Anybody else pregnant with twins – or more?

[nh101andhertwinbeans]

My twins are due in May and it would be nice to have other multiple-mums-to-be to chat to!

Goodness, haven't even measured our hall but I love the twin one so I'll cope somehow. But I won't be able to bid at the last minute, as I'll be away - maybe I'll just use this one to see what price it goes for.

This one's nice though cos it's red! There is a black one on too...have you seen it?

By the way, your hall should be fine. Even our hall is fine (and it is very narrow). The MB isn't wide. But our doorway is tiny, so can't get MB through it .

Yes, saw the black one, I may go for that instead as I wilo still be here to bid. Thanks for the tip!

GBB i intend to have two upstairs and two downstairs. i intend to be feeding the twins in them so they will be well used.

got some more bargains today as i went shopping. blooming marvellous have their little hats in packs of two for £1.99 and they match the little sleepsuits i have bought in their sale online. M&S also have a huge sale on final reductions so most childrens items are £1 -£3. i bought two lovely matching snowsuits for £3 each. they are pink though so i hope i am having at least one girl, if not i am sure i will find someone having a girl. i also got some great toys from tkmax and a lovely denby serving dish for £5.

Aha, I thought you meant the ones you hang from door frames - had visions of a twin or a toddler swinging in every doorway.

The bargains sound tempting though I'm resisting the urge for now - particularly as I expect (hope) to be bombarded with my friend's cast-offs with her twins 3 months older than mine. I expect mine will catch up in size pretty quickly as me and DH are very tall, but it's the first few months when they plough through the sizes that are the best times to get it all for free! Can't get excited about baby toys, I don't remember DD being particularly attached to anything but happily playing with stuff like spoons and wrappers and paper etc. I'm sure I'll end up with a house full of cuddly toys and mobiles by the end of this though...

Merry you'll be amused to hear dp suggesting today that we should widen our doorway & get new door (ours is period with the house!) so we could have a nipper. We saw one this morning & he loved it, it was an absolute doddle to push & looked like newborns would be well protected & comfy in it.

Also, update on the icandy pear which we had a good look at. Pluses, it is extremely compact for a tandem as I suppose it isn't really a tandem. Clicking carrycots and seat units on v.v.easy. Folding it fairly easy (even tho you have to take the converter thingy off too). Nice to have the option of dc's facing you or not BUT you have to put the converter on the other way if you want that so not like other buggies like bugaboo where you just change the seat or handle round. Shopping basket not too bad & seemed ok to get to.
Minuses, the worst thing was that it was soooo heavy and cumbersome to push, the front wheels just seemed to stick a lot & quite difficult to manoevre round the shop. It's not hugely heavy, the chassis is 10kg but felt like a truck. The seat units did seem really tiny, I couldn't imagine that ds2 would fit in the bigger one (he's 19 mo) now or for long even with the apple hood on (it's about £20). Not easy to change over from carrycot to seat unit & vice versa, you've got to unzip everything etc. The adaptors for the car seats were easy to fix but dp felt putting the car seat on was a bit fiddly & quite insecure once on which concerned him.
All in all, prob. ok for the first year if you weren't going on rough paths etc, we both agreed it felt no bigger than a single and easy to get into the house & shops etc but once twins got bigger just getting onto the kerb would be a nightmare. She'd had v.good feedback but doesn't know anyone who's got older twins using it. Buggy update over!

thanks accessorzie. will just use you for all my research. we are 'doing' cars this weekend = did you decide on one? so dh loves nipper more than mountain buggy?! Only prob is it doesn't have a carrycot. i'd like to look at my babes this time as i didn't with ds, and i regretted it, and these will be my last. by the way, we have a girl's name! hurrah! and possibly a boys' name too (found one i like, and it is similar to dh's grandad's name). Really love them with my ds's name too...we're getting there! Though am sure it will change at the last minute - you're pretty much at the last minute I guess!

oh, good you've got names, well done! I would love to have a girl's one but no further on.

dp hasn't seen a double mb so he can't really compare but we have a single I guess & he likes that. He's persuaded me to get a twin carrycot & buggyboard for ds2 which I am v.pleased about, I wanted to see babies too! Did have my boys in carrycots & it's lovely. they had an emmaljunga cerox too, twas lovely to push, looked so comfy for the babies but OMG huge!

we test drove a galaxy on tues, and peugeot 807 this morning. If either on your list, happy to provide my review services (have also done a citroen c8 but really they're exactly the same as the peugeot). Have you seen homepage thread on 3 car seats as very useful, we have to have four so slightly different criteria!

we haven't looked at any cars, but are immediate choices are:

