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.

I am a member - I will contact them too.

We need to have a serious rethink of the downstairs and figure out what we can do. The playpen we have is basically plastic panels (that look like a fence) so can be extended and I believe there are ways of having them freestanding by buying supports so we will have to measure up and maybe just block off the entire wall that has the TV, fireplace and open spot where a wood burner should go in the dining room (currently blocked by their playpen that takes up most of the dining room area!). Will figure something out!

Not twins here, but a child that never slept in the day at woke 5+ times at night.

I basically turned the front room into a play pen. As others have said, tie everything to the wall, stick foam tiles on the floor, dog gate on the door and baby proof the hell out of that room. Don't forget the cushions on the floor so you can at least lie down while they climb all over the place.

This brought back memories! I read your OP and remembered writing something similar myself a few years ago - www.mumsnet.com/Talk/multiple_births/a2232938-Two-year-old-twins-Oh-My-God

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but it got worse before it got better. The worst stage for me was probably age 18m-4. Everything deteriorated once they could get out of the playpens, so keep them as long as you can (and build them high!) I probably wouldn't buy a Jumperoo at this point - I got one at about 9m and that was probably too late, they weren't in it for long as they got frustrated.

Finding a small soft play area would be a good idea, I found this was much less stressful than trying to manage them in an open space.

I don't even want to think about that to be honest. I'm not sure I can handle it being much worse than this, I'm already a physical and mental wreck!

I feel your pain! Mine have just turned two, and although there are now different difficulties, I think that overall it does get easier. I have two completely babyproofed rooms, one upstairs and one downstairs. They mostly stay in those rooms, or strapped into high chairs for colouring/painting/puzzles. I was so relieved when mine could both walk and I could exhaust them in the garden.

I could have written this five years ago. My boys are now six and so so much easier! I think once they started to sleep through the night and I started to feel normal again, I actually began to enjoy them.

My no fear twin is still the same however, constantly full of bruises on his legs.

It sounds as if you're doing a great job. Things will get easier 😀 Hang in there.

I love your username too OP !

How do people with quads and triplets cope . I watch them on YouTube sometimes in awe

Omg.. TammySwanson 😂😂

m.youtube.com/watch?v=CQo2FJPLeQk

Thanks ladies.

No fear boy constantly terrifies me. Right now he has two bruises on his face and about 20 little bruises all over his legs (plus a friction burn on the back of his neck because any time I put a bib on him he pulls it as hard as he can until it comes off). I live in fear of someone spotting them and thinking I'm beating him up (I'm not, but I am currently sporting a lovely bruised cheekbone where he headbutted me earlier). He learned to get to sitting before he could sit up, but wouldn't stop doing it. He had four full days of falling on to his face every couple of minutes and just wouldn't stop. Now when he gets stroppy he insists on standing up but pays no attention and constantly falls down which just makes him more stroppy. I swear, since he learned to stand up I don't think he's sat down voluntarily once (and he certainly doesn't lie down ever unless he's asleep - the second he wakes up he springs upright like a jack in the box). Oh well - at least the other one is a bit calmer physically. He's only just learned to stand up in the last week but has already almost caught him up and rarely falls down.

Fortunately I love them both to pieces and it's all completely worth it - I may be much fatter, jowlier, greyer and sporting those blue ikea bags under my eyes but most days I wouldn't change it (although I do sometimes think it would have been so much easier one at a time - no disrespect whatsoever to people with one baby, I am 100% sure that's also indescribably hard, but on the rare occasions where I'm on my own with one I just feel so calm and relaxed in comparison!)

I literally do not know how people cope with 3 or more. Literally. I think you'd have to get help, it's just not possible without it. Then again, I know a twin mum who's single, and her girls were very very early and have some health issues, and I think she must be a real life superhero as I cannot even comprehend doing this myself!

Tammy 2, obviously - nobody wants to be Tammy 1 (except maybe April 😂)

Can you pad the house like a soft play centre and then lock yourself in the play pen?

Yes, 2. I do love TS2

That's my worry ElizabethG8 - I know it's going to get a lot harder than it is now. We are going to be redecorating their nursery this month and I'm just trying to figure out how to make it as indestructible as possible! There is a softplay a short bus ride away but at £10 for the two of them I can't do it too often! I know you can hire softplay equipment, maybe I should try and buy some and make my own 😂

Great minds SheRarrrgh 😂

You need a twin proof room. Do whatever it takes. Basically, make your lounge an enormous playpen.

