Author - Alyssa K

Twin Must-Have Items

Expecting twins? Let me tell you something, having twins is a huge blessing but it’s also friggin expensive. Here are the items I think you MUST have if expecting twins, along with my recommendations on which brands to get. Don’t bother getting stuff that’s not on this list because it’s not necessary in my opinion. Disclaimer: I use Amazon affiliate links to each product below. All the items I got below, I actually got from Amazon. You are supporting this site & our family by purchasing through these links.

Birth to 6 months:

2 Cribs: Yes, you need 2 separate cribs. You can get away with placing both babies in the same crib for the first month or so, but once they get a bit bigger and you stop swaddling their arms, they end up wacking eachother in the face from time to time, causing quite a bit of drama and screaming. Get 2 cribs.

Twin Nursing Pillow: If you plan on breastfeeding your babies, you need this. It is a bit hard to use while your babies are newborns or premies though. Your babies need to be at least 10 lbs (in my humble opinion) before they are able to latch on well using a tandem nursing pillow. I have both the My Breast Friend & Double Blessings Pillow. It seriously saves you time to tandem feed. Here’s my opinion on each.

My Brest Friend Twin vs Double Blessings


My Breast Friend Twins Plus Deluxe Nursing Pillow: My Brest Friend Twins Plus Deluxe Nursing Pillow, Green, 0-12 Months is great while your babies are small. The pillow is nice and sturdy, which makes it easy to keep your babies where you want them to be. However, it has this very bulky back strap. Sometimes my boys’ legs get stuck between that strap and my back. That is the downside for this pillow. I did find that if I position my boys in a half football/half cradle position they are less likely to get stuck.

Double Blessings:

The San Diego Bebe Twin Eco Nursing Pillow Mocha has a more open back design, which prevents my boys’ legs from getting stuck. It also has a nice privacy shield attached to it in case you have to breastfeed in front of your father, brother, or father-in-law. The only downside is that the pillow itself is kind of bendy.. it is not as sturdy as the Brest Friend, and kind of folds inwards when you use it.Honestly, it’s sort of a tie between the two pillows. Do you want a bendy pillow or a sometimes-feet-get-stuck pillow? Up to you.

2 Newborn Rock n Plays: 

We keep these Fisher-Price Newborn Rock n’ Play Sleeper, Yellows in the living room. It’s a great safe place to keep the babies while you’re doing your thing on a day to day basis. They are comfortable and easily fall asleep in them. When they get fussy, you can rock them both at the same time using your feet. When you are feeding one, and the other is fussy, you can rock him/her while feeding the other. Trust me, it’s an absolute necessity!

2 Bouncers

We have a hand me down BABYBJORN Bouncer Balance Soft, Black/Dark Gray, Cotton and a cheap Baby Einstein bouncer we kept from when our daughter was born (Amazon doesn’t even sell it anymore). We keep these in the kitchen mostly. My boys like to watch me while I cook. It helps give them a change of scenery. The Baby Bjorn is much smoother in bouncing motion and has multiple reclining heights. The Baby Einstein one is alright – nothing to rave about.

2 Playmats

These playmats are great for practicing tummy time, kicking, rolling over, and grabbing. We have 2 playmats so they can both be entertained at the same time. We don’t want one screaming while the other has fun, do we? Bright Starts Start Your Senses Safari Activity Gym, Spots and Stripes

Baby Monitor

When you have more than one child, you will have to leave one unattended from time to time, while you are taking care of the other one (bathing, diapering, etc). With my first, I made do with an audio only monitor, but with twins and a 4 year old, I knew I needed to upgrade and get the video version with multiple cameras. We got the Samsung UltraVIEW 2-Camera Baby Monitoring System (SEW-3038W)and I am happy with the purchase. We keep each camera pointed at each crib. When my babies start crawling, I will get 2 more for the living room so I can keep an eye on them while I cook in the kitchen.

