Anyone with one dc already tell me their routine when twins arrive?

[Ewemoo]

I have a 4 year old dd and am expecting twins in January. I am totally scared about how to cope feeding 2 and juggling family life around them. Please please give me an example of your daily routine in the early days, especially if you've got a little one to get to school as well.

We have two DS's and now almost 11w old twins. Have found the early days hard but not impossible - my main problem was that I had a section and was housebound for around 4-5 weeks before I could drive - which was great in some respects cos I concentrated on b'feeding the babies and getting them settled. Try to get as much help as you can - routine is nearly impossible early on ... I would say probably moreso if you're feeding on demand, it might be a bit easier to schedule school trips etc around bottle feeding. Can someone do school runs etc for you? And if anyone offers to cook/clean/iron etc ... let them. You'll be doing it all soon enough so get family and friends roped in for the early day if you can.

Maybe someone else will come along with more useful advice for you!

Surprised you haven't had more responses Ewemoo (and I want to know too as expecting dt's in Sept!) so bumping...I have 2 ds's, 20 months and 4.7. Will your 4yo be starting school in Sept?

there's an antenatal club for twin mums here come join us! I think a couple are due in Dec/Jan.

hiya hon, just fit the twins around your other childs routine but be really strict with it. IMy dauyghter was only just one when i had id boys and i had a really strict routine for the, they fed every three hours and when one woke to be fed i woke the other one up, its hard at first but if you stick to it it makes life so much easier, i went on to have anothjer little girl when my twins were two and she just slotted in, she is now three but they still have set meal times and bath and bed times and it helps them settle as they know what to expect and when. Good luck hon x

I found things worked quite well around teh school routine and were harder in the holidays when the whole day seemed to stretch out.

On a school day, I'd get up and see to the twins, while the older two got themselves dressed (5 and 3 at the time). Dp would make sarnies for lunch for all of us and deal with bfast. Then we would leave for school, and the babies would fall asleep. That gave me time for a quick tidy up and a shower, breakfast.

It doesn't ahve to be all rigid routine - daytime we could do as we pleased. I always had the bag packed and ready adn went out as much as possible. I could take ds to mother and toddler, he could play, everyone else wanted to hold the babies, and I sat and drank coffee.

the babies would fall asleep again usually on the afternoon school run in the early days, so gave me time to sort out dinner. I also had a lovely group of mums that provided meals for the first week or so.

I used to do housework and things while dancing or singing at the top of my voice to keep the babies entertained at the same time.

How does the relentless bf fit in or is this where a routine is essential? I found it really really hard with ds2 to go anywhere as he fed anytime for at least 20 mins. This is what is bothering dp & I right now as we're both committed to my bfing the twins as long as poss.

Chops, your routine seems to assume twins asleep at the same time, is this too much to hope for in the early weeks or again do they need a strict routine to make this work. And what did you do with your 3 yr old whilst having shower/making tea etc? DS2 won't even be 2 and doesn't like tv, he clings to me all the time. Mind you he does still have an afternoon nap so I guess I'll have to try and get him to nap same time as twins have theirs. DS1 had a nap until 3 so I'm hoping that will be my saviour.

If nothing else helped, sitting him down with a bit of toast helped! Then he was happy to sit for 5 mins.
Mine slept at the same on school days because the walking sent them to sleep, so it kept them to a sleep routine. They didn't otherwise, which is part the reason I found holidays harder.

I thinkt he relentless bfeeding is hard, I ended up expressing my milk and feeding it in bottles. The best thing to do is to have everything prepared so that you can jsut get on with it. You can feed two at once, and if you get in the habit of offering milk to both whenever one feeds they do tend to start to feed more at the same times. At home you can make sure you have activities for your toddler to do while you feed. I used to pack toys and books for ds for while I was feeding while out, as I couldnt bfeed both at the same time in public, so we could be there a while.

I had quite a lot of ppl popping in too, coming round with their children to play with ds1 and keep him entertained.

Thanks, Chops. He does enjoy his food & will sit at a little table in the living room now. I think he's really going to miss his older brother, I don't entertain him much myself really!

I was thinking of doing school runs by car for a while as didn't think I could get there by 8.45 with the feeding (god knows I struggle to get anywhere now with 2) but I'm sure they would settle in the buggy if fed b4hand. Trouble is ds2 won't be able to make it to the school, he can't walk to the end of the street yet so I'll have to carry a twin all the way there & back (have lots of slings for this purpose, but still not sure if back will be up to it).

Bumping again for evening crowd - more advice please for Ewemoo and me!

DD was almost 3 when the dts arrived, I was so frazzled I can't remember the routine but we had lots of systems in place to make sure she stayed occupied when I was busy with the babies. We let her help with everything she wanted to and let her slink off and do something non-baby whenever she wanted to.

We got a play table for her and set up her trains etc so she had somewhere to go when it all got a bit much, which it did.

We also let friends and family take her out for the day whenever they offerd so she got some nice days out without two hassled parents.

Best of luck for January!

accessorizequeen - how's everything going with your pregnancy? I suppose you're on the home stretch now. Do you know if you're having a cs or not yet? Please tell me how you're coping in the final stages. Any tips you can give me would be much appreciated.

Ewemoo, yes I suppose I am on home stretch tho it could be another 6 weeks before they induce! Waiting to see if twin1 is breech (I think by 34/35 wks they'll know if he's staying wherever he is) and then will know if I can go for natural birth which I'd prefer. I've had a really good pg considering, I have to take it really easy now though of course I can't when I have both boys and ds2 wants to be carried/lifted (he weighs 26lb and I can feel every ounce!). I'm on mat.leave now, was on sick leave for a month before that so ds's are still at nursery 2 days a week which is what has made huuuuge difference for me. I try and lie down on the sofa when ds1 watching a bit of tv (and ds2 napping) and that break keeps me going until dp gets home. I've certainly lowered my expectation about what I can accomplish in a day, and the cooking is getting pretty basic. If I can't face it, I do take them to a cafe occasionally otherwise I'd be on my knees at the end of the day.

I'm v.worried about bfing two as well, but there is lots of advice on here about how to accomplish that, I think setting up a routine has to be primary based on what everyone else says.

Why don't you come and join the antenatal club, someone else due in Jan has just joined us!

Any more advice from twins mums??? Bibi, thanks, I had a 3 year age gap last time so did pretty much the same thing but you're right they need somewhere of their own to go/play. Unfortunately 20 mo old shares room with his big brother already!

Hi Ladies,

My Ds was 3.5yrs when Dt's arrived so was not at school at that oint but he did continue at nursery 2 days a week to make the first few months easier. DH would do the nursery run and I found the "easy" days was when I was at home with DT's and no toddler to enteratin aswell. There was lots of singing an reading boks while I fed the twins (bottle fed, i'm afraid I found Bfeeding too hard with twins but I am sure I was just too chicken to stick to it). The twins were fed every 3 hours so we knew to get DS prepared with lego, jigsaw, TV before the feed began as they fed for a long time each time. Newborn babies sleep alot so they mainly slept in the bouncy chairs or watched the older brother run around which was great entertainment. We were also lent one of those baby swings for the early days which was great. My big piece of advice is getting DP to help as that really helps when you have two babies instead of one. Congrats on your pregancys you will survive this. aswell.