Womb to Bloom - Maternity & Beyond

As first-time parents, my husband and I were clueless as to what we needed.  We walked into the baby superstore one time while I was pregnant and then promptly walked out.  There was such an abundance of products that we had no idea what kinds of things we may or may not need.  Now that we have had the twins and sort of have a grasp (ok maybe more of a fingertip) on this parenting thing, here is a list of things we use on a day-to day basis. 

Baby Furniture
If you are like us, you will use different sleeping arrangements for your twins in the first few months of their lives.  In the first month, we used a pack-n-play as a bassinet.  We set it up in the family room and put them in it day and night.  The pack-n-play we got had a changing pad attached to it that we used most of the time in those first few weeks.  It was a lot easier to set up shop in the family room than to schlep back and forth from their room all the time. 

After the first month or so, we began to put the babies in a crib.  They seemed to like to be together, and they didn’t move around too much.  When they started scooting around, we put them in their own cribs.  Even though we no longer use the pack-n-play as a bassinet, we get plenty of use out of it by taking it on trips or even to grandma’s house for an afternoon.  My babies don’t sleep very well in car seats, so it can come in handy when I know I’ll be at somebody’s house for a while.   

One twin mom I know said she hated her changing table and never used it.  I got a hand-me-down changing table and totally love it.  I have everything I need to change the baby right there.  Also, it is the perfect height to change the baby, and we keep the diaper pail right next to it.  Speaking of diaper pails, we got one that does not require the special bags and have been pretty happy with it.  It does smell sometimes, but that usually means the bag needs to be changed.  It has a filter, and we have had to change that.  But otherwise, the diaper pail has worked well for us.

Swings and Bouncy Seats
Swings and bouncy seats are some of the trickiest things to buy because of all the different kinds available.  It can get confusing and expensive.  I know of babies who hate their 100 dollar swings and love their 30 dollar bouncy seats.  My kids like both their bouncy seats and their swings.  We bought only one bouncy seat at first to make sure they would sit in it. 

Because they didn’t initially like the infant seat, we didn’t buy a second one until they were about three months old.  Once they got a little older, they liked looking at the toys attached to the seat and started trying to grab them.  Unlike the bouncy seats, the girls loved their swings from the very first day they came home from the hospital.  Because the swings were given to us as a shower gift, we had two from the beginning.  If we had bought them ourselves, though, we would have done the same thing- bought one swing at a time to make sure the girls were happy in them. 

Strollers
Strollers were actually the hardest thing for us to buy.  As of yet we have bought four double strollers.  We could just be indecisive, but it took us a while to figure out what kind of stroller worked best for us. 

Before we had the babies, we bought a Graco DuoGlider.  Now I know a lot of people love this stroller; I do not.  It was heavy and awkward and impossible for me to fold.  I admit that I may be stroller-challenged, but it was too much for me.  Plus, it barely fit into the trunk of my car.  We ended up getting a double, metal-frame stroller into which we could snap the babies’ car seats.  It was light, easily portable, and, most importantly, I could fold it up by myself. 

When the twins started being able to sit up, we got a tandem stroller.  We ended up getting a Combi dual stroller.  It is fairly light, folds up well, and is sturdy enough for the girls.  The only problem is that there is not much storage room.  Because the Combi is not really made for walking long distances or jogging, we also got a Bob Revolution Duallie jogging stroller. 

I admit, it is expensive.  But we got it on sale, and it is the smoothest stroller we have tried.  Plus, we feel we have to go on walks or jogs every day to get good use out of it and so are getting way more exercise than we did before.  It is also pretty heavy and big in the trunk of a car, but the designers made folding it up and setting it up a cinch. 

There really are many, many choices when it comes to baby gear.  There are even more things that I wasn’t able to cover in this article as it was just intended to give an overview of one twin mom’s essential items.  You can go out and buy everything you see at the baby superstore.  You can go crazy researching and buying different products.  But remember this when debating whether you need the gold-plated wipes warmer: the basics are the basics for a reason.  Stick with them, and you will have most of the items you need to care for your babies.