Regular Features on How Do You Do It?
Ask the Multiple Moms (Wednesdays)
Have a question about life with multiples? Wonder how to get through airport security, feed two at once, or just plain get out of the house? Use the comments below to ask your burning questions, and every week we’ll pick a topic and compile our responses.
Foodie Fridays
Ah, feeding our children. A constantly evolving challenge joy, from their first hours through teenage years. On Fridays here at How Do You Do It?, we’ll discuss food-related topics. Something you want us to talk about? Ask in the comments!
Product Reviews (Weekends)
Babies seem to come with or require a lot of stuff. Multiple babies mean even more stuff (though not always two of everything!), so we need to be even pickier about what we need and what we don’t, what works and what doesn’t. Every weekend we’ll tell you what real moms think of something “they” say you must have.
Hi Ladies. You tell it like it is, are hilarious and helpful. What a perfect combination for us bleary-eyed moms of multiples. Keep up the awesome work. As you know, moms of multiples work their butts off every day caring for their twins and we need to support each other. Do me a huge favor and check out the blog I’ve been writing with my buddy. We are at twinsetmoms.com. Our blog isn’t as cool as yours because we’ve mostly been focusing our attention on this book we wrote about caring for young twins. The book is going to rock because it includes strategies and anecdotes from moms of multiples all over the country. It was a ton of work for us to write a survey, post in on line, field the results and incorporate them into our book, but the result will truly be helpful to future moms of multiples. The book, Twin Set, comes out in July 2008. We can’t wait to share it with amazing moms like you. Thanks for being so cool. Your fan, Christina
p.s. We’d be honored if you could put our blog on your blog roll. When we figure out how to do ours, we will reciprocate, of course!!! Thanks. Christina
Hey all if you need another moms input let me know, cuz we all know that there is NEVER enough advise out there.
The question I keep thinking about is my babies are only about 5 months old right now, I keep thinking to myself how am i going to do this when they are in the stage of crawling and the beginnings of walking? And when they are out of their infant car seats!?! My double stroller is a life saver but i dont always bring that everywhere!! How do you get around at stores in the shopping cart? Its not like you can walk into the store with two on your hips……… can you? It just seems like a nightmare to even go anywhere at that age! Please prove me wrong! : )
Having twin girls, who’ve just turned one, I felt at sea most of the time. The early months are a blur, where I managed to lose touch with work buddies and the outside world!
Since my hubby, K, travels a lot on work I have had to take on the responsibility of parenting both kids. I must confess, I feel overwhelmed most of the time.
So as of now I spend my 15 minutes of free ‘me’ time reading this great blog. Thanks for voicing concerns and making this journey of motherhood a wee-bit more entertaining.
As for your segment, “Ask the Multiple Moms,” I have a question.
My daughter, Chellu, has been waking up nearly every second night, screaming as if in pain. The doctor says, it’s night time terrors. A term that did little to make the problem go away. He says it will stop on its own. But it is going to be a month and my little girl continues to wake up crying. I have tried rocking her, carrying her and walking, but none of this helps. I even tried to wake her up, switching on the lights in the room, but the screaming doesn’t seem to stop. During the day, she seems fine and even naps well. Any suggestions would be welcome at this point because I’m functioning on very little sleep and running out of patience.
Hi Jaya,
My daughter had a very similar issue when she was 3. She would yell (very loudly) while asleep and it seemed as if she was replaying things that had happened during the day. She would yell at her brother not to take her markers, she would sometimes even yell at me like reliving a tantrum she’d thrown earlier in the day. The first time she screamed bloody murder and terrified me, I went tearing into their room only to find her completely asleep. But she didn’t do any of this during her day-time naps.
I’m sorry to say that in my experience you really do just have to wait for her to grow out of it. My daughter still talks/yells sometimes in her sleep but it’s significantly less than when she was younger.