• galaxy (seems easy to manoevre and good on petrol)
• peugot 807 (sliding doors!!!!!!! which i must say i am in love with)
• toyota previa (spacious)
• seat almera (the one like a vw sharan but cheaper).

we only need 3 seats but...we give a lot of lifts to people so i don't really want a vauxhall zafira type car with seats in the boot and then no room for buggy.

did you see twin MB carrycots on ebay? there are 2 nice ones...I'm gonna get single ones I think, so I can pop them off and bring sleeping babies in house (double one won't come through door, so would have to take babies out). do you know how easy it is to pop the carrycot off the MB? can you do it with baby in it?

oh the citroen c8 amd peugeot 807 are our selected cars at the moment. we are trying to find one near us as the only ones we have managed to find have already been sold so we could only look in the window. they are built in the same factory just have slightly different manufacturers tweeks. we have a friend who designs and tests cars for a living who said the peugeot is slightly a better car.

are you all finding it really uncomfortable at the moment? i am so hot i could happily lay in the kids paddling pool i just filled up with lovely cold water. i have just discovered that the new windows in the extension dont want to unlock and even though i have a double door and two velux windows open its too hot to sit in it. it even really hot sitting in the shade in the garden. i am sooooo glad i am only 17 weeks and not 35 at the moment as i would be dying with the heat.

my lovely baby bouncers came today so i have set a couple up to test them out and the kids have been putting their baby borns in them and having a practice at feeding. i think i will have a couple of very willing helpers.

Have you test driven either of them, mel? I do like the sliding doors & layout (a friend has a c8 & 4 kids plus double buggy) but found the right-hand handbrake really awkward. We both quite liked the galaxy, very easy to drive but no sliding doors! 807 & C8 made in same factory with same chassis but I'd prefer peugeot as we have two now and like them.
Is previa the older version of verso? As we had dismissed verso for too small a boot but maybe should look at previa?

I'm looking at a mb & carrycot tonight finishing in yorkshire so we could pick them up, just seeing what they go for! Mel, does the twin carrycot make mb any wider than the wheelbase (please tell me it doesn't as I won't fit it in then!)? I have a single carrycot, Merry with my single MB and we used to carry it upstairs for overnight as moses basket hated by ds2. So v.easy to unclip and carry from memory.

I'll lay off those twin carrycots then, I've got so long to go - it would feel wrong to outbid each other! The one that finishes today is already up to £62 and I'd have to pay the postage too, so getting a bit pricey.

And Mel, yes, I'm melting - seems pathetic to be suffering so much at just 19 weeks but that's the way it is. I fell asleep at 8.30 last night.

GBB, I am not going for twin carrycot, so you can go for the one that's not in yorkshire!

i feel so tight and huge at the moment...just not feeling good at all. i am getting very swollen feet and ankes, and never had this with ds, except after the birth. should i be worried? anyway, am seeing doctor tomorrow to check whether I have gestational diabetes, so will ask about the feet then.

accessorize, previa is definitely not the verso. it is biiiiiiig, but i haven't driven it so not sure how it is to drive. didn't know the frenchie cars had righthand handbrake. how annoying!

accessorizequeen, no the carrycot doesnt make it any wider as it sits inside the frame. good luck

sorry it's seat alhambra. parkers.co.uk does great reviews of the cars. Previa gets good reviews, maybe it is the old verso, not sure, but the review says it has really good boot space without removing seats. need to see one i guess. reviews of c8/ 807 are not great as says cannot fit 7 adults, not sure why and that it lacks space of other MPV's. gotta go and see some really...can't take the internet's word on everything.

ahhh, it's finally cool again here & i can breathe (asthma much worse in the heat). I did my back in Wednesday morning so have had to really slow down this week. Plus ds2 in a&e tues night though he seems perfectly fine now, he couldn't stand or walk as his hips were filled with fluid, result of viral infection. Poor lamb. Can't imagine how I'd manage with two ill at same time!

thanks for tip re:carrycot, Mel. Didn't think so just thought I'd check! My cousin came over last night so didn't get to bid (rats) on MB and carrycot! Oh well, I can hang on a few more weeks for one.

most of the mpv reviews say not suitable for adults in the back, it's really the legroom although some (e.g. Smax & the galaxy I think) also don't have full adult sized seats. Be fine for short trips I'm sure. The right handbrake was awful, I got it completely stuck driving the c8 tho I'm sure you can get used to anything! Not enough to put me off buying a car really. I'm thinking we should go to a car supermarket so can see them all lined up together. I thought the c8/807 had reasonable space, esp with one seat in the back folded down for buggy.

