Twin Tuesday this week is something that all people expecting twins ask. What do I really need to buy two of? Unless you have an unlimited budget and unlimited space to put double the baby stuff, you are probably wondering what you can get away with buying one of and what you really actually need to buy in doubles to survive. Since these were not our first babies, we used everything we kept from our first two boys, borrowed as much stuff as we could from friends and registered for the rest for my shower.

We (okay.. okay… just me actually) kind of stressed over this a lot and felt like I needed two of just about everything to be safe. So our house that was already pretty small before the babies were born, got really small with two additional people and a crap ton of stuff. A lot of our doubles though? We did not even touch.

So save your money and save your sanity as I offer my advice on what you actually need to buy two of!

  • Obviously… you need two car seats or you can’t even get those babies home from the hospital. We bought Chicco keyfit 30 car seats for all our kids and LOVE them. Another obvious in my opinion is two high chairs. Those babies are not going to be cool with taking turns eating for very long so you might as well take the plunge and have them ready for when they start eating purees or table food.

  • You need a good double stroller that fits in your car and is light enough/easy enough for both parents to fold up and put away alone. I knew that I wanted a stroller that I could click our car seats into and go without getting the babies out. A lot of people get the Snap and Go strollers but unless I am misinformed, those strollers are only good while your babies are in their infant seats. We bought a Chicco double stroller and really liked it. We could click our infant strollers in easily by putting the regular seats down and as they grew, they could just sit in the seats that have 5 point harnesses.  I’ll be honest, now that our twins are older and much more mobile, we are not a huge fan of the tandem set up because there is fighting over who gets to sit in the front and actually see. We are definitely in the market for a new side-by side double stroller. However, if we didn’t have our double stroller those first weeks/months I never would have been able to leave the house alone which you have to do to keep your sanity.

  • Whether you plan on nursing or bottle feeding your twins, a double nursing pillow is a must. I was pretty determined to nurse my twins so I really researched this one and ended up buying the Twin Z pillow. Hands down the best twin purchase I made. Seriously. This pillow was created by a fellow twin momma and in my opinion, the other choices out there don’t even come close. We used this for nursing of course, but we also used this pillow when we would feed them pumped milk in a bottle or when they just wanted to hang out in it. It allowed me to tandem nurse, but it also allowed one of us to bottle feed them both at the same time. I could go on and on about this pillow (and probably will in future Twin Tuesdays) but trust me on this one- it is worth the price.

  • Two rock n plays. We had one from Eli and borrowed another one from a friend and we were so glad we had them. The babies would nap at the same time next to me in them and the rocking/vibrating feature made transferring them when they had already fallen asleep so much easier. I heard people say that they were afraid to get their baby used to sleeping in a rock n play and then have to break them of that habit when they outgrew it to nap in their cribs so they were afraid to get one. Full disclosure: we did have that problem where we had to work on transitioning them to nap in their cribs but it wasn’t terrible at all. I would have much rather done that than not had rock n plays with newborn twins!

  • Two bouncers with hanging toys. Once our twins could hold their own heads up, they loved their bouncers! Both of ours vibrated which was awesome and they would sit happily batting at the toys for a long time. I loved the bouncers because they were portable. I would carry them all over the house with me in them to put laundry away, cook dinner or even to bring them in the bathroom with me when I needed to shower. They were lifesavers.

  • This one is up to your opinion, but we had two baby carriers and were so grateful we did. We wore our babies everywhere a stroller wouldn’t fit or whenever they would get fussy in their seats when we were out with our older boys. When they were crabby at home, sometimes Josh and I would each wear a baby so we could still get dinner ready and play Caleb and Eli. There were even times during the day when they were a little bigger, that I would be desperate and wear one on my front and one on my back. I loved having two carriers. We had an Ergo (with removable infant insert) and a Baby Bjorn but hands down if I could do it again, I would get two Ergos.

 

  • ONE swing– We had a swing from our older boys and borrowed another from a friend because I was so worried we needed two. We did not. I don’t think we had both babies in the swings at the same time more than twice in the whole 9 months we had the swings out. They were massive and took up so much space (because we had to put them far enough apart so they could move at the same time) which was also annoying because we seldom used both of them. It was infrequent that both babies were content to swing at the same time and usually one preferred to do something else anyway. We had enough other equipment that there was no reason we needed two! Save the room and the money and just get one.

 

  • ONE tummy time mat and other toys/baby contraptions.  Same with the swing, it was infrequent that both babies were content to have tummy time or wanted to sit in the exersaucer at the same time. We were so glad we only had one of those things! We had a lot of baby toys already but also found that there is no reason to buy double the toys when they were infants. They were not aware enough of the other yet to be jealous of a toy or want the same one.

 

So there’s my advice. Don’t buy the whole Babies R Us or all your baby gear will drive you crazy and likely go unused! I tried to find the items that we have and link to them if we liked them. Good luck shopping for your sweet babies!