When she starts screaming and you wake her up it sounds like she just continues to scream? Does it sound like she’s actually upset or is she still sort of asleep even after you’ve woken her? I guess my advice would be to go in and rub her back but if she continues to scream I’d just let her get it out and sooth herself back to sleep.
Good luck!
Hello fellow MOM’s! It’s been great reading all perspectives. I am a first time mom to 14 month old b/g twins. And, I have a question!
We are working towards saying ‘buh bye’ to our plugs, pacis, nuks, whatever the word of the day is. At this point, nap time and bed time is the only time they are used. We realize that this in and of itself is a big accomplishment.
Here is the problem.
Any given night, at least one is going to wake up crying for some reason or another. I, needing my beauty sleep, go on pluggy patrol. Find the pluggy as quick as I can, and insert into mouth as quick as I can. Sleepy time continues. Sounds good to me.
Not to dear husband. He thinks we’re giving in to a bigger issue. We should let them cry it out and learn to soothe themselves. Fine by me. BUT, they share a room. And I don’t plan on changing that anytime soon. So, if I let one cry it out, I’m sure the other will wake up, and we’ll have two little ones ‘crying it out.’
Any suggestions?
Thank you!
i’ve a question, it may be a bit off-topic because it concerns my eldest daughter, not my twins, but i’m sure all parents face this problem.
my daughter is almost 3 1/2 yrs old, and she’s not potty trained yet. i tried a few times, and sometimes she succesfully ‘goes’ in the potty. she gives up so easily though, because everytime she has an accident she will insist on putting on her nappy back. the longest we manage to keep her off her nappy is half a day. she’s not all to be blamed though, i’m guilty as well. sometimes i’m just too lazy to deal with it that i keep putting it off. especially when i’m busy with the twins or anything else. i’m also dreading when the time comes to potty train the twins!
seriously, potty training is the most difficult part of parenting i’ve had so far. so please, help!
Here’s my question: my twins are newly mobile and their sister (a mere 18 months older) is suddenly VERY territorial. I’d expect that, I suppose, but I’m wondering if any of you have any advice on how to encourage the singleton sibling to share while at the same time recognizing that two against one is hard to deal with. Any thoughts?
I was wondering if any of you have tried to tackle the topic of post-partum depression in any of your posts or blogs? I remember reading a statistic that MoM, for various reasons, sometimes have a higher rate of PPD than singletons do. Have any of you experienced this, if so to what extent and how did you get help? This would be excellent advice for expecting/pregnant MoM or new MoM with newborns. Its such a serious, potentially dangerous problem that needs more support from all of us mothers, particuliarly MoM. Thanks!
Hi, I really enjoy this site…you guys are doing a great job! My question is a very much “How do you do it”. I have an almost 5 year old, almost 3 year old, and 7 month old twins. The last 7 months have been the hardest in my life so far. I feel like there is never enough time in the day. How do you find time for every one? I feel like I’m spread so thin, anyone else feel this way? And most recently our biggest problem is sleeping. For almost two months we’ve been trying to get the twins to sleep in their own beds. We’ve got the going down part, but the staying asleep part is not going well. They wake every 2 1/2 to 3 hours. We’ve let them cry, fed them more, and given them motrin (teething). Nothing is working. We are so sleep deprived I’m considering quiting nursing and starting formula. Did anyone else ever go through this? How did you make through? Any advice/tips/pointers would be awesome!
