Babies

Do You Have to Have a C-Section With Twins?

Are you having a baby? Are you like me and discovered you were pregnant with twins?

Ok, here’s the scoop on childbirth and twin pregnancies. Your OBGYN will gladly schedule you for a cesarean if that is what you want. If you prefer a vaginal delivery, you need 2 things: A doctor who will permit it, and babies who are in the right position.

Not all doctors feel comfortable delivering twins vaginally because it can be risky. Check with your doctor and make sure a vaginal delivery is something he will do.

Even if your doctor supports your desire for a vaginal delivery, there’s no guarantee that he will be at the hospital on the day you deliver ( unless you plan to induce). In that case, the OBGYN on duty may not feel safe with a vaginal delivery. Or the Baby B may flip around after A is out, and you’ll need a C-Section anyway.

Another thing to consider is the position of the babies. If they are both head-down, a vaginal delivery is very possible. If the lower baby (Baby A) is head-down but the other isn’t, it’s possible that Baby B could be turned around and delivered vaginally. If both babies are head-up or lying sideways like an equals sign you will need a C-Section in order for them to be delivered safely.

So basically be prepared to have a C-Section but make your preference clear to your OBGYN. Good luck and feel free to share your experience in the comments.

Essential Gear for Baby Twins

There are plenty of great baby products out there. If you’re looking for a list of just the essential gear for baby twins, these are the things we used the most. If our experience raising twins means anything, any of these items should be what you will need as well.

Disclosure: May contain affiliate links.

Essential Gear for Baby Twins

2 bouncers/ rockers I would have been lost without mine. When you can’t always hold two babies, these are a great place to put them. When I stopped breastfeeding, I would hold one baby and feed her a bottle while the other would have her bottle in the bouncer.

Double Snap’ n Go Stroller I’m almost always a mom on the run. This handy stroller helped me quickly get babies from the car to my appointment or errand. You just snap the carseats in, and go! It works for most brands and styles of carseat. We we given 2 hand-me-down carseats of different brands, and both brands of car seat snapped right in to the stroller frame.

Sling or carrier With the twins I found the Baby Bjorn carrier to be comfortable, while also allowing me a lot of freedom of movement. A carrier was essential for when I was shopping somewhere with a cart that only holds one baby, like when I made trips to the grocery store. I would shop with one baby in the carrier and the other in the cart. When Baby John arrived I got an Ergobaby carrier. I loved that carrier because I could carry him on my back, but could still bend over and help the twins when they needed it.

Diapers, diapers, diapers!

You’re going to need them for a long time, so stock up before the babies come!

And speaking of diapers, you will want a roomy diaper bag to hold the extra stuff that you carry around when you have two babies.

You don’t want to have to lug around a second bag when it’s already difficult enough to get out of the house with 2 babies.

Lots of baby clothes.

Most twins arrive early, and the average birth weight for twins is 5.5 lbs. To be on the safe side, I recommend having some preemie layette on hand. Be sure and check the sizes, because “small” may be sized for a typical 7-8 lb. newborn. Or, if you are comfortable with hand-me-downs, you will be sure to find plenty of moms who would rather pass their best stuff over to you than go through the trouble of taking it to a consignment shop. We had several generous friends and family members who gave us all of their saved baby clothes, most of which were very nice outfits!

2 car seats.

I had to say it, because car seats are essential.

Swaddling blankets or wraps.

We used these Halo swaddling wraps during the first few months when we were having the most trouble getting the twins to sleep. They were still so tiny that we needed to buy the preemie size for them to swaddle properly. The Aden + Anais breathable muslin blankets were our favorite for swaddling in hot weather. Our twins used these blankets for at least the whole first year, if not longer.

Brest Friend double nursing pillow. I had the Brest Friend nursing pillow for twins. I loved it, but it does feel like you’re wearing a shelf, haha! I particularly found the back support pillow to be a plus because it kept my girls from pushing their feet against the couch. And I actually liked the strap. At first it felt weird buckling in every time I nursed. The one time I tried nursing without strapping in, the girls forced their way into the crevice between me and the pillow. It’s was easy to get a baby latched on when she’s sliding down to your thigh! The pillow is a little slanted on the top. This never made a difference to me, but it is awkward for nursing premies. They fall into the space between the pillow and mommy. To fix this problem until they are bigger you could roll a receiving blanket and use that to fill the gap.

Double electric breast pump. Be sure to get a hospital-grade one, if possible. I used the Medela Hospital Grade Breast Pump while I was breastfeeding the twins, and then again for the year I breastfed baby John. It’s durable, efficient, and well worth the investment. I was never able to produce much when pumping, and this was the only pump that worked for me.

There are a lot of baby products on the market that you could probably live without. They may save time or look cute but mostly they just take up space and don’t get a lot of use. These were, for us, the most essential gear for our baby twins.

Screamy McHates-the-car

So I have two adorable twin baby girls. It has recently became Baby A’s unique characteristic that she hates the car. Well, hates carseats, strollers, bouncers, swings… Am I leaving anything out? No, that’s basically it. She hates anything that means she’s not being held. I have no idea where this came from. It just started kind of out of the blue. I’d be driving and she would cry the whole trip, and after a while I realized that it was ONLY her (not Baby B) crying in the car. I thought babies were supposed to like the car? Baby B does. She sits there all big-eyed and rides along, eventually falling asleep. Meanwhile her sister is busy screaming herself silly and getting all sweaty in the process.

Baby A letting me know how she feels about her car seat.

