Feeding tips:
- Breastfeeding twins or more is possible! If you're thinking about it, read Mothering Multiples:Breastfeeding
and Caring for Twins or More by Karen Kirkhoff Gromada. It is very practical without being preachy, and has
lots of great ideas about breastfeeding and other issues related to multiples.
- Don't microwave breast milk. It kills some nutrients and risks hot spots in the milk that can scald a baby's mouth.
- Get your babies used to drinking room temperature formula or breastmilk. It will save a lot of headaches when you
aren't trying to warm bottles while two or more babies are screaming for supper.
- Leaving a crockpot half full of water, plugged in and on low, is
a great way to warm several bottles at a time and
the water is already hot.
- Once you know what kind of bottles your babies like, buy enough for an entire day. Then you can make enough bottles
for the whole day in the morning so you don't have to make them with screaming babies.
- If you don't have the money to buy that many bottles you can always make formula up and keep it in a pitcher in the fridge
to just pour into the bottles.
- If you are breastfeeding, pump two bottles just before bed. Breastmilk can stay at room temperature for up to 10
hours, so it can sit on your nightstand and be immediately ready for hungry babies in the middle of the night.
- Once they eat solid foods just put them in their high chairs and alternate giving each one a bite of food.
- You'll save a bundle of money if you make your own baby food. Use what you have on hand---applesauce, mashed bananas,
and canned peaches, pears, green beans, sweet potatoes, peas, and carrots pureed in a food processor and frozen in ice cube
trays. Once the food is frozen, place the cubes into a freezer bag. Under hot running water, you can thaw
just what you need and not waste any food.
- Think about getting a few "hands free" Podee bottles. You can find them by searching on any major search engine
or at http://www.nossgalenbaby.com/podee.html
- Get a curtain liner from the dollar store to use as a drop cloth underneath the babies' highchairs. It is very big,
very cheap, and easy to clean. It can be wiped up as needed, and even thrown into the washing machine a few times before
it needs replacing.
Sleeping Tips
- The babies sleep better if they are snuggled together.
- If you are breastfeeding and supplementing, give the babies formula just before bed. It takes longer to digest than
breastmilk and may help the babies sleep longer.
- Sleep when your babies are sleeping!!
- If you have a "stander" (a baby who stands in his crib and can't get down, so he screams for help several times a night),
try putting him in a playpen to sleep for a few nights. It is harder to pull himself up on the mesh sides of the
playpen, so he may learn not to do it at night.
Bathing
- To get yourself clean when the babies are awake just put them in their bouncy chairs or their car seats with some toys
and put them in the bathroom with you.
- Remember you only need to fully bathe your babies once a week. The rest of the time just wipe them down with
a warm rag concentrating on the areas that get gross like the folds in their neck.
- When you bathe your babies try to have another person there to help you so you can bathe them and they can get them diapered
and dressed.
- If you don't have any help and you can't wait for it, put them in their diapers in their bouncy chairs/carseats that are
covered with a towel. Then take one and bathe, dry, and diaper then put back into the chair. Repeat with
second baby.
Schedule
- It will take time to get them on a schedule so be patient.
- You will save time being on a schedule because your babies will eat, sleep, and get changed at the same time.
Grocery shopping
- If you don't need much take your stroller and just put things in the basket to buy.
- If you can't use your stroller park near a cart so you can transfer the babies car seats to the cart easily.
- Put one baby in the basket and one over the seat then put a basket on the bottom of the cart to put food in, or using
the seat belt, attach a second cart to the front of the cart with the babies in it.
- Go to the grocery store without your babies if at all possible. Monthly grocery shopping helps a lot with this.
- If you need to go to the grocery store alone with your multiples, put one baby in the seat and use a snugli carrier for
the other baby. This leaves hands free to get what you need or to keep an eye on an older child, and leaves the basket
for groceries.
Some Things Are Almost Essential For Two Adults to be Present for:
- Pictures--There is no way to get two squirmy babies to both look at the camera and not try to roll, crawl or otherwise
fall of the photographer's table without a set of grown-up hands for each baby.
- Immunizations--You'll want (and baby will need) to be comforted after her shots. You'll want to have another adult
there to comfort the first baby after her shots while you hold the second baby down and comfort him after his shots.
- Learning to Breastfeed Simultaneously--You'll want an extra set of hands to help position the second
baby or to adjust pillows.
If you have tips that worked for you please share them with us and we'll include them here.
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