Thanks
Courtney
Oh and I would also be honored if I made your blog roll
Thanks
Courtney
hi. my fraternal g/g twins will turn 1 next month. my problem is they can’t seem to stand each other! Twin 2 always snatches things out of Twin 1′s hands and Twin 1 would sometimes fight back, but most of the time would just scream her heart out. recently, they’ve started fighting by pulling at each other’s hairs, clothes and hitting each other. it will always end up with either one of them crying or both screaming at the top of their lungs! i’m at a loss, i mean, aren’t they supposed to be the bestest friends? i don’t want to take sides, but i sometimes tend to attend to Twin 1 as she seems like the weaker one.
i wonder if MoMs at HDYDI ever face such a problem and how did you handle it? i long for the day when they would play nicely and happily together…
I’m a mom of boy/girl twin 10 month olds in Noblesville, Indiana. Summer is FINALLY upon us and we are trying to plan some weekend trips, but I’m not sure what the babies will enjoy. Other than the zoo, what activities are popular with 10-14 month olds (we’re planning through the beginning of the fall)? I’ve looked into a couple of small amusement parks and water parks with “toddler” areas, but wasn’t sure what age is appropriate for this, so that they’ll really be able to participate. We are also looking into the beach, but I worry that we will spend our time trying to keep them from eating the sand.
Any help is appreciated. I think I’m just looking forward to leaving town after a LONG winter!!!!!
Shelley
Hello, lovely Mommies!
Im wondering about cloth diapers. I’d love to try them, but am overwhelmed by all the different options out there. Have you ever used cloth diapers? Can you recommend top brands to me?
HELP!
How do you breastfeed twins in public? Or do I just stay trapped in my house for a year? My twins eat every 2-2.5 hours during the day, so I’ve only been out to take a quick walk around the neighborhood or a quick trip to Target.
And I bought nursing bras and they are super uncomfortable. Any recommendations for nursing bras that are comfy and not too expensive?
Hey! I have g/g 4month olds! They are getting to the point where they are no longer content laying down on a pallet and playing during the day. They want to be moving, but they don’t like the confinement of the walker or the jump and go. They prefer being walked around the house. Does anyone have any suggestions? We have been trying to work on fine motor and gross motor skills on the pallet, but they are not as satisfied. Thanks!
Question for the experts on feeding & bedtime… I have 4 month old b/b twins who would be content going to bed around 7:30pm. However, they simply haven’t had enough to eat for the day by then and still need 1 more feeding.
We have been pretty much letting them set their feeding schedule from day 1. They are currently content eating about 5-6oz five times a day (for a total of 25-30oz.) They currently weigh 13 & 15lbs. The problem is that they want to eat about every 4 hours throughout the day. We wake them up at 7am for their first meal then they eat at 11, 3, and 6:30. At which point they have had 4 feedings for a total of 20-24 oz. We would put them to bed after that 6:30 feeding, but they simply haven’t eaten enough. They aren’t interested in eating more per feeding, nor do they want to eat any more frequently. So what we end up doing is letting them fall asleep in their bouncy seats around 7:30 and catnap on and off until 9:30 or 10 when we feed them again (typically only 4 oz, and sometimes getting them to stay awake through that is super tough). But 20-24 oz for kiddos that weight 13-15lbs just doesn’t seem like enough.
Bless their little hearts if we put them to bed at 7:30pm they still sleep until we wake them up at 7am the next morning. So should we just give up on this late night feeding and put them to bed? Or should we keep it up until they are eating more during the day?
I have 16month g/b twins. i am looking for help at bedtime and sleeping schedules. Just after their first birthday, we moved. Before that, we had one crib in our room and one in their room. They always slept in the crib(in both rooms). In the new house, we put both cribs in their room, thinking they would go to sleep in their cribs.
They are sleeping longer and some nights, they will sleep all night long. More often in the last few weeks, g and/or b will wake up in the middle of the night and my husband or I will just put them in bed with us. In the morning I might have two extra in the bed. I must note that my husband goes to work by 6am. He uaually is up by 4am to prepare and sometimes will bring to our bed a child or both before he leaves.
I have been trying to set a schedule for bedtime, but i work full time outside the home and the evenings are not always well planned out. Bedtime could be anywhere between 8pm and 11pm. I don’t want them going to bed with a bottle/sippy cup in their crib. We usually start out on my bed w/ a sippy cup of milk and cuddle, read, listen to music until they fall asleep. Then I will move them to their crib. I have been doing research on my own on co-sleeping and other sleep schedules for toddlers, but would like some real world experience/advice.