all the seat are full removable arent they? i intended to remove one of the middle side ones and have the twins in the middle seats and the children in the back. the s-max was tiny and the seats were like a bench and it didnt have any boot. we have the c-max at the moment and love it but i wasnt sure even about the galaxy and they are alot more expensive secondhand. i did think that the peugeot/citroen looked like it had more room.

afaik, seats are removable from the c8/807 which is good or bad depending on what you want. We prefer models where they fold flat into floor. I think we thought space in galaxy similar to the c8/807 (although being able to move to a 3 seater bench seat later for c8/807 an advantage I think). S-max seats definitely not as good in the back row although I do like the look of it more than the rest of the mpv's! They assured me at Ford that ono diff. between sMax & galaxy is the higher back on the galaxy, I don't think that's true but sMax has a worse record for reliability. I have written down the boot space for all the mpv's in my bulging notebook (this is with all seats in place). C8/807 225L, Galaxy 308L, Sharan 256L, SMax 285L.

We're still thinking of twins on outer middle row seats, ds2 in the middle and ds1 in the back mainly because he's starting school just about when dt's arrive so it shouldn't bother him too much, his seat is v.easy to remove & lightweight. And we've got the isofix bases which cost a fortune & I would prefer to use them, they made life a lot easier with ds2.

We're going car hunting today. Found a couple of car supermarkets not too far away...(altho' being in London will probably take forever to get to them!).

I keep seeing Toyota Previa's, VW Sharans and Galaxys all over the place, like when you are pregnant and you just spot loads of pregnant people.

Got my TAMBA DVD's yesterday...watched one about multiples in the womb. It's really cool, though it's long and I was tired so I skipped to the 26 weeks onwards section and saw the babies being born. The lady having fraternal twins gave birth naturally, and with a slight groan, they popped out!I am swaying towards c-section again, even though babies have got themselves into the right position (at the moment) for a natural delivery.

oh btw accessorize, had to dump our boys' name as we know a not very nice little boy with that name! Dh reminded me...even though he liked name. Back to drawing board then.

Hope your back feels better soon. I am 70% likely to have gestational diabetes. I had a fasting blood sugar test, but not conclusive, so going back for a GTT next week. Also got a scan on Wednesday. Gonna cost about the price of a new Mountain Buggy in parking by the time I'm finished! {wink}

Have a good weekend everyone! Enjoy having the dh's around, am definitely making the most of it.

sorry to hear about chances of gb, merry, is this the time you're likely to develop it or will that be later? Still 30% chance you won't get it! Perhaps focus on more nice boy's names instead although they are so difficult!
Surprised you want a section after viewing easy birth is that right? Not sure how I feel about either, having had (emergency) section & natural birth with nothing but g&a. I know that if twin1 turns breech again it'll be a section but with 2 to look after already I'm dreading the recovering from one. The pain from the last birth rather haunts me though I'm sure it would be more manageable now that I know what I'm doing so to speak. And I did get through it of course, just the tearing meant I couldn't walk properly for a few weeks.
Not sure I read your bit about the mb right? You want to get one now? Good luck with the car hunt, I looked again at all my notes yesterday and we're going to test drive a few more next week once discussed with dp. If we don't choose now (not buying new, just testing them all) I don't think I can test drive, too much pull on my back/stomach.

Yeah, getting the MB! Made the decision in the end, so that I could stick to one pushchair. Also loved the carrycot idea, so I can carry them in the house from outside, a good compromise.

Guess what? I got twin carrycots (2 singles) from TAMBA 'for sale' section for a good price, and am picking up next week. They are red, which I love! Now for the buggy. Man they are pricey even secondhand. Do you reckon it is worth paying £250 for a secondhand MB when can get one new for £500?

We didn't go looking for cars, hopefully tomorrow. I LOVE the Previa, but there are very few around and they HUGELY pricey, a lot more than Galaxys, so...but they do have slidey doors!

The natural birth I watched on the DVD was sooooooo far from my natural birth that I was just incredulous. I don't think I can face the pain again, I am a wuss. And so scared of going through a labour and maybe delivering one twin only to have the other on emergency c-section. Gosh, I am so negative!

Well done on the carrycots, Merry! I've been thinking the same thing about new vs 2ndhand but we really don't have the budget. Ebay often have nearly new ones (esp if you're in/near London as you are and I'm not!). There's a red one finishing soon isn't there?

Did you get your TAMBA buggy guide yet, I haven't had anything from them & can't seem to access the guide online. Will have a look on the sale section tonight. I did think I'd like to have a look at the duowalker before finally deciding on the MB (Mel have you seen a duowalker?) I think there's a stockist not too far from me.

Understand exactly how you feel re: birth, I got a book from the library today about labour & birth to try and reassure myself! Did you have epidural last time?