To think 1 year old twins are bloody impossible?

[TammyswansonTwo]

Okay, when they were babies it was bloody hard. Like, going insane levels of hard. But at least I could bloody put them down and they'd stay where I put them.

They can't even walk yet and they're already driving me crazy. Let's recap:

• they have 1 x 20 minute nap a day

-one has figured out how to escape from their very expensive, should last til 2 bouncers

• got a very pricey big playpen which has saved me but now they've refused to stay in it, and have figured out how to gang up on it and prise it open
• they wait until I'm just starting to relax, or I'm busy changing the other and then they dart off in opposite directions - one attempting to pull the TV over, the other heading straight for the baby crusher (just kidding, I don't have a baby crusher but everything in the house is a potential baby crusher

Would a big dog cage be unreasonable?

Just kidding. But any suggestions that will stop me losing my mind. My vocab seems to have shrunk to their names, "stop it", "no" and muttering expletives.

Oh Star - I'm sorry. It IS easier than when they're newborns I promise you. It's not like the difficulties stack up, it's just hard in a different way and I think for me the biggest issue is that they still are such terrible sleepers that I am now 13 months of exhausted rather than a few months of exhausted. One of mine didn't even come home until he was 2 months old and he was very sick. They were waking up every hour, I was still pumping until 7 months... it's definitely easier than that!

I do believe it will be easier when they're toddlers - different difficulties again but there are so many things that I just cannot do now that I will be able to do then. I can't sit with them on the sofa as they wriggle, kick and will fall off (one did fall off once - it was awful). I can't communicate with them, and they can't communicate with me, which I find very difficult. Plus I will be able to change their bums with them standing up - which is what they want to do now but can't! When I see my friends with their 3 or 4 year olds I do feel a bit hopeful!

To you! Sounds so hard. Mums of toddlers are Superwomen, Mums of twin toddlers are gold star carrying Superwomen!

I only have one, but what I found massively helpful was having one room that was totally babyproofed, so it didn't matter if I had to leave the room for a minute/take a phone call etc. This way if you're changing one nappy, the other one can shoot off to the other side of he room and you know they can come to no harm. All furniture fixed to walls, sharp edges covered (when I had a crawler I used a load of old pillows in the day), sockets covered, breakables out of reach. I also moved my coffee table out for a few months (my room was the sitting room) so baby just had a big square play area in the day. A good tip I had is get down to their level on the floor and see what things look exciting to a baby that can be dangerous.

If you make this room somewhere comfy for you, you can even just leave them to play on the floor together while you have a coffee in (relative) peace! Maybe

Also - might be expensive with twins but could you get jumperoos? Loads on second hand sites and you can get space saver ones too. Mine loves his at that age and it keeps them 'caged' and entertained for short breaks. I know people call them 'the circle of neglect' but honestly 20 minutes at a time does no harm.

I appreciate what you're saying MrsTumbleTap but word of caution - it's never wise to tell a mum of twins that you're jealous they have twins. If you struggled with that phase I'm sure you can understand what it's like having two completely different and independent babies going in opposite directions, trashing the place, standing on the other one's head, injuring each other because they have no concept of being careful with each other, sleeping at different times, hungry at different times.... I'm very glad I only have to go through it once but given the choice I'd definitely prefer to do it twice with one at a time!

I have twins - at that age I bought 3 or 4 baby dan play pens and attached them together (you can also get wall attachments for strength). Most of our lounge was a really a super giant play pen for a long time. Worked a treat but I guess at the same time they then didn't do normal toddler things like pull out all the pans from the kitchen cupboards! They also remember being in 'jail' although they didn't seem worried about it at the time as they never tried to get out! Good luck!

Ah twins. Mine are 8 now - I promise it gets easier!

I put mine in nearly full time nursery - that helped .

I am massively impressed at parents of twins. I can't even think about those with triplets.

I would strap them in their buggy if you really need to do something important.

Oh yes we've used a babydan cage as a room divider (only need one as we have a tiny house). They are good.
Also I would say 1 is not too young to learn how to get off the sofa safely (feet first) I taught mine as soon as they were crawling or cruising at about 7 months. My 14 month old has now learned to come down stairs on his bottom, and is pretty competent at getting off sofas, beds, soft play stuff - although it's a bit scary when he dangles by his fingertips then drops!