I don't have twins but I do have them just a year apart. They're 3 and 4 now and I long for the baby/toddler days. It's a lot bloody harder now. However, like a lot of things, you only realise how much easier the previous stage was when you're not in it any more.

As toddlers you can contain them - prams, walking reins etc. At 3+ they're loose and two of them is a bloody nightmare. Neither are old enough to be trusted but you have none of the containment. Turn your back for a minute and two rooms in the house are a mess. You can't watch both 100% so you have to just sometimes let them get on with it and deal with the consequences later.

Waiting for the 'its' not the same as twins' brigade to start. I'm assured by two of my friends who have twins that it's exactly the same. They certainly don't see any difference in my day to day coping compared to theirs.

As sooñ as they can walk take them fir walks outside. My pediatrician told me to walk them at least twice a say so I bought harnesses and did...it was hard but waterproofs and out we went in all weathers...it took the edge off them. I'd 3 under 3 but now they're 7, 7 and 10 and omg it's so easy by comparison.

Ikea do padded play mats. You could line your walls with those and lie down and watch the carnage.

If it doesn't work and they drive you to insanity, then you've already got your padded walls

(sorry if that's inappropriate, but I occasionally felt I needed it myself)

Can I just say, I just posted on a thread started by a mother of quads.

Seriously, you’re all fucking heroes.

Oh man it’s hard. My worst was when they were 8 months and having milk feeds and actual food - never ending.

We took everything out of one end of the room and ran a Lindam baby fence thing right across. That saved my life. Dog gates too - on bedroom, kitchen and stairs (their bedroom)

When they were 18 moths they started taking their nappies of in their cots. In the end I actually had to duct tape the nappie son and out baby grow on backwards so they couldn’t undo the poppers Superman stylee.

I won’t tell how bad they’ve been this evening - and they’re nine now!!!

Seriously it does get better - toddler swoth no sense are the absolute worst.

Don’t hesitate to use reins when out too.

Solidarity !!!!

I'm sorry, I can't add much as mine are 22 now and those years between 0 and 21 are all just a horrible blur.

I had an old, wooden playpen which was fixed to the wall and folded up against it when not in use. It was virtually inescapable until they were about 2 and it saved my sanity. They liked loud, electronic toys (phonics bus thing and things that lit up) and so those could give me 10 minutes of peace to do something, like pee or make a cuppa. They also loved Countdown and that became part of our daily routine. They watched a lot of kids' telly and I make no apologies for that. Once in their entire babyhood did they nap at the same time, and that was the day the mil let her friend in to visit .

It does get easier, eventually. I was lucky in that ds didn't walk until he was more than 18 months and dd was always quite amenable and had a decent concentration span. She did try and wash her hair with vaseline when she was 2 though.

Yes, use reins! The multiple playpens joined together sounds good too. Make whatever is inside the playpens more interesting than what's on the outside and that may contain them for a bit longer.

The babygros that fasten at the back are fantastic (until they eventually learn to take each others' off - but at least at that point they are a bit more sensible). I thankfully never had nappy smearers, that would have completely done me in.

Once mine broke of the playpens, a pushchair was good for if I really needed to contain one for a few minutes, or to calm the "livelier" twin down (until he learnt how to tip himself out/escape from the straps/move the pushchair along like a wheelchair and destroy everything in his path ) The good news is he's 5 now and has decided that he wants to be "a good boy", he just struggles with the execution of that

Thanks Star - as if I wasn't freaking out enough about this bit!

It's definitely not the same when they're smaller, I guess the differences diminish when they're this age - I suppose the main difference is that you're a crazy person who decided to do this a second time, I didn't get to choose ;)

Worst for me was 7 months - they were having solids, they refused to feed on a routine but were having bottles every 2 - 2.5 hours and I was still pumping 2 hourly as my supply was pitiful. Nothing they are doing or can do can be as bad a pumping. Literally nothing.

I think ankle cuffs and straight jackets are the only way ahead then, sounds like we all agree.