The First Year

Puréed Bananas Recipe

If you have read any of my other baby food recipes, then this one will look very familiar. Good baby food does not need a lot of ingredients. Just fresh fruits or vegetables, and water.

The thing about bananas is that they brown pretty quickly, so pureéd bananas are best if served right away.

I began by cutting up one small banana and placing it in the blender with a very little amount of water. How much water you use depends on the consistency that you would like for your baby, so I recommend starting with just a little bit and adding more if necessary. I pushed the button on the blender for purée and, voilà!

My girls both ate about a whole small banana. If you are wondering if this is cost-effective for your budget, I believe it is. I bought four bananas for $.89, and that was from a more expensive market that I don’t visit often. That puts each one-banana meal at a cost of about $.23 (at the most), and the cheapest I’ve been able to find jarred baby food was $.50 a jar. So it’s a little messier, but saves a few pennies.

Pureed Squash Recipe

Pureed squash is really easy to make, and turns out nice and smooth when you blend it.

Using 1 acorn squash, cut it up and peel it. I cut it in half, then cut each half into fourths so it was easier to manage. I used a vegetable peeler to peel the skin off.

Chop the acorn squash into chunks of about 1 1/2 inches. Add the chunks to a pot in a steamer basket with a little water undernea

Steam the squash for about 10 minutes, or until it is soft. Let it cool for a few minutes, then add it to the blender with some of the water from the bottom of the pot.

Puree water and squash in the blender for less than a minute. It shouldn’t take long for it to become smooth enough for baby to eat. Don’t forget to rinse your blender or wash it right away! Dried baby food is comparable to CEMENT! And that’s it! Pretty easy, huh?

Baby Twins: “It Gets Easier”

When the girls were small, every outing was a big ordeal. Packing double the stuff into diaper bags, zipping up 2 jackets, transporting 2 babies in and out of the car and through the store… Leaving the house was exhausting! Other parents of twins would look on with empathy as I juggled all the babies and baby things. They always smiled and assured me not to worry, it gets easier.

Around about the 5th month the girls no longer howled on car trips. They were able to entertain themselves. They would be happy to hang out on the floor and watch a baby movie. So things DID get just a little bit easier. I could put on makeup or fix my hair while they played or watched a movie. We could have a pleasant family day out or go grocery shopping without cringing in the car the whole time. From there, they learned to crawl and get into cupboards and drawers. We stocked the lower kitchen shelves with things we didn’t mind them pulling out and playing with and they entertained themselves while I made dinner. It hasn’t been a breeze raising twins as a working mom, but every day it does get a little bit easier.

Just knowing that other parents have been through what I was going through (and they survived to tell the tale!) was a huge comfort to me. So if you are in the midst of new baby twin craziness, let me assure you: It does get easier!

I’m so glad those parents of twins were telling the truth and not just trying to make me feel better! But you know what? They were right. And now that my twins are older, I’m offering the same glimmer of hope to mommas of new baby twins.

One Mommy, Two Babies

This was just one of those days when twin babies are a handful. I’m not sure if it was one or both of them that were fussy, but it felt like someone was crying (or two people were crying) all.day.long.

I’m currently in between jobs, which means I’m home more right now. Maybe I’m not used to this at-home-mom thing? No way, this was definitely an off-day for babies.

What do you do when you are only one mommy (daddy had school tohight) and BOTH babies are sad? Oh, my, were they sad today! A few interrupted naps due to the need to taxi big brother around, and these were 2 sad, tired little girls!

The worst was when I was trying to get dinner together (of course!).

Emily was doing this

Because it was Madeline’s turn to be held

Then it was Emily’s turn to be held.

So Madeline was doing this

Come on, potatoes! Boil faster!

When there was no more crying (not even from me ;-) ) I didn’t give a hoot how my apartment looked, I put my chipped-polish feet up and sat in the silence. It was bliss.

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.

Giving Twin Newborns a bath

So for this post I share what it is like giving twin newborns a bath when you are all by yourself. Basically, get everything ready ahead of time and have a bouncer or swing ready for each baby to hang out in while they are waiting to be bathed. For this video, I cut out a lot of the scrubbing stuff for time’s sake but it really doesn’t take much more than 10 minutes to wash each baby.

Can’t see the video? Watch it here.

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