My keys to Sanity

Sooo... My college roomate is preggers and her baby shower is next weekend. She has decided to wait to find out the sex (Bless her heart- I am too much of a planner for that) But- because she's not saying the sex it makes gift buying a little more difficult because I always want to give something that will be used but its hard to avoid the pinks and blues so I got to thinking what I absolutely loved and HAD to have both when I brought my twins home and babygirl #3.

So here they are in no particular order:

With my twins- I had the Baby Trend double snap and go. We got it for free from my cousin whose twin boys had outgrown it. Its a very basic stroller retails for about 80-100- very reasonable by twin stroller standards and it did everything I needed. Most importantly allowed me to take two twins to doctors appointments on my own by just pulling the carseats out of the car (which meant I never had to wake them up) and locking them in place. Plus its very light ( a lesson I would learn the hard way with the super fancy double I bought about 5 months ago- alas thats a story for another day)

 






Bottles- LOTS of bottles!!!! If you have twins I HIGHLY recommend purchasing enough bottles for the day or atleast half a day. Those few months are tough and I really did sleep when the babies slept which means mommy was not washing bottles after every feeding. I used a few brands as I got a few as gifts and my absolute favorite and the only ones I am still using are the Playtex ventaire narrow. I love the elbow shape- makes for easy positioning in my opinion. Not super expensive. And yes I did try out the Dr. Brown's and Born Free. I actually hated them and the girls had terrible gas from the dr. browns. Oh I also used the NUk natural orthotic ones for baby girl #3- she was breastfed directly where as I pumped exclusively for the twins (I was a chicken back then and the idea of two babies latche on to me freaked me out). If only I had know how easy and bottle free I could have been- because I know not everyone does but I had a wonderful experience breastfeeding baby girl #3. I also recommend a drying rack- I have a munchkin one (6-10) dollars and a microwave sterilizer for the bottles my cousin gave me- I'm a little germ paranoid back then and it just gave me piece of mind.

Also a must have in my book is a bouncey seat. We had two for the twins and I tried out quite a few because the girls loved to rock so I tried getting a fancy one that rocked itself but they HATED it and LOVED the cheapy 25 dollar ones. We started out with one to see if a second was a necessity and it was. Both girls adored it. Still sit in it till this day and they are 15mths. The one on the left (pink) they didnt like as much as on the right and I ended up giving away and buying another one like the one on the right with a different pattern. The one on the left you can tell sits them up straighter and wasn't as "recliney" as the brown one. I also have a swing (just one)- it got used and still does but nothing like the bouncey seats.

 



Also smaller items on my list include:

baby gowns to sleep in- seriously those stupid onesie buttons were tough when I had slept like 20 minutes between night feedings- yes feeding two babies who were premies and ate pretty slow, burping two babies, changing two babies who pooped after EVERY feeding without fail- took forever and they HAD to eat every three hours as we came from the NICU and were underweight.

Sleep Sacks- seriously- I love sleepsacks for the colder months my girls move so much they always kicked their blankets off. Though during the first few months they were so tiny they were swaddled in receiving  blankets.

DIAPERS- Yeah we went go through a LOT of diapers. I prefered the Pampers when I had premie sized and newborn. But I love the Luvs brand for size 1 and above- they don't leak and they are good quality for the price. Let's face it I have three kids in diapers so we can't spend our whole budget on fancy diapers when these work great and seem to fit comfortably. I've bought the Up&Up from target and I'm not a fan- they feel cheap, thin and rough relative to the namebrand diapers. But I will say the protection is the same as in I did not have leaks but I only used those for a day. I was out and forget diapers for #3- she didn't complain.

So there you have it- a small list of things that got me through the first few months with my sanity intact- mostly. I'm sure there are a few more but these I got so much use out of and the investment or gift was worth every penny. After all that- I think I might try to get all pinterest-y and make a diaper cake as my shower gift. I loved the one my friend made me and first I used it for decor in the twins' room and then once they got to the size 1 diapers the size the cake was made of I used those. So stayed tuned for a possible diaper cake post- unless I lose motivation and opt for a bathtime set.