Don’t get me wrong, I try to curb the screaming. I’ve tried singing, playing soothing music, providing toys. These things don’t work. If The Boy happens to be in the car he will ride next to Screamy and try to console her. This is most often a long struggle for the poor kid, which may or may not result in Baby A falling asleep- IF she is in the mood to and IF he can keep a pacifier in her mouth for a long enough period of time.

I have done a lot of reading of forums and parenting websites on the internet to try and get an answer, to no avail. It turns out that a lot of babies just don’t like being in carseats. Some parents say that their child cried in the car until he was grown enough to ride in a forward-facing carseat. Other parents say that their child hollered in the car so they got a convertible carseat, and then their baby enjoyed car rides. Well, I’m not going to buy another carseat that may or may not work for Baby A. I’m thinking it won’t work, since her problem seems to be mostly that she dislikes the carseat because it prevents her from being held. I don’t mind too much, I suppose. I like holding her. I try to hold both babies throughout the day, it just may be that Baby A is a more sensitive snuggler with a greater need to be held.

She can’t yell in the car forever. Eventually she will be able to entertain herself. Or maybe she will like looking out the window, or talking to her sister and brother. It may drive me nuts now that every car trip is torture on the ears of all passengers involved, but I find peace in the knowledge that someday she will stop.

I just hope it’s someday soon.

Grocery Shopping with Newborn Twins

I was in a complete daze that first few weeks when the girls were born. Kind family and friends brought us meals, and my in-laws had Vons deliver groceries right to our door. But after a while the casseroles stopped coming and we had to figure out how to keep food in the house by ourselves.

Here are some of the things I tried:

Online Grocery shopping: Thankfully, grocery stores, Walmart, and Target have online shopping options with home delivery! Honestly, this is the best way to keep your pantry stocked when you have newborn twins at home. If you’re in a rural-ish area (like me), they may not deliver to your house, but nealry all grocery stores have curbside pickup. Online shopping works well if you don’t need groceries right away, since it takes a day or so to process and ship your order. Depending on the store, you may get free shipping the first time or for orders over a certain dollar amount. Some stores have loyalty programs where you can apply rewards and clip deals, which helps save a little extra money.
Take a buddy: My 9-year-old son was my shopping companion on many ocasions. I would push the cart around the store and he came behind with the double stroller with the two babies inside. You could bring a stroller or each of you push a cart with a baby. I have to say, this was not a very good experience for me. It took a lot longer to coordinate the movement of 2 people and 2 4-wheeled objects through the aisles. It was awkward and took up a lot of space in the aisles too. I don’t recommend this option.
By yourself option 1…Two carts: A few times I tried putting the babies in one cart (one on the handle bar and the other in the basket). That way I could push the babies ahead of me while pulling a second cart behind with the groceries. Or sometimes I would place one baby on the handle of each cart. Two carts on a shopping trip by yourself was my least favorite choice for doing shopping. It is very cumbersome, it attracted a lot of unwanted attention, too. I already get anxious with all the attention that twins draw, I don’t need to add more by lugging two carts around!
By yourself option 2…Use a sling or baby carrier: This is the only way I shop now. I keep a sling in the car at all times in case I get a sudden urge to shop. One baby goes in the sling and the other stays in the car seat and gets to ride in the cart. You can still fit plenty of groceries in the cart, and one baby gets to snuggle with mommy. You could alternate which baby goes in the sling each time to make sure each gets some snuggle time.

I haven’t tried using two slings (or the kind that holds two babies), but I imagine they are a life saver! I tried several slings before finding one that was comfortable enough to wear all the time. Make sure you have practiced getting yourself in a sling before heading out. Otherwise things could be tricky.

Do you have a different way of getting shopping done with twin babies? Share in the comments.

Getting Baby’s Ears Pierced

With the girls being a whole 2 months old, we decided to get their ears pierced. It was not a very tough decision to make- I am so glad to finally have girls to pretty up! While I go back and forth on whether I want to dress them the same or not, I knew from before they were born that I wanted their ears pierced. I conducted some super strategic research before taking them in (ie. I Googled “where to pierce baby’s ears”).

Here’s what I found out from my search about getting baby’s ears pierced:

There are 3 places to get a baby’s ears pierced-A jeweler, a pediatrician, or a piercing shop where mom could get her belly button done, at the same time.
According to an “expert” (some lady in a web forum), Claire’s employees have to undergo a thorough training before being allowed to pierce. They also require that a baby has had her first set of shots.
Most pediatricians don’t pierce your baby’s ears.

As a teenager, I had my ears pierced at Afterthoughts, a trendy jewelry store in the mall. I had a good experience, didn’t get infected, and the cost was reasonable. Because a mall jewelry store piercer never caused me any permanent damage, I went with this option for the girls as well.

In the end I had a really good experience getting twin newborns’ ears pierced. It helped that I brought a friend to hold one of the babies while I held the one being pierced. The employee at Claire’s was very professional, very quick, and seemed very experienced. We had a lot of studs to choose from. Bonus: the girls only cried for a minute or two, and they’re super cute with their girly little earrings.

AFTER getting them pierced I looked into some online reviews of Claire’s stores and piercing guns. There is a lot of information out there on the pros and cons to read about if you’re interested. In case you’re wondering, my girls are doing fine and no one is getting an ear amputated from a botched pierce job. 🙂

Emily’s pretty earrings after she got her ears pierced

If you are considering piercing your baby girl’s ears I recommend you do the research as well and make your own informed decision as to whether you want your baby’s piercing to be done using a gun. I would check with the pediatrician as well to see if he uses a gun to pierce.

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