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.
The Proven Method For Connecting with your Inner Self!
What does intuitive mean? in·tu·i·tive /inˈto͞oədiv/ adjective using or based on what one feels to be true even without conscious reasoning Just to give you a little insight on how you need to learn to be true even without conscious reasoning. This can happen through the art of journaling. If you speak to any coach, therapist, or self-help person, they will recommend this as well. I’ve done multiple exercises, ones with prompts, mind dumps, or just a pen and paper. Writing is one of those key sessions that allow you to freely do what you need to. One of the key components that childbirth needs is intuition and a lot of people are not connected or don’t feel that same connection to their gut. Let me tell you a story about a time that I just knew I had a gut feeling it happens quite often and I’ve learned to lean into it because if we don’t we can be led astray. At the time I was about 20 years old and I had a client or a client to be shall I say that I was getting a vibe that we weren’t going to click, but I was young and I was desperate to try to help people. So surely I said yes and that I would help her. Well about a week or two later it turns out she had also interviewed other doulas before signing my contract and one of the other doulas had spoken negatively about me and my age, this led to that same client that I had a gut feeling about deciding that I wasn’t the person for her but she said it in a more negative way. (No need to repeat that here.) So what are some of the five ways that I feel like I can connect better with myself? With journaling you need to focus on a few key elements. Trying to connect with my inner self, to connect with whatever the problem may be. In this case it’s not a problem but it’s pregnancy or having a baby. How are you connecting to it? Then you’ve got a visualization technique. How do you visualize it going down in your mind? Are you constantly thinking the negative way or you trying to see if positively? I also believe that you need to reflect on how you can install a self-care routine that would help better benefit yourself making you become more attuned. One of my virtual assistant clients actually recently told me that she believed I was wiser than most people my age. Obviously at the time of writing this I’m 23 years old and I see things in a way that most young women of my stature think. But I’ve learned to become more aware about what my body needs and less of what other people want of me. Of course I’m not perfect and I don’t think we all can reach that either as there is no such thing as perfect it’s all in our mind. No, what I’m saying here in this very long story I’m telling you today it’s all about how you can better connect with your inner self and my key word for that is JOURNAL. I’m the type to use prompts. I prefer it because it gives me something to start off with. My biggest tip is never think about it, set a timer for say 5 minutes, open your journal and write whatever your brain is having. I’ve had certain exercises like this where I’ve become more aware of something that I never even knew I needed. To finish it off with one more personal story, I took a writing class and we were presented with an exercise to write or draw what our present and future selves look like. In that moment my future self was invisible, there was no me to be seen but the present self was chained down with bearing bricks holding me to the ground. I then looked at that picture and wrote down everything that was in that sense representing the bricks. It shocked me how much I had learned about myself that I didn’t even realize what was going on. Journaling can be that for you as well and maybe writing isn’t your medium, maybe it’s drawing or maybe you need to sing, create music or dance. Whatever your passion is that could lead you to becoming more self aware, DO IT! P.S. If you feel like you need more support with intuitive journaling, I created a journal to do just that for expecting parents!
