HELP PLEASE! twin buggies

[tryingtosleep]

Please help! Am expecting twins in June and have a pretty narrow doorway therefore need a tandem buggy.

Don't really want to have one twin on the street while I go back in the flat to fetch the other!

Any suggestions on a tandem that fits babies from birth?

Check out ebay shops for your car seats - I got my cabriofix seats plus isofix bases for £165 each delivered. Brand new. They are £205 in the shops.

Hello I have the Jane Powertwin and have 8 week old twins. It is truly fab. OK if you tried to lift it it might be heavy but it is not heavy to push (unless you have a 2-yr old in the front seat...) and is so easy to steer because of the swivelling front wheel. Honestly I would totally recommend it if you want a tandem, but you do have to have car seats on it if you want to use it from birth, so the only downside is if you plan to walk for miles and miles they will be in the seats longer than the recommended daily 2 hours.

Considering you will have to buy car seats anyway, it is not that expensive and there are some great deals out there. I got my buggy and two rebel car seats brand new from ebay and saved a fortune (after going to shops to actually try the prams out).

The only downside of buggy for me is it is quite hard to steer with an older child in the front, you do need two hands and fair bit of strength but if you "only" have twins that is not a prob. Can steer one-handed with just the babies in so can talk on the phone at same time!

Even heard a lady say "gosh it looks really easy to steer" to her friend as I walked past this morning!

Oh ought to point out that matrix car seats do not do well in safety tests when used in lie flat mode in car . I had one for DS1 and used it lie flat for months but fortunately had no cause to test it's efficiency. Think it does fine in "upright" mode though, so could be used lie flat on buggy and then upright in car (easy to change position).

Car seats click in and out of buggy in about 0.5 seconds flat. Super easy.

New colours a bit garish but I love them! I have the red and green one.

Hi Egg! Glad to hear you're doing well with the mini-eggs!

I thought the Powertwin looked a bit big and unwieldy but like you a lot of people have said it's great to steer. The Twin Two was massive! They didn't have a Powertwin in the shop.

My doors are 70cm wide but I'm actually wondering whether a lightweight side by side might be OK as we live on the ground floor and the walkway outside is covered so maybe it would be OK to pop up the buggy outside with the 2 ready in the hallway. But I did read once someone said they hated taking the kids out to get them to sleep and then having to wake them up when they got home to get them out of the buggy.

Any thoughts on that anyone?

Helloooo Pazza, taking time out from the hilarous other multiples thread!!!

I chose powertwin for the very reason that my doorway is 69cm wide and I did NOT want to have to wake sleeping babies when I got home. Was going to get the First Wheels City Twin as it can have two carrycots that you unclick so could bring babies in still asleep, but would then have to fold pushchair as nowhere undercover to leave it. Also means I would have had to buy carseats, carrycots AND pushchair .

I know ... it gets expensive pretty quick!

I have been offered various bits from people now - car seat (my bro's so I know it's fine), single pram (also my bro's - think it could be useful with one in a sling/carrier) ... so thinking maybe I can cobble together a random collection on 'family'n'friends'freecycle' and that might do for a while! Once they are a bit older there are loads more choices.

How soon did you take them out - do you go out much? I suppose with DS1 you can't just stay at home even if you wanted to?

Well...they didn't leave the house until they were 3 weeks old (apart from to come home from hosp), but now we go to nursery and back twice a week, and always go out at weekend. Normally after I drop DS1 at nursery I walk into town (10 mins) and do some shopping with the DTs, and get the "ooh hands full" comments etc . On the days my doula is here (tues, weds and fri) I tend to take DS1 out by myself to spend time with him and babies stay home with doula. Poor things, not v exciting for them. If DS1 was older we would go more, but he has to go in the Powertwin, so I have to have a baby strapped to me, and it is v hard work getting DS1 in and out of pushchair with baby strapped on, so a PITA to be out with all three by myself as DS1 often wants to walk some of the way but not all. My buggy board should arrive within next day or two so hopefully that will help!