Thank you.
Camping w/ twins?
They’ll be five months old the end of August and we’re going tent camping. Any advice, recommendations, etc… GREATLY appreciated!
Thank you!
Hi,
I have a nap advice question: my five month old twin girls are sleeping pretty good at night now, waking to b/f only twice in the night but the naps are all over the place! they always seem to wake at the 45 minute mark and only a few times do they go back to sleep. I have let them cry up to an hour after waking up (what the book Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Baby suggested) and they hardly ever go back to sleep. So they aren’t rested and can barely handle being awake for an hour before they need another nap. Its frustrating b/c I feel really tied down to staying at home and getting all these short naps out of them but it would be so much nicer to take my older kids to the park or somewhere else, if the babies would wake from a good 1 to 2 hour nap and I could plan on leaving for an outing with everybody rested.
Any thoughts on how to get a longer nap to happen?
Thanks!!
I am hoping that the collective mother of twins wisdom on this site will help me decide if I should persist with trying to exclusively (or mostly) breastfeed my twin boys or accept that I can’t and look for other options. I don’t want to face the heartbreak of giving up something so important to me without seeing if there is anything else I could be doing differently. But I don’t want to keep believing I will be able to do something that may not be possible and is hard on my family and my babies.
I am in my 10th week of trying to exclusively breastfeed my preemie twin boys, and I am wondering if I will ever be able to make enough milk for them. My babies were born at 5 lbs each at 34.5 weeks and spent 7 days in the NICU getting tube fed and bottles (with some breastmilk that I pumped in the hospital.) After working with a local LC, one baby has been bare breastfeeding (without nipple shields) for about 6 weeks and one for 3 weeks, but they are just getting stronger at nursing now.
I have been breastfeeding (initially with nipple shields for only a few minutes at a time), supplementing with bottles, and pumping after almost every feeding since we all got home from the hospital. But with bottle supplements (a mix of formula and breastmilk) and help from family visitors, it has been a challenge to even get 8 feedings in a day. Even now with 8 semi-scheduled feedings a day, we sometimes go longer than 3 hours more than once at night and sometimes during the day.
Over the past two weeks, I tried to reduce the bottle supplements during the day with the advice of a local LC, and the babies cried more and needed more soothing. But I thought it was just a matter of time before their nursing demand would bring in more milk. However, when I went to the pediatrician last week, she said they were “falling off the growth chart,” and I needed to supplement them more not less. They were close to 8 lbs at 10 weeks. The baby who had been nursing longer had grown 9 oz in two weeks and the other had only grown 5 oz.
I am now breastfeeding them 8 times a day and supplementing with 60 ml bottles afterwards 6 times a day. The LC has recommended skipping bottles twice a day, bringing more fussing, which I can hardly imagine continuing much longer. I am afraid that this much supplementation (still a mix of breast milk and formula) will make it even harder for me to exclusively or even mostly breastfeed them.
I have worked really hard to get the babies to nurse, but I have only had them on only breastmilk for a week here an there. But the LC and pediatrician have said that having babies who were bigger and stronger would help bring in more milk. I have pumped 6-8 times a day with a Symphony pump, but that has not brought in enough milk for two babies without the help of strong nursers. I am taking 10 ml domperidone 4x a day and herbal teas, which haven’t made a dramatic difference in supply so far.
I want to have realistic expectations about breastfeeding my babies, but I also don’t want to give up too soon. Does anyone know if you can still develop a full supply this late in the game? If so, what could I do differently while still feeding my babies enough?
Thanks for any shared advice or experience,
Momma Miriam
Can you please take a poll on how many MOMs work outside the house AND how they handle it? I’ve been back at work for 3 weeks now and I flip flop about how I feel about it almost every day! Today I want to be a sahm but yesterday I was happy that I am successful at my job.
