10 Items You Need for Twins: Duplicate or Not
Everyone, I am so excited to be having Nicole do a guest post for us today! She is going to be talking about a very important topic that all twin parents might possibly be going through! If you’re having twins I highly recommend you check out her website. All of her info will be at the bottom of the blog… enjoy! It can be an overwhelming experience when you find out you’re pregnant with twins. Quickly your mind goes to how can I afford two of everything? Below I’ll dive into 5 things you do need in duplicate and 5 things you don’t. What You Need in Duplicate Though you won’t need everything in duplicate, there are some things that you will. Diapers are the main thing you’ll need in duplicate and that will put a decent dent in your wallet. For a couple of years we had 3 kids in diapers…it wasn’t cheap. We’d stock up when there were deals and we got off-brand Target diapers. They worked well and were cheap compared to the name brands. You’ll likely need twice the amount of wipes as well. We would get them in bulk as much as possible, 8 packs in a box, but don’t go too crazy with the wipes as they can dry out if you buy too many ahead of time. The 8 packs at a time worked out well for us though! Bassinet or Crib Though it’s tempting to save money and space to have your twins sharing a sleeping area, it is not advised. The American Academy of Pediatrics strongly recommends babies don’t share a sleeping area due to the increased risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). Even though they look all cute snuggled together, it’s not safe as they may accidentally smother each other. As an aside, it’s not safe to have anything in their bassinet or crib for the first year of their lives including blankets or stuffed animals. Bottles if you’re pumping breastmilk or feeding formula, are something that you’ll need double of for twins, unless you want to be doing a lot of dishes throughout the day. Bouncers are something you don’t have to have two of but I would really recommend it. We used ours for everything from feeding our twins’ bottles to supervised naps, and play time. What You Don’t Need Two Of Diaper Cream if you’re changing diapers in the same spot for both twins, you likely won’t need more than one tube of diaper cream. My twins hardly needed it at all. High Chair is not required to be in duplicate if you don’t have the budget or space for it and/or you don’t plan on feeding your twins at the same time once they can eat solids at 6 months and beyond. Breast Pump is luckily something you don’t need two of since only one is typically covered by insurance and they’re expensive when purchased outright. You’ll likely make twice as much milk as a mother who just had a singleton so be prepared for that, having extra bottles or bags on hand to store breastmilk, but you don’t need a second breast pump at least. Tummy Time Mat is another thing you really don’t need two of. If you get a decent sized one you’ll easily be able to fit them both on it, at least their tummies and heads and their legs can be off the mat. Even though we had two, we typically just used one of them. Diaper Bag you don’t need two of just because you have two babies. I actually used one diaper bag for all 3 of my kids, including my twin newborns and 2 year old. Preparing for Twins Those are just the beginning of things you’ll need for twins, whether you need duplicate or not. Head over to my blog, The Way it Really Is Twin Mom Blog, to get more information about twin pregnancy, what you need for twins, tips for raising twins, and more! Author: Nicole Prom, Ed.S. of The Way it Really Is Twin Mom Blog Nicole Prom Nicole Prom, the founder of The Way it Really Is twin mom blog, is a dedicated blogger who is passionate about empowering twin moms navigate the joys and challenges of parenthood while finding time for themselves. With her genuine and relatable approach, Nicole shares her own experiences, offering valuable insights, practical tips, and heartfelt encouragement to her readers.
