Our healthy pregnancy was in part due to following the guidelines in the book, “When You’re Expecting Twins, Triplets, or Quads” by Dr. Barbara Luke and Tamara Eberlein. Our high-risk doctors were amazed by our ‘perfect twin pregnancy’ and I credit it to religiously following the advice in this book. Post pregnancy: We couldn’t have lived without our Miracle Blanket swaddle blankets and Fisher Price cradle swings. Yay for twins! — Joanna, New Brighton mama whodelivered 38 week old boy/girl twins via planned cesarean last July.
Twin mama mantra: my job isn’t to make you happy it’s to keep you alive. Say this to yourself repeatedly. Try to make it out of the house briefly once a day even in the early days — it will seem difficult but worth it. Just a brief change of scenery is helpful. Believe people with older twins when they tell you it gets better. Make friends with other parents of multiples- they are the cliffs notes of parenting books.–Krista, Minneapolis: Our dynamic duo joined our family two years ago, spicing up 9 years of wedded bliss and pushing our Libby dog off her “single child” pedestal.
Best piece of advice I could ever give: everything is a (relatively short) phase, even though it’s so hard to believe when you’re in the thick of it. On the tough days, just remember that whatever seemingly unmanageable stage you’re in, it will be over before you know it! —Sara of Minneapolis, who welcomed 27 week identical girls into the world after 5 weeks of hospitalized bed rest…and busted them out of the NICU shortly after their due date! They are now happy, healthy 33 month year old sisters who are madly in love with their 11 month old brother!
Learn to ask for and accept help. And, find time, even just 5 minutes a day, to do something nice for yourself. –Carrie, St. Paul mom of twin boys who were welcomed with open arms after seven years of marriage and four years of fertility struggle.
If someone offers you advice on raising twins, and they haven’t raised or aren’t raising twins themselves, feel free to ignore it. If everyone is alive and eventually sleeping at the end of a day, the day is an outstanding success. —Ilene, Minneapolis pediatrician and Mom of twins who was probably a better parent before having twins…but is definitely a better pediatrician after.
My best piece of advice is to not think of your twins (or triplets, etc.) as twins. Just think of them as babies that are the same age. There is not that much fundamentally different about multiples, as much as the rest of the world will have you believe (or wants to believe). They are just babies, and they need all the same things as other babies. There are just more of them to deal with at once. When I realized this it felt like some pressure was off – I’m not raising some kind of alien species. Just lots of babies. –Sarah, Minneapolis mom to an energetic 4½ year old and 2 busy 1½ year old boys, in a much-too-small house.