Help!
HELP!!! I’m a first time mom who is wondering how to transition my 4 1/2 month old boys from four naps to two or even three naps a day. They become fussy and inconsolable within 1 1/2-2 hours after their first four feedings of the day. Once they are put down, they take great 1 1/2-2 hour naps, with the exception of after their 3:30 feeding. They usually only nap 45 minutes and then are up until their 7 pm feeding. It seems this last nap could be eliminated but they become overtired and extremely cranky whenever we’ve tried to do this. If I sit and occupy their EVERY moment from 3:30-7, I’ve managed to keep them up and prevent them from continuously crying but this is obviously not a rational decision! They are great sleepers at night, going down from 10-6, but I have heard that eventually they will even sleep from 8-6ish. Does this come with fewer naps in the day? I’m just a little confused on how to make this transition without messing up our whole schedule or to know if they are even ready to make this transition. I would greatly appreciate any suggestions you can give me!
How to keep one year old twins alive? One of my 13 month old boys almost drowned today in the wading pool. I would like to avoid death on my watch. My guys are super active movers who haven’t quite figured out how to look down for steps or notice where the sidewalk ends and the road begins. I’m going to buy leashes tomorrow, but how do you let them play in public spaces with losing one? I keep telling people that one year is so much better than one month; after today I’m not so sure.
I found you guys today and I feel like it was mean to be. I needed some like-minded buddies and this site fit the bill. Phew.
Hello! I need the collective wisdom of you MoMs. I’ve got 3 1/2 yo boys and after a recent conversation with a friend of mine who has a single son, I’m left wondering ‘should I set up play dates for my guys?’
I’ve never really thought about it before b/c well, their life has been one big playdate, hasn’t it? And it also brings up questions about which friend to invite – given they’ve got such differing personalities. What if one gets left out?
This also draws out my sense that other parents have NOT approached us b/c they are twins. I’ve had other parents and even strangers offer me their ‘helpful anecdotes’ about how all the twins they’ve ever known were ‘messed up’, ‘troubled’ or brats. How do these people find me? Do I look like I’m in dire need of their expert advice? Am I the only experiencing these things or am I being paranoid?
My question is regarding soy formula and the transition to milk. My twins have been on soy since day one. When introducing milk should I go directly to soy or to whole milk? Do any of your girls have experience with this?
Thanks Staci
http://doubletheblessing.blogspot.com
Should I get standard high chairs or “space saver” high chairs that go on regular chairs (http://www.fisher-price.com/fp.aspx?st=2002&e=product&pid=35236)??? I have twins and we do travel fairly frequently and I don’t want my parents to have to buy two high chairs too…
I suggested a while back to do a stroller review. I have since found my dream stroller. It’s the Baby Jogger city series. It is so nice and is great for our rugged Canada terrain.
Staci
Hi! Love the site!
I have an almost 4 year old son and am not 17 weeks pregnant with twin girls. A couple of my friends want to host a shower for me, but I know many people (my sister-in-law) included that think 2nd baby showers are totally tacky. I had a really hard time getting (and staying pregnant) with these little ones and obviously feel like they should be celebrated, but don’t want people thinking I am begging for presents, ya know what I mean. What does everyone think about 2nd baby showers? Thanks!
Hi there!
I have been daydreaming of our b/g twins’ first birthday party since the day they were born, and come October it will finally be here! I have no idea why and its not that I want them to grow up but for whatever reason i am just so excited! Plus there will never be another 1st birthday party for us so I feel I need to go out with a bang! : ) I am not creative at all so Im looking for any ideas on throwing a 1st birthday party! I would love ideas, websites, themes and of course pictures!!! Any help would be great! Thanks!!!!!!
Amanda
I’m just wondering how moms feel about their twins sharing rooms as babies, children, teens? I plan on them sharing rooms for as long as possible but I’d love to hear other opinions.
