Twin Must-Haves

Piggy-backing of Egg's super helpful post for twin mamas to be (I agree whole heartedly agree with everything), here are my additions, plus a few random postpartum thoughts.

Zulily and Gilt Groupe...these website have great deals on clothes, and when you're buying two of everything, steals on designer clothes are great! I've found a ton of reeeeeeally cute stuff for the girls and it's much easier than shopping in stores and boutiques because in-store they rarely have two of the same size on the sale rack. They also have maternity clothes!

Bottle props...one of the only good things about the NICU was that the girls came home on the same schedule and eating a decent amount at each feeding. Although we have stretched the three hour increments much longer (8 hours at night!!!), we still feed both babies at the same time. Since I'm often alone for a feeding, these have become invaluable! I plop the babies in their car seats and get them started on their bottles while I tidy up, prep the next bottles, etc. etc. They are a major time saver! (side note: these are awesome, but nothing beats snuggling your little one while feeding, even when just giving them a bottle...which is always what I do when someone else is around to take the other baby...bottle props are for solo feedings only)

Night nurse...yeah, I thought it was frivilous, too...until I talked to a few twin mamas who all said that having help at night is a must. Could we have done it alone? Yeah. Would we be cranky, exhausted, and short tempered? Hell yeah. Would our marriage have suffered? Probably. Am I a better mom because I'm well rested? Yep. It's expensive, no doubt, but honestly I would have had no problem trading in a bunch of other crap we have for the extra help. She came for 10 hours per night, three times a week for the first few weeks and then twice a week, then once a week. She loved our girls so much and was so sweet with them...plus she gave us some great tips that we never learned in any of our classes (A+D ointment for stubborn diaper rash, towels under the mattress for reflux, letting Ouiser burp twice during a feeding, etc. etc.) My MIL paid for our night nurse as a baby gift - it is the best gift we received! So if you can make it work, do it!

Postpartum...you won't want to wear your maternity shirts - they hug your belly and you will look pregnant, which you don't want to do anymore! But you probably won't fit your pre-preggo clothes either. Stock up on some cheap-o blousy tops that you think you'll wear even when you're back in shape, but flatter your postpartum figure. I love these babydoll-style tanks for my workouts these days!

Oh, and a few posts back I asked for sports bra recommendations and went out and bought the Tata Tamer at Lululemon...SOOOOO perfect for taming my huge ta-tas...I wouldn't be able to run without it!

Lastly, if I could re-do one gear-related thing, it would be to forgo the expensive cribs. We bought pretty pricey cribs at Gi.ggle while my parents bought cribs from Wal.mart for their house in Wisconsin. Honestly? They are really similar and the Gi.ggle cribs cost more than 6 times the Wal.mart ones. Sure, the Gi.ggle cribs convert from the bassinet to a full crib, but we could have easily made do with the Fisher Price swings discussed in Egg's post and a full size crib. Lesson learned! :)