Epidural Or All Natural: What Every Mother Should Know Before Giving Birth
Every mother wants to have the best possible birth possible. For some, the “best” may look differently than for others. Some mothers may think that the “best” birth is that with absolutely zero pain! Other mothers may think the best birth is when the baby is 100% healthy when born. Still other mothers may think giving birth naturally so that her body is touched as little as possible is what she believes could be the best birthing experience. If you are a mother considering the options of getting an epidural or going natural, we are going to discuss that in this article! Grab your pens and notebooks, ladies! It’s time to get real! Epidurals – What Is It? An epidural is when an anesthesiologist inserts a needle into the spine of a woman in labour and injects a numbing solution that numbs her from below her boobs all the way to her toes. Many mothers prefer to get an epidural because they are afraid of the pain of labour. On the other hand, many mothers are afraid of receiving an epidural because they are afraid of how it will affect their bodies, the baby, or their life after giving birth. Now you know what an epidural is. Let’s address some other questions you may have of them. Does Getting An Epidural Hurt? Typically, no, getting an epidural does not hurt. However, it may be uncomfortable for some. When I received my epidural, I remember feeling a strong poking. I winced a little and told the anesthesiologist, “I felt that!” He seemed surprised, but said nothing more after that. Does An Epidural Affect The Baby? No, the anesthetics used for an epidural does not bring any harm to the baby. An epidural numbs the mother from below the boobs all the way down to her toes. What You Need To Know About An Epidural I received an epidural with my first baby. Several things took me by surprise that I wasn’t educated about beforehand. I’m going to share those with you now so you can be informed! 1. An Epidural Can Be Given Poorly Sometimes an epidural is not given accurately and it causes more discomfort for the mother. For example, if the needle is slightly off and the injection isn’t given appropriately, it can numb only part, or half, of the body! Imagine! You’re giving birth and half of your body feels the labor pains and the other half doesn’t! Could you imagine how distracting and uncomfortable that could be for a mother who is trying to birth her child? 2. You Will Need A Catheter What’s a catheter? I’m glad you asked, because if I had known this with my first, I wouldn’t have gotten an epidural. A catheter is a small tube that is inserted up your urethra and into your bladder. Why? After you are given your epidural, you lose control of all muscles from below your boobs! That includes your bladder! So if you get an epidural, congratulations! You also get the wonderful experience of a catheter for the remainder of your labor! After you give birth, they will pull the catheter out. Then, you will need your bladder to “wake up”. You may possibly pee your bed by accident after that because your body is gaining control of its muscles again. 3. Spinal Fluid May Leak Out Of The Spot Of Insertion, Leading To Headaches That Can’t Go Away Thankfully, I did not experience this; but I heard from some mother who had. After your epidural is pulled out of your spine, you may have a “hole” where the needle was. Sometimes spinal fluid can leak from this spot, causing bad headaches that don’t go away easily. For some mothers, their headaches lasted for several months after giving birth! How An Epidural Affects Giving Birth When you get an epidural, you can’t feel anything from below your boobs. This is great for pain management. However, how do you think this will affect giving birth? “Ok, now push,” the doctor told me while trying to give birth to my first baby. I sat there for a second then said, “Um…this is my first baby. I don’t know how to push! What are the muscles I’m even supposed to use?” Do you know what they told me? “It’s like you’re going poo. Just use those muscles like you’re bearing down.” Boy, how I wish I didn’t listen to them! Why? After 20 minutes of bearing down with all my might (and using the WRONG muscles), I gave myself terrible hemorrhoids that will never go away! All because I couldn’t feel which muscles to use and I listened to the poor advice given to me. Why The Push For Epidurals? You may find in certain hospitals the nurses being super pushy to get an epidural. Like literally someone will ask you every 10 minutes if you want an epidural. Why is that? Sadly, it’s because of insurance companies. Insurance companies give hospitals a certain number of epidurals to meet every year (or whatever the time period is). The hospital is required to meet this quota of epidurals set by the insurance companies. Giving Birth Naturally – What Is It? Ok, now let’s discuss giving birth naturally. What does it mean to give birth naturally? When you give birth naturally, you are not using any medications. You will give birth by controlling the pain through focused breathing and mental exercises. Guess what? When the time comes to for your body to push, it’s a mindless thing! Your body will literally take over and push for you. This was my experience! After I was 10 centimeters dilated, my body started pushing. Two things shocked me. First, I felt absolutely zero pain at this point! The contractions to get me to 10 centimetres dilated were painful. However, as soon as the pushing started, all pain disappeared! Secondly, what shocked me was I was using COMPLETELY different muscles than when I
