‘Separate – how will they learn if they are constantly playing up together and not listening to the teacher!’
Choosing names is a tough job at the best of time. But its even tougher when you have to choose more than one!
And then of course you have middle names. And what if you don’t know the gender – then you have to think of even MORE names!
You can read our blog on choosing names in general for twins or triplets HERE.
However, once you have FINALLY decided on the names, if you have same sex twins your job isn’t quite done. You still need to decide which baby gets which name!
Often parents get very bogged down in this, as they feel the pressure of getting several years down the track and maybe thinking that the names would have been better the other way around! Don’t panic though. You will find in most cases that babies seem to grow into their names, and you will (hopefully!) look back and think there is no way that Baby A could have been called Baby B’s name.
