Category: Babies and Toddlers

Author: Katie Bowman

My partner Tim is in the defence force – RAAF.  I recently did 4 months without him as he was away on training.

A lot of people asked me how things went with a 3yo and twin 14mo’s – so allow me to share some of the crappiest months of my life.

Saying goodbye

As Tim got in his car and started his drive to Victoria, I waved him off as I held Violet who had a 39 degree temperature. Sienna cried as he drove away, so then I put my sunnies on and cried as he drove away, while telling her it was fine and aiming for a distraction of going for a walk to see the cows.

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Many new parents of twins or multiple babies find it difficult to bond with them in the beginning. This could be due to time spent in intensive care after a difficult birth or just having less time to focus on each individual baby. But there is a lot you can do to help.

Bonding with Twins or Multiple Babies

Worrying that you won’t bond with your newborn is a very normal concern for expectant and new mums to have. There is a myth that we fall in love with our babies the instant we see them, but this doesn’t always happen straight away. And what if you have twins or multiple babies – is it any harder to bond with them?

Bonding instantly with your baby doesn’t always happen

We are led to believe that bonding instantly with our babies is the norm, when in reality it doesn’t happen anywhere near as often as you think.

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Let’s face it; if you have multiples, you are outnumbered from the start.  So you are going to need an extra “pair of hands” every once in a while.  I personally consider rockers, swings or bouncers for twins and more an essential piece of equipment.  They are your spare pair of hands.

Find out our other tips in our blog on how to survive the first year HERE.

Types of Rockers, Swings and Bouncers

We had five rockers/swings in total. Two ‘normal’ rockers which were the same, two vibrating rockers (both different brands, one of which has lights and music and one that doesn’t) and a swing. 

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Author: Melissa Lourey 

This is part two of Melissa’s story. You can read all about her twins birth HERE.

While pregnant with twins, I would try and imagine what life would be like once they were born. I imagined having them with me in the hospital room, cuddling, feeding and sleeping just as I had two years before when I gave birth to my daughter Amelie. I bought nice new pyjamas thinking I would be lying around the house breastfeeding in those early weeks at home and using any spare energy I had to play with Amelie. The reality of having twins hasn’t quite matched the idealistic scenarios I had imagined and feeding them has been an interesting, and somewhat chaotic journey.

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Catherine from Dream Winks is a holistic sleep consultant. She shares with us her opinions on dummies for twins and more. You can find out more about Catherine and Dream Winks HERE.

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Lots of parents ask me what my opinion on dummies is, especially with twins or multiples. Some parents see them as a godsend when juggling two or more grumpy babies so they want to know what I think. While my answer is fairly simple the reasons behind it are not. 

So, what is my take on dummies for twins and more?

Please take the time to read the whole article all as the information is very important to make an informed decision.

Do I recommend dummies – NO

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My twins turned 8 last week, and coincidently I found this interview I had done for our student midwife about our twins in the special care nursery. It is very raw and unpolished, but I wanted to share it with you as it is.

I wrote this on the 17th October 2011. So the twins were 4 months old at the time.

Eight years on, it has made the memories come flooding back.

How long were your twins in the special care nursery?

31 days.  Oliver was in the Neonatal Intensive Care Nursery (NICU) for a few days and Alexis went straight to the Special Care Nursery (SCN).

What was your experience of having twins in the special care nursery?

We were very very lucky.  Our twins were mainly in there for fattening up and to learn to feed.  While they certainly had their share of hiccups along the way, they didn’t have any really realy serious issues.  At the time though, it was all very scary.

While Oliver was the bigger twin, he had more health issues.  He was born apnoeic, but was soon revived.  He was in NICU for the first few days then was transferred to special care.  Oliver was in an isolette for a week with oxygen being pumped into the isolette.  He was never ventilated or on CPAP though thankfully.  We were told every day when we left to expect that we would find him back in NICU the next morning on CPAP, but this never eventuated. 

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Author: Tara Tihema

Without a doubt, toilet training twins has been my proudest achievement as a multiple mum. It was made all the more special because I feared and avoided it for so long, but now that it’s over I wish I had dived in earlier and saved a fortune on nappies.

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Night Nannies for twins and triplets sound like an amazing idea!!! And I wish I had known about them when my babies were little.

But what do they actually do? And how can they help your family? Twinfo recently interviewed AnnMarie, the Founder of Night Nannies. AnneMarie is also a twin mum herself!

What is the difference between a Night Nanny and an overnight babysitter? 

Great question! An overnight Nanny is someone who holds qualifications in early childhood development or nursing and provides a tailored service specifically for infants. This service provides all aspects of respite, routine guidance, settling techniques and feeding assistance. Postnatal Education and Care sums up our Overnight Nanny service.

Babysitting to us is a basic evening service after 6pm where we come in and the parents go out for a nice relaxing dinner knowing that their older (sleeping children) are being cared for and supervised.

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Author:  Lauren Cartledge

Now that the girls are 3 months old, we have learnt so much about life as twin parents in such a small amount of time. Your entire world changes (for the better) and it isn’t all about you anymore. Here are some of the few things we deal with on a daily basis:

Strangers wanting to touch / look at the girls at the shops (or anywhere out of the house).

As flattered as we are that people love seeing the girls, we get stopped whenever we are out multiple times a trip by random people asking about them.

Their top questions or comments:
“Natural or IVF?”
“You have an instant family you don’t need anymore!”
“You are SO lucky I’ve always wanted twins”
“Are you sad one isn’t a boy?”
“Oh girls! You are so lucky you don’t need to try again”
“Do twins run in the family?”
“Did you plan to have 2 at once?” (the best one yet haha)

Don’t get me wrong, we secretly love life as twin parents and the attention they bring (especially from friends and family) but when a total stranger approaches us, lifts up the covered sheet on the pram and sticks their hands in to touch the girls we get really shocked, and usually a polite “Oh please don’t touch them we wouldn’t want to wake them up” follows.

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