Best gift for arrival of twins?

[maldivemoment]

Hi folks

I'm hoping some of you can help. Following years of heartache, my friend has just discovered that she is expecting twins! Yeah, three cheers all round!

As a new Mum myself I was completely overwhelmed by the generosity of friends when baby arrived. However many of the gifts, though beautiful, are now in boxes in the loft unworn because we simply got too many baby clothes.

So, my question is this; what would be a great gift idea for both Mum and babies? Does having twins make a difference to the gift(s) I should buy?

Many thanks in advance.

Big box of nappies
Something which would be a luxury like two nice footmuffs for the buggy, rather than a plain one
Stretchy wrap sling - possibly?
Lots of meals for the freezer for mum and dad

(Have not had twins myself, just ideas)

A cleaner for a month, that's what I would have REALLY liked!

food defo!

I wouldn't go for a sling. It's near impossible with dts.

Pampering stuff for mum, so she has a good excuse to get a bit of time to herself. Mags to read while spending hours glued to the sofa feeding.

I jsut found in the early days it was so full on, that I was constantly picking up one then the other, so a sling defo wouldn't have worked for me.

A group of mums from the church toddler group I attended set upa rota to delvier homecooked meals to me for the first week or so, it was an absolute godsend. It'd be a great thing to do if you know enough mutual friends.

If you want a different idea to the food thing (which is a GREAT idea) I would suggest either an Infantino Flutterbug changing table mobile or a Tiny Love Symphony in Motion cot mobile, depending on your budget. Both were fabulously useful for keeping one baby occupied (or sometimes both when they were small enough to put in the cot head to head) while I washed/dressed/changed the other one and the changing table one made doing twice as many nappies bearable as they were completely mesmerised at changing time. I bought the flutterbug for my friend whose twins are 4 months younger than mine and she agreed it was the best present she had.

Sleeping bags are quite expensive when you're buying two, but so useful to have. There are a lot of additional expenses to having twins so it is useful if people ask & can then contribute to what is needed e.g. it might be 1 bouncy chair or footmuff etc
Do think the tiny love mobile is a godsend though & a lovely gift. Fine for twins as they often share a cot in early months anyway.

tiny ove mobile is fantastic - now using it with dc4 - even though I never used the mobile part - just the music bit

well i had twins (now 12) and the best pressy anyone could have given me would have been
The food idea - brilliant
cleaner - Fab
Litre of Vodka - inspired

To be honest all of the above but maybe when twins are about 3 months old and all the other 'first flush' offers have disappeared and you're left totally knackered with everyone patting you on the back saying 'i don't know how you cope' But not actually staying long enough to hear you splutter 'i'm not'

Thank you all.

Londonlottie- oh my goodness, I am LOVING the cocoons! My baby is now 5 months. Wish I'd know about these sooner.

I am now more inspired to make a wise, yet at the same time FAB, purchase!

OK, off to find my purse...

Cocoons are v.nice indeed. Cheaper option which I had were these, very fab.
I also got several of the JoJo fleece all in one suits from 0-3, 3-6 and they were great for winter babies plus they looked so cute! Very easy to get them into compared to standard snow suits which I felt were too bulky.

hi, how warm are those cocoons londonlottie? my babies are due in a couple of weeks, do you think i would get enough use out of them between mid march and june? i am keen to get out and about with them but wondered if the cocoons are just for winter? can still be pretty chilly though in our spring i know.

hi there

i couldn't have got through the first months without two fisherprice neworn to toddler vibrating rockers. That way you can be feeding one baby & rocking / vibrating the other to stop the screaming. Later when they're a bit bigger you can sit between the chairs and feed them both at the same time.

Other than that a battery operated swing chair to put one in whilst you've got the other. Food is great too. But lack of hands is main issue esp for feeding and anything that helps is a major bonus!

I agree with marmite about the battery powered swing chairs. I simply don't know how I would have managed without them. We bought two of the Fisher Price folding ones. Wonderful!

We also had a Weego twin carrier which was great but got too heavy too quickly.

Oh...and socks...lots and lots of socks

1 of my friends bought me wine and chocolate after my twins were born and I'm sorry to say that it was deffo the best present for me!

The one thing I will say is if you are going to buy clothes wait until the babies are born and you know how much they weigh and try to find out how quickly they are putting on weight if you can!
I can not even count the amount of stuff which went unworn because people bought 0-3 clothes for the winter which they didn't fit into properly until the summer cos they are little...

Some delicious frozen meals from Cook or yummy biscuits & cakes Baby Box from Meg Rivers so much more useful than clothes etc.

My twins are now 10 wks old and our best gifts have been:

A bunch of friends clubbed together and gave us £200 worth of Cook vouchers (see orienteer's link) and a freezer full of their actual meals and toddler meals for DS had been delivered before I got home from hospital

These baby hoodies: www.morrck.co.uk/ - absolutely invaluable and despite babies being born in the worst winter for 30 years have not spent a minute faffing with snowsuits but babies always snug and warm. And seeing their bright colours and my girls snug in them gives me a warm cosy glow - I never would have bought them for myself.

A large Mothercare voucher - again clubbed together. We've found all the clothes gifts we were given were size 3-6, and the girls were prem. Just moving in to 0-3 now, and we don't have any clothes! So glad I haven't actually got to shell out cash.

Some really lovely personalised soft toy bunnies which have the girl's names on them - similar but different.

Two memory boxes - again a luxury we wouldn't buy, but lovely to have.

Also, I was in hospital for quite a while after the girl's were born, so anyone who came bearing mags and biscuits were welcome (especially as it was xmas/NY!) and the best hospital visitors were the ones who pitched in with nappy changes, feeds, taking my laundry. I was really blown away with the kindness of some friends.

londonlottie - yes it was me! How are you? How are your girls? How are you finding it all? How did it go in the end what with the hospital etc? Quesstions, questions - I haven't been on MN at all much because we've been so busy with the girls, and our building work. My memory is hazy as I was so doped up those last 5 weeks before the girls were born... my clearest memories are actually of some of the hallucinations I had from the meds! I'm loving the girls addition to our family, and so glad to be back to myself, and able to be a half decent mother to DS again. The girls came out 5lb 13 and 5lb 14 in the end which was amazing as they were over a month prem, and all the trouble they had in the womb. And they are doing really very well, very different kettle of fish to DS as a baby, what about yours?

Insulated mugs kept me an OH going in the first few weeks. The only way we ever got a hot drink. Get the ones that are metal throughout as they can go in the dishwasher.