I’ve read some of the great posts on the site about being a SAHM with twins, but it seems like all the posts address older children, and finding the right balance of activity and schedule.
My twin boys are only 6 weeks old, and my husband just went back to work. I only just figured out how to (bottle) feed both of them at the same time, never mind leaving the house (or a shower everyday).
My question is: how did all the other moms of multiples make it through these early days and keep their sanity?? Ideas for dual feedings, what to do when both are inconsolible and feed/sleep/ play schedules would be great!
Obviously, we twin moms and parents need help. But, what is a good response when someone you know asks to help and you don’t necessarily want their help or feel comfortable with them helping or working with your children?
Help! Advice on sleep-training (when to do it, how to do it, etc.) is much needed. My babies are 5 months old and I haven’t slept more than 3 or so hours in a row in way too long. Also, they are addicted to the swaddle, and can’t seem to sleep without it, but break out of it periodically overnight and wake themselves up. So we need to wean swaddle and sleep train all at once, I think. Please, help!
Bitting, as in sinking teeth into sister’s back and not letting it go till the skin comes off. We went through bitting stage when girls were about two but now it is back again (they are almost three now). Any creative ideas would be greatly appreciated.
I need to know how you all did it? NAPS that is. I sit here trying to block out my beautiful little baby screaming his nap away. I have 6 month old fraternal boys. Naps are a headache and almost not worth the endless crying to me. I know they need it, why does it have to be soooo hard. I am not sure where to go with these naps. This last week they have become almost non existent. I lay them down, sometimes they go right out, sometimes they cry about 10, sometimes I get them after 30 minutes of screaming. They are fed, changed, burped, and very tired. But when they do go to sleep, they wake up 30 minutes later. That is all I can get out of them lately. I’ve let them cry up to 30 minutes after they awake to see if they’ll go back to sleep, they don’t. They both have slept over two hours in the past for naps, but lately they just fight it completely. If they would do longer naps I was thinking they would only need a morning and afternoon nap, maybe late evening if possible. But since I can’t get more than 30 minutes out of them, should I try for more? I’m so frustrated. I know they may be overtired, but I have played with the amount of awake time and it hasn’t made a difference on asleep time, only on time it takes to get to sleep. 30 minutes of crying for 30 minutes of sleep? Does this seem reasonable? I don’t have a real strict schedule, I do try to get their morning nap around the same time each day, depending on when they wake up in the morning. But since it’s so short I leave the house after and try to get a cat nap in the car to get them to the afternoon nap. Should I be keeping a strict time of day for napping? Or rather a strict amount of time awake? I just don’t know what to do to get them to nap better. please help me
my twins are 18 mo, and i’m ashamed to admit that i have been relying a lot on my maid in handling them. i even take her along on our outings. yesterday i did something ambitious, i went out with the twins and my elder daughter WITHOUT the maid. it was a stressful experience – i ended up losing my temper on my 4-yo for the littlest reason. i feel so bad and incompetent as a mother.
so how DO you do it? how do you handle outings with 2 toddlers and a rebellious 4-yo without getting all stressed out?
I’m not quite sure how to do this and if I’m in the right place or not but I desperatly need some help with my twins! Can someone let me know if I am in the right place to ask a question or not? Thank you so much!
Losing it mom of 4!
My BB twins are 9months and I am starting to “baby-proof” the house and can’t find any cabinet locks that I’m satisfied with. Does anyone have any recommendations? I’ve been searching the nets for something baby-proof and parent friendly. Is there such a thing?
Thanks for any input.
Hi ladies–
I’ve become somewhat of a stalker lately, but I’ve found your posts really entertaining…
My question is this do your/did your twins fight—about everything???
My 11 month old little darlings fight over everything that they get their hands on, all day, everyday.
Do I have the only twins that hate each other???
I posted about this on http://everydayis2sday.com and am desperate for some feedback!!!