Once doula finishes for good (towards end of April), I will HAVE to go out with all three on my own more often as otherwise poor DS1 will be miserable. We live next door to a park and 3 mins from swings though, thank god. Just that he tends to wander off towards town.

Half of me envies people who don't have a toddler as well as DTs as life must surely be EASIER, but then if I hadn't already had DS1 I would be a novice and I learnt a bit from having him so am much calmer now. I think ideally he would just be a bit older.

Gosh I am REALLY rambling today.

Time to get DS1 in bath, want him in bed by 7pm so I can feed babies and then I can go to bed too!!

BTW, not sure how knackered you are feeling, but I feel sooooooooooo much better now than when I was pg, when I had no energy to do anything. Thought it would be worse with 2 newborns but it is less tiring than baking them!

Thx Egg

Well that's reassuring, I am starting to feel knackered again (along with hormones all over the place and ravenous hunger again) but not too bad. Needing loads more sleep.

Somehow you always cheer me up and make me feel like I can actually do this and keep smiling - you just seem to cope so well and be really positive!

Thanks for all your comments girls.
The Jane Powertwin looks great - but am concerned about the fact that until the twins will be 6 months I would have to use the car-seat. And that you'd only be able to use it for 2 hours then??!?!
Surely you'll want to have somewhere for them to sleep if you go over to friends etc for longer than 2 hours?
What was your experience Egg?

Ah well mine are still only 8 weeks old, and we have yet to visit any friends!!!! We only moved to this town 6 months ago and so all our friends are miles away and have come to see us rather than us popping round to anyone's house. I have on a couple of occasions let one of the DTs sleep longer than 2 hours in the carseat if we come back from shopping and they don't wake up but to be honest it is normally coming up for feed time so they either wake up themselves or I have to get them up anyway.

More concerned about the amount of time they spend in their bouncy chairs . HV seemed to think it was ok tho.

Have not tried either baby, or in fact DS1, in the back seat yet. Have only ever had DS1 in front, and either car seat on back and one baby in sling, or if DS1 is not with me, both babies in car seats. Must give it a go this weekend!

If I had not gone for the Powertwin I would have got the First Wheels City Twin that I mentioned below. It can face forward or back and can take carrycots (so babies lie flat). Seat units are a bit like a Bugaboo. Does feel quite heavy to push though, but DS1 liked sitting in it and hated sitting in the Nipper (everyone I have ever met who owns a Nipper loves it though).

Hi All. TTS - I'd a really good talk last week with the guy who runs Twins-Store.co.uk website and got the low-down on the Mt Buggy vs Duowalker et al. He has twins himself and was very honest about the buggies. He also does all deliveries for only £4!! Yep, even a buggy! Anyway, incase you want to have a look, here's a link to the website and the Duowalker www.twins-store.co.uk/epages/twins-store_co_uk.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/twins-store.co.uk/Product s/%22TS%20easywalkerduoskyred%22

Out of stock at the moment but coming in end March/early April - seem to be flying out faster than he can get them in.

I know side-by-side isn't what you're after but he has some tandems as well.

Saw the Jane PowerTwin today - it looked nice but tbh I was too knackered to even push it around the shop .

Egg ... I've another thread going but it isn't attracting much attention!! Am just wondering whether you're using the Eze 2 Nurse pillow (probably the wrong name!) and, if so, how you're finding it?

Thanks!

Hi millie, will have a look for your other thread and bump it for you but no, did not get the pillow, I have a widgey one (think that's what it's called) but it is redundant at the mo as I am bottle feeding (tried for 3 days and gave up on bf). However it will get used again when babies are a bit bigger and can be propped up on it. Have heard those e-z ones are invaluable (if you do a search on here for them you will see people recommending them).

Thanks Egg ... was sure it was you who got one but I obviously got confused!! Have seen many good reviews of them but as you know there are no guarantees for success in b/f at all, never mind twins!