What should I do before D - Day that I won't have time for afterwards?

[tartiflette]

Any recommendations?

Am 33/1 and got fairly organised early on as I've been so paranoid about possible early arrival of DTs, so now I am finally off work I seem to have sorted buggy, car seats, nursery, hospital bags etc and keep thinking there must be other useful things I could be doing that I haven't thought of...

What do you wish you had done before your babies arrived?

Don't worry, the world won't stop. Just make sure you know how to fasten the car seat into the car for when you come home. And maybe bung a couple of ready meals in the freezer. Newborns sleep a lot, you know, there'll be plenty of time.

You sound organised. Make sure you know how to use your steriliser if you intend to use one or in case breast feeding goes pear shaped - I spent a very tearful hour at midnight trying to work out how to work mine! Other than that rest lots, sleep as much as you can, read a book, take a long bath and spend time with your lovely bump. Good Luck! x

Definitely definitely food! Make nice meals and freeze,or stock up with nice meals from m & s and freeze. Making cheese on toast made me cry after having my first child i was so tired! I really wanted some proper food.My first baby screamed most of the day for first few weeks, I hope your dts are peaceful happy babies x

change for the hospital car park kept in a safe place and a note for the car for when you get to the maternity unit-just in case you have to go quickly.I ended up being induced but had a stash of pound coins in my bag as dp is so disorganised i didnt fancy stopping off at a cash point en route!
Have a pedicure-if you can still reach your feet you're lucky!
Have a massage and reflexology-i had mine 1 week before bubs arrived and it made such a difference.

Sleep.

In fact, go to bed now and don't get up until your contractions start.

Oh sorry. Completely missed that this is in multiple births! Just ignore me

Read all of the books you have been meaning to read for ages. You wont pick a paperback up again for 5 years.

Ditto on the food in the freezer.

After my DTs were born but before I came home with them, DH had the car valeted and had Halfords fix the car seats in. I am LOL at the valeting thing now - especially considering how much they now contribute to the general skip like ness of the car now!

(whispers) Acanthus ... some newborns don't sleep all the time, even if they are singletons. My second one did, but the first certainly did not!

But in answer to the question, one thing that I really wished I had done was to find out where all the local nappy changing rooms, lifts, park benches and children's clothes shops were BEFORE I had to find them in a panic, with a baby in a pushchair. Your mental map of town changes completely when you are shopping on a tight schedule, dictated by the length of time till the next feed!

And yes, batch cook as much as you dare and stock up that freezer. Babies have an astonishing ability to use up time and make you forget to cook.

These are all great, thanks everyone. Keep them coming if anything else springs to mind... x

i agree with tethersend; sleep. Mine came at 28 weeks so i thought i had plenty of time but..........
What ever happens, you'll cope .

LOL Lottie am in the middle of the 3rd Steig Larsson as we speak!!

If you don't already use on line shopping, register and set it all up in your favourites- with lots of easy cook meals, wipes, sudocrem saved etc so that you don't have to spend ages going through it all once the babies are here. Worked for us!

Re: reading. Get some audio books on your ipod. You can put it on when you are feeding for hours on end.

Research postnatal activities and how you can get to them.. cinemas for parents and babies, breast feeding support groups, twins groups, baby massage(!).

If you are planning to breastfeed then you should certainly do all the reading you can find on this.

Will see what else I can think of.

If you're organised then socialise!! Go meet your friends for lunch/dinner/coffee. Go and visit some friends and family. It's much harder to do these things once your twins arrive and the first few months are a pure hard slog where you are knee deep in baby stuff so let your hair down now as there will come a time when you're dying to do those things and taking your new travelling circus with you will obviously make everything more complicated.