Thanks, and keep on entertaining!
Here’s a potty-training quandary that (I think) has nothing to do with the fact that my daughters are twins.
Jessica isn’t really interested in potty-training yet, so I haven’t emphasized it too much. She gets very excited by potty successes, but isn’t keen on trying most days.
My question is about how to handle Melody’s behaviour. She will goes days at a time without a wet diaper, letting me know when she needs to use the potty. I reward the first successful potty trip of the day by trading out the diaper for panties. Melody LOVES her panties. She gets to keep them on until it’s time to sleep or she has an accident.
Over the last four days, however, Melody has pooped, or started to poop, in her panties. I suspect that she no longer likes pooping in her diaper, so she holds it until the diaper is off. The last couple of days I’ve caught it soon enough that she successfully went number two in the potty, to critical acclaim by grandparents and twin sisters alike. However, although we’ve talked about it quite a lot, she won’t yet tell me (or doesn’t know) when she’s about to poop.
I really don’t want to deal with poopy panties. Pull-Ups seem like a cop-out, and a tad expensive.
Help!
(In case it’s relevant, they attend daycare 10 hours a day, 5 days a week.)
I will second the nap question with twins. I have 3 month B/G twins and they have taken to our nighttime sleep training great! It is in the day time that I am struggling. When I put them down in their cribs they just cry and it seems to continually wake the other one up (this however doesn’t happen at night, they sleep right through the crying at night)!
I wonder how other twin moms have handled the nap issue when the twins share a room. Any tricks to calm them down or any ideas on making twin nap time more pleasant? At the moment I am attempting to separate them for nap time but I would like to not always have to do that.
Thanks
Vicky
Two burning questions in my mind right now…
1. Sleep. Our 9mo girls had been sleeping so well but as their verbal skills are taking off, one is consistently waking up early (I mean 3:30am early) and proceeding to wake up her sister. I know they are not ready to get up yet. We already have a 6pm bedtime and can’t imagine doing it too much earlier (the whole early to bed late to rise adage). I am honestly thinking of separating them at night for a few days to see how they sleep. I really don’t want to, and am nervous that if they sleep well apart, it will be hard to move them back together again. Any advice/experiential anecdotes/thoughts are greatly appreciated.
2. Clinginess. Again, 9 months old. I know this is the age of stranger anxiety and I am always happy to cuddle and love them without any limit. However, it feels like there is a difference with two due to the twin dynamic. If someone new is visiting (and by new I pretty much mean anyone besides mama or daddy) they get clingy but then seem to ramp it up as they play off of each other. One sees the other getting upset, and then she gets more upset, more clingy, and then vice versa until I am trying to hold onto two 9 month olds who are squirmy and climbing all over me. Is this a phase, is it worse with twins?
Tantrums:
My g (of my 4 year old b/g twins) has developed the most charming attitude lately. Whenever she doesn’t get her way, be that wanting to watch TV, wanting food other than what I’ve cooked, or needing to play another round of Candy Land “until I win!” she hurles herself to the ground crying at a decibal that I’m sure the next state can hear. If denied she goes into a full out tantrum, complete with the open-mouthed hysterical sobbing. It’s ridiculous.
Now I’m not so much bothered by the tantrums, I handle them well and she’ll out grow them, it’s her over-the-top reactions. Her brother doesn’t accomplish anything close to her hysterics. In fact, his reaction is usually to tell her that she’s too loud and hurting his ears. Is this a girl thing? Obviously I don’t want to give in to her demands but after 30 minutes she really starts to grate on my nerves and I often find myself saying, “Fine, don’t eat dinner. See if I care.”
Are any of your girls going through this?
Hi ladies! Love the blog…I refer to it anytime I have a question about sleep, food, schedules, etc. It has been a wonderful resource for me! Thank you…thank you…thank you!