Can you contact a college who do childcare courses and see if they will do a placement with you .
Non sleeping is a red flag for other issues so I would go to gp as well

I'm actually laughing at the person who said they are jealous of twins (not in a nasty way, in a disbelieving way). I have twins running closely on both sides - my mum is a twin as was her Grandmother, it seems to skip a generation and always be on second pregnancies in our family - and having had one baby first time round I'm terrified of having two next time! As much as a blessing any child is the thought of having two at once scares the life out of me

The difficulty I have is that our downstairs is totally open plan and I've done what I can but there are hazards I can't seem to do much about. There's an open fire place which we don't actually use but need a better fire guard for it because they just pull over the one that's there. I'm basically going to have to gut the downstairs of our house for the foreseeable future! No idea how to stop them accessing the television, that's my big concern!

One has passed out after breakfast and while moving him to his napping spot the other has taken the other highchair to bits and thrown his toothbrush inside the playpen post so better go deal with that!

We have a giant play pen - I love it. Sadly they don't want to be in it now and will scream bloody murder if I try. My baby prison has been the only thing that's enabled me to get anything done so I'm hoping it's only a phase!

Dumbedore - there are no twins in my family. None (well, now there are). It is more likely if you have twins on your side as you're genetically more likely to release more than one egg, although identical twins don't count as they're random. Of course as you get older this is more likely anyway. I have a stupidly high chance of having more twins so I think we are done now!

@TammyswansonTwo if you can't stop them getting to the tv most now come with strap handles on the back now. You can order straps from Amazon and screw those into the wall. Will stop them being able to topple
it into themselves at any rate.

Do they share a room? If so, do you think they would nap better if they were separate? Just wondering if they distract or disturb each other. It might sound strange, but both of our DC slept better once they moved out of our room and were in a room on their own.

My husband was strapped into his pram by his mum for extended periods when he was a baby. He broke the prams straps several times and they had to be repaired. So people did used to tie their babies up...

OP, I sympathise!

Yeah, the one with the worse sleep has a complex illness and several medications that are rarely used in children as the condition is so rare but were the only options. He's doing well and I'm hoping he can come off them in the next 6-12 months so will see what happens then. He has to feed so regularly that him waking up often is kind of a blessing really, would suck to have to set alarms to get up and feed him!

I caged my twins! Baby gates on stairs and kitchen door, baby dan (cage fighting) pen, and although it's frowned upon, lots of 'errands' that needed doing on bad days so they were strapped in car seats and would nod off whilst I drove round aimlessly! As everyone says, it gets easier- mine are 3 and seem slightly less destructive (at the moment anyway!) x

I have a friend who has one of those baby prisons opened out and attached to the wall do that it blocks off both the fireplace and tv. My son hated bring in the play pen so when these 2 are moving around I think I may try similar.

Can you put the TV on the wall?

My twins are now 10, but I remember it well. I put them in baby walkers and they used to chase each other round the house, then collapse with exhaustion.

I nanny 2 year old twins which is obviously easier because I get to leave at 6pm but I’m finding them much harder now than this time last year. They didn’t walk until they were 17 months but now they like wrecking things, standing on things, climbing things. One can get out of her cot so even nap time isn’t sacred. They can get their pyjamas off, then vests, then nappies. They take their sheets off the cots and then pull the mattress back and sit on the cot base. Looking forward to when they’re a bit bigger! or until January when I go off to have my single baby!

Can't wall mount the tv sadly, it wouldn't fit in the only space it would fit. We only moved in three months ago and its lovely, I don't really have the heart to rip everything out, but will have to do something. It's on sort of a built in shelf but it's fairly low to the ground so need to find a way of blocking it off without concealing it. Hmm. I'll figure something out!

Might have to get jumperoos. Physio told me not to. Knowing them they'd probably happily use it the first few days and then get angry that they can't explore!

Oh god, I'm dreading the stripping and nappy off phases. There's lots of chat in my twin group about how to stop them helping each other undress and smearing their crap around the place. I helped one lady find some sleepsuits that fasten at the back (La Redoute if you're interested!) and apparently they really work.

Yes, I have a feeling it's going to get worse before it gets better - feels like a new era of trouble 😂

Can’t advise about twins.
Butvre the sleep (unless this related to the medication he is taking), I know dc2 was the worse at falling asleep when he was overtired. To be able to sleep he needed to sleep more and even at that age, I still needed to be extra careful to catch him when he started yawning. Otherwise, he would just be unable to fall asleep

Driving around with both dcs in their car seats has been my saviour then (two dcs but very close together). They would sleep and I mins of silence. Bliss!

Yes, I've realised recently that having kids and being unable to drive was a really bloody stupid idea. My husband can so I figured hey, he can do errands (which he does) but I didn't factor in the joys of car time sleep.

Overtiredness is definitely an issue for him in particular but he just won't sleep. It's infuriating. I think it must be related to his meds. I had to give them piriton recently due to an allergic reaction - one had three naps in a day (unheard of!) but it had no effect on him at all. It's bizarre.