1 Bath tub with newborn insert

You only need one bath tub unless your partner/spouse/mom/helper wants to bathe the other baby at the same time. We got the Fisher-Price Bath Tub, Rainforest Friends

2 Car seats (duh)

I recommend the Britax B-Safe Infant Car Seat, Black. They are more reclined than the car seat we had previously for our daughter (we had the teutonia car seat). The Britax car seats feel safer because our babies’ necks never hang down, which can sometimes be a cause for suffocation.

Privacy Shades

Random strangers feel they have the right to touch and breathe all over your babies when you have twins. Get these Britax Infant Car Seat Sun and Bug Cover
to discourage and prevent random nosies from getting all up in your babies’ business!

Double Stroller

I highly recommend the Baby Jogger 2014 City Select Stroller w/2nd Seat, Onyx. It’s a font & back tandem stroller that allows you to snap in the britax car seats very easily, with a bunch of useful accessories. It has a high resell value as well. Whatever you do, DO NOT get a side by side double stroller if you want to be normal and leave the house to go shopping. Side by side strollers are super inconvenient when shopping because they don’t always fit the width of shopping aisles.

Diaper Genie or similar product

Yes, you need a Playtex Diaper Genie Elite Diaper Disposal Pail, White
because you’re not going to want to dump out dirty diapers all the time. We actually have 2 diaper genies. One upstairs and one downstairs. You can get cheap refill bags at Costco (4 for $19.99) or order a generic brand from Amazon (4 for $19.99 also – Nursery Fresh Refill for Diaper Genie 4 Pack, 1,088 Count).

Diaper Changing Mat/Station
We have 2 Diaper changing mats. One for upstairs and one for downstairs. Covers are optional.

2 Sleep Sacks/Swaddles

We used the Aden & Anaiis swaddles for the first month while the boys were little. Once they started finding their way out of the swaddles, that posed a suffocation risk so we switched them to the woombies. That worked well, but after reading that you should keep their arms out of swaddles when they start showing signs of turning over, I decided to play it safe and get the HALO SleepSack 100% Cotton Swaddle, Cream, Small, which allows you to swaddle with their arms out. I should have gotten the Halo Sleep Sacks from the beginning.

Burp Cloths or hand towels
You need lots of these. Hand towels work just as well too.

Gazillion diapers & wipes
I don’t think I need to comment further on this topic.

Bottles, Bucket w/soapy water, Sterilizer, Bottle Rack


We supplemented with formula for the first 2 months while my milk supply was low. After each feeding, I rinsed out the bottles with warm water and soaked it in bucket with a water/soap solution. Once the bucket was full, I rinsed each item under hot water and then placed it in the sterilizer, and then left it out to dry on a bottle rack.

We used the Tommee Tippee Electric Steam Sterilizer

I highly recommend the Munchkin High Capacity Drying Rack, White. We had 2 of these side by side on the kitchen counter. They held all the bottles, nipples, and pumping supplies.

 

 

Custom Water Bottle Decals Using Your Child’s Artwork Using Cricut Explore!

Custom Water Bottle Decals Using Your Child's Artwork & Cricut Explore

We live in Hawaii where it’s summer all year ’round. I recently bought my daughter an 18oz Hydro Flask water bottle to take to school with her. If you have not heard of Hydro Flasks, I recommend you get one ASAP. It is the best water bottle in the world because it keeps your water extremely cold for a ridiculously long time – even in 90 something degree weather. Anyways, around the same time the Hydro Flash arrived in the mail from Amazon, so did my Cricut Explore. The first project I ever did with the Cricut was to make these custom water bottle decals using my daughter’s handwriting and artwork.

Read More

Custom Car Window Decal Using Cricut Explore & Vinyl

Custom Window Decal Using Your Child's Artwork!

I’m super excited about this vinyl project. I see a lot of family themed car window decals on the road here in Hawaii. I’ve always wanted to get one, but didn’t want to settle for that generic stick figure design that everyone already uses… One stormy afternoon I asked my daughter to draw a picture of our family. I snapped a picture of it, cleaned it up in an image editor (I used photoshop), and imported it into my Cricut Explore Design Space and voila! I could not be any happier with the result!

Read More