Guest Blog: Lifecycles Maternity
I have the pleasure to have a guest star post all about her business on maternity clothes. At this time they only serve American Mothers. But we all have friends that live in another country so support this post by sharing it. I recently came across this blog and thought it was a great community supporting mothers. I want to share the story of my company because I want all mothers to know that now is as good a time as any to pursue your dream – mine was owning my own business so I could have the flexibility to spend time with my children as they grow – but also because I think that some of you could benefit from the services my company, Lifecycles Maternity, offers. A quick overview of what we do: We are a maternity clothing rental service that lets women rent basically their whole wardrobe for a monthly fee. We ship the clothes directly to your home and take them back whenever you feel you’re ready to return to your pre-pregnancy wardrobe.In 2017, my husband and I found out we were expecting our first child. We were excited to begin to prepare for our new addition. One morning I got up and tried to pull on a pair of jeans only to ênd that I could not button them. It seemed overnight that I had outgrown a lot of my normal pants and we realized that in our excitement, we had overlooked a fairly large part of pregnancy – maternity clothes. We had prepared for the costs of having a child, such as the doctor’s appointments, birthing classes and the baby gear, but hadn’t taken into account the cost of maternity clothes – an area we knew nothing about. That first shopping trip was quite the wake-up call and where this adventure began.The thought was that we could just get by on hand-me-downs, and while those helped, it just wasn’t enough. We quickly realized there was no way to completely avoid buying clothing. Because we had not spent much time thinking about the costs of maternity clothes, you could imagine our shock as we scuíed from store to store and site to site looking for something to we both on my body and within our budget. While building a wardrobe and watching the costs add up and up, we were astounded by the maternity market. The big box chains where we expected prices to be manageable had absolutely no variety and it cost around $100 to build a single outfit. Online stores and smaller boutiques offered a better selection, but at a much higher price. I like to be at least somewhat fashionable and understand spending a decent amount on nice clothing, but this was crazy considering these clothes were only meant to cover such a small window inmy life. It was hard to wrap my head around the fact that I was going to need to spend so much on clothes that, in a few short months, I wouldn’t need them again any time soon. I wondered if storing them was even worth it – would they even fit me a few years down the line? As we talked with other friends, co-workers, and family members we realized this was a shared issue with so many people. We became very curious as to how to solve this problem for us, and others like us that desire to dress fashionably, comfortably and without breaking the bank. My husband asked, how great would it be to just be able to borrow what we needed and then send it all back when we no longer needed it? I hate to admit when he’s right, but it was a good idea. While we were on the search for a clothing solution there was another issue that was weighing quite heavily on me through the pregnancy. The thought of having to go back to work after our son was born was creating a tremendous amount of anxiety within me. As my husband and I talked it out more and more we started to realize that our two biggest problems could actually be a terriêc solution. This is where our journey as family business owners started and LifecyclesMaternity was born. We wanted to make life manageable for other women by making maternity wardrobes aéordable, accessible and not cluttering closets between pregnancies while making our life manageable as well – a win-win! So, after a few iterations of what we wanted to oéer, sometimes working with a great website team at The Intersoft Group and many arguments in between feedings for an always ravenous child, we finally nailed down just what we wanted to do.The concept is simple: Borrow what you need, return it when you’re finished and pay a fraction of the cost to buy the clothes outright. We charge a monthly fee of $49.99 to access our entire inventory and let you rent up to 7 outfits at a time. Rather than buying new clothes every time you’re tired of what you’re wearing, you can swap the outfits for something else we have in inventory keeping your wardrobe fresh! The bonus for the ladies is you can order these without leaving your home as everything is done from our online site www.lifecyclesmaternity.com. Our family and our business continue to grow as our son is getting bigger, and we also recently welcomed a new baby girl to the family. We are extremely passionate about helping other ladies that are finding similar issues that I did. Like any new business, our biggest challenge is getting the word out there, and we are so completely appreciative of Elisabeth for the opportunity to share our journey with you all. We hope you take a moment to check us out and give us the opportunity to help take some of the growing paints out of your pregnancy so you can focus on the important things – you and your baby. We’d also love
Guest Speaker on Body Positivity
