Twins Top Tips

Linda Nelson is mum to 7 year old identical twin girls.  Admittedly she's well past the breastfeeding stage, but with a little distance between then and now, she gives us her top tips on how to make things a little bit easier when your family unit doubles...

Upon learning we were having twins after the first scan we went out and celebrated with a nice meal. My pregnancy went without a hitch until my waters broke early at 35 weeks and one week later we were blessed with two beautiful identical baby girls. However, the learning curve was steep and we got precious little sleep in the early days! Here are my top tips for survival: 

1) Routine, routine routine!  Get into a routine in terms of feeding, bath time and bedtime; 

2) try get out every day even if it is pouring with rain- get your waterproofs on and roll out the pram. It gives you a break from the four walls

3) get as much sleep as you can- a bit of cat napping when you can, will take the edge of your tiredness; 4) Team work with your other half is essential.  My husband did the evening shift and I did the night shift. I often went to bed at 8.00/9.00PM and then did the night shift from 12.30ish so we both managed to try bank some quality sleep. Unfortunately we had to do this as ours were very poor sleepers for many, many months no matter what we tried! 

5) We made up our bottles the night before and had them in the fridge ready to roll the next day- a quick warm up in the bottle warmer and they were ready to go!

The main thing and above all else- enjoy them. It is a unique experience having and bringing up twins and though the first couple of years  were tough, they are joy and it goes in a flash!

Good luck