Here’s my question: My mother, my b/g twins (8 months old tomorrow!) and I will be embarking on a roadtrip from South Carolina to Maryland mid May to visit relatives. (DH will be a working bachelor for the week.) Any suggestions on how to handle such a trip? I am struggling with what time we should start our trip; stopping for meals (I am bf’ing 4x/day as well as feeding baby food at breakfast/lunch/dinner); trying to maintain our eat/play/sleep schedule while driving and what night time sleep will be like on travel days. We follow a pretty firm schedule. I am concerned how traveling will affect “the schedule” and in turn their temperments. Any thoughts/suggestions are greatly appreciated!
Hi Jessica,
I’ve done the road trips with the twins, just keep in mind that it isn’t going to fun but it won’t be awful. My suggestion would be to try to do as much driving as possible while they’re asleep. If possible, I would suggest getting them out of the car when they wake from naps/for feeding and let them stretch out. Maybe even take turns sleeping for a couple of hours in the car with your mom and drive early mornings/late nights while they’re really out.
Good luck! Just don’t forget that if you’re in the front passenger seat you can’t be turning around to entertain them, keep your seat belt on. We actually got pulled over and given a warning once when I was trying to feed them without my husband having to pull over!
Hi Arielle,
Thanks so much for the tips! We made it and although it wasn’t one of my top ten road trips, it really wasn’t as awful as I thought it could potentially be.
We got up super early to start the trip, which helped tremendously; made plenty of stops for feedings/stretches/grandmom and mommy potty breaks/diaper changes (and each time we stopped the kids were out of their carseats for the duration of the stop–unless they were sleeping!); and packed food, drinks and snacks for my mom and myself so we did not need to stop for our food. The trip took 9 hours before the twins and took 10 1/2 to 11 with the twins…not too shabby in my book?!
Several things I will incorporate into our upcoming August road trip that I thought I would share here: purchase special trip toys and books that the kids will only see during that road trip and purchase some kid friendly cds that won’t drive mommy and daddy insane!
Thanks so much for your comment!
Hi Jessica,
You made great time! Congrats on making it through! Great advice about having “trip toys.”
Arielle
I understand what it means to have multiples. Noel and I got pregnant really easy the first time and we had Elijah. 3 months later we found out that we were pregnant with triplets. Yes, with no drugs they call them “spontaneous triplets” 1 in 9 million. Then after they were born 3 months later we found out that we were having another child. So I have 5 children 2 and under. We get looked at and told ” you know how this happens right?” and “are all those children yours?” I would love to contribute to your site if you want me to. I am just a mother trying to make it through the day with 5 children and keep my sanity and keep myself from laughing too hard all in the same moment.
Hi!
I searched the archive for info on road trips with twins but didn’t really hit one about the age group mine are. My mom really really wants me to drive 11 hours to see her with my boy/girl twins this August (they will be 32 months old by the time this theoretical trip rolls around). I’d want to do it too if the Star Trek beaming technology had been perfected. As it is, I told her I would think about it. (My husband has a new job and not enough vacation time to join us on this little adventure.) Aside from knowing I would need to break this into two days’ journey, what else do I need to keep in mind? Am I insane for even considering this? They are day potty trained but not night trained. We have always kept a good schedule going. They *never* nap in the car, and haven’t been in the car for more than an hour since they were four months old.
Thanks in advance for any advice. Please be candid, as you guys always are!
Terzah
I did a road trip with my boy/girl twins from San Francisco down to LA when they were around the 32 months age. The tricky thing at that age is that nothing really keeps their attention for very long. So a portable DVD player with short episodes of PBS shows may keep them entertained for a while but certainly not the whole 11 hours. I tried to wear them out as much as possible in the morning and then started to drive around noon. You may want to consider just putting them in PJs and driving while they’re asleep (at night).
I’m sure not everyone will agree with me on this but, have you considered asking your pediatrician about giving them cough medicine to just knock them out?
Good luck!