I am so excited to later on introduce our guest speaker. Body positivity is so important especially while pregnant as I have mentioned before there is so much going on when you are expecting and if you add extra stress about how you look into the mix it can really make things difficult.Body Positivity comes in all shapes and sizes. I have heard a few people say its only for those who feel bad about themselves when they are plus-size. But that isn’t the case. You can be any type of woman or man and be worried about how you look.Do you have a type of style? Personally, I dress vintage or Classy. I only wear skirts and that is something that I will want to move over during my pregnancy years. (Maybe in a few years from now). I have heard from people who want to find their weight or are insecure about how they look. Speaking from experience everyone feels insecure about how they look. This might be heightened during this special time of your life. I asked our guest some questions and she was willing to provide some amazing photos and insight. I would like to welcome and thank Megan Thomann, sometimes called Dex for sharing some fun information for my readers. Originally, Northwest Washington State. Nowadays, I am an Iowan. I am a professional mom and occasional freelance makeup artist. I asked her what first interested her in vintage dress since I discovered her in one of my vintage groups I am a part of. I’ve always had a fascination with old things and unique items with a history. Fashion has been a big interest and form of self expression for me virtually all my life. Collecting and dressing in vintage just became a natural hobby for me. It’s not an everyday thing for me, but more of an overall feel and style preference. I then had the pleasure to ask how she felt about dressing vintage while expecting. Do you worry what others think? I seldom worry about what people think of the way I dress. I guess when I love an outfit and the way it makes me feel I get a confidence boost. I’ve always believed that you have to really “own” your look when you wear it and not let it wear you. When I’m expecting (as I’m currentlypregnant with my 4th child) it’s always a challenge to adjust my wardrobe. When you’re pregnant, you become aware that the changes in your body are often visible to those around you. That can be intimidating, but there’s been a huge social shift in how pregnant women are viewed. Where women used to hide behind tent-like clothing or keep confined to their homes if in a “family way” we now have plenty of fashionable options that show off and celebrate a growing baby bump. I guess that makes it a little ironic to dress in a vintage style that highlights a pregnant figure, but anachronism is fun, right? Having fun with how I dress, no matter what state my body is in isjust part of feeling like myself. Do you have any tips that you recommend to expecting mothers on body image? When you focus on the amazing things your body is doing, versus just what it looks like, it can be easier to accept the changes. Caring for yourself and treating yourself with kindness is especially important during this time too. Make sure to do things that make you feel like your regular self whenever possible: exercise, dancing, going out to dinner, making love(!) are all great opportunities to enjoy being IN your body and in the moment. Be kind to yourself. If you think negatively and critically about your body, think about how you would speak to a friend. You deserve that same kindness and acceptance. When people throw around the statement that “your body will never be the same” it’s usually put in a negative context. The truth is, it won’t. Pregnancy is like going through another puberty- every time. But your body can change in positive ways and your comfort with yourself can grow out of it. I was never very curvy and having children made me feel more feminine and soft. I’m definitely still critical of myself sometimes, but when I realize that given birth to and nursed 3 amazing children already, I can maybe cut myself a little slack. Don’t ever sit on the sidelines and miss out on making memories with your children because you’re worried about how you look in shorts/a bathing suit, etc. Your kids love you the way you are because you’re MOM. I also asked about dressing tips. Because we can be discouraged if things don’t fit or anything like that. So, I asked her what are the biggest tips for expecting mothers and how they dress. Try to select maternity clothing that reflects your personal style and if that’s not possible, focus on accessories or makeup that makes you feel good. Just because you are a mother doesn’t mean you have to give up the things that make you feel like YOU. Buying supportive, attractive underthings can help a lot! Investing in good quality bras and supportive hosiery can literally make your clothing fit and flatter better and can give you a little oomph when backs and ankles start acting up. I’m a big second-hand shopper and I highly recommend hitting some thrift stores, taking a peek on ThredUp or searching Facebook Marketplace for bargains. A lot of what I wear during pregnancy is thrifted from the regular sizing section. Maternity often gets mixed in with the rest and standard-sized garments in a generous cut or stretchy fabrics work beautifully for pregnancy and postpartum. Thrift shopping has been essential to me in building a nursing wardrobe too, as I look for surplice tops, wrap dresses, stretchy cowl necks and the like. Nursing style may be a whole other discussion for another
