Twin Baby Registry - What you need and what you don't need.

After having twins I feel I’m drowning in baby furniture, toys, formula, and diapers. Hopefully you can benefit from our trial and error adventure through baby registry land. Take note that these things worked for us and our babies but might not work for everyone. Some things people might find controversial but I’m not usually one to follow the baby danger trends (i.e. Baby Einstein creating dumb children, Walkers causing development issues, Bumbos giving children back problems, etc…). I look out for recalls and use common sense with what I put the girls in. I don’t let them sit in Bumbos for hours and we always keep an eye on the twins no matter what they’re doing. This is not a complete list of everything you’ll use and you by no means NEED all of this junk. My motto is usually “Less is More” but I have found it useful to have plenty of options for entertainment when juggling baby twins on your own.

Most useful twin baby registry items:

• Leachco Podster Sling-Style Infant Seat Lounger - My Mom got these silly things on a whim through amazon one day. I thought we’d never use them but boy was I wrong! I exclusively bottle feed the girls in these pillows and they nap in them all the time. They sort of cradle the baby’s body and my twins find them very comfortable.
• Bumbo Floor Seat - This is yet another thing I thought was stupid that we now use every day. Our daycare introduced us to the Bumbo Seat and it really helped Cookie with her neck control. We face two bumbos towards each other and let the girls play footsie for a while.

Footsie!

• Graco Pack 'n Play - This has been great when we go to other people’s houses. The girls can nap when need be.
• Dr. Brown's Bottle Warmer - I wouldn’t be surprised if we burnt this thing out one day. It gets a lot of use and always warms the bottles perfectly.
• Dr. Brown's Formula Mixing Pitcher - This has helped save us time by mixing a full pitcher of formula every morning. In the beginning the girls went through nearly 20 bottles a day!
• Graco DuoGlider Classic Connect Stroller with Classic Connect Car Seats - I’ve had no complaints about this stroller or the car seats. It folds easily and the car seats fit into the stroller with a click. The stroller seats recline when someone needs a nap and there’s plenty of storage under the stroller for long trips. I like the cup holders for both the twins and mom.
• Baby Trend Walker Hello Kitty - I wish we had two of these. This has been the only walker short enough for the girls to actually reach the ground in. Every other one we’ve tried is too tall and by the time Peanut is tall enough for the others she’ll probably be walking on her own. The babies love hopping around in them and have recently started chasing the dog around the house.
• Old Fashioned Crank Swings - My mother in law found the swings she used with her children on ebay. They use a hand crank to swing rather than batteries and have become the workhorses of our baby entertainment collection. When both babies are cranky and need rocking but there is only one set of arms available then a swing serves as my backup. I also like not having to replace the batteries every week like we did with our vibration seats.
• Fisher-Price Deluxe Bouncer - These were useful for about three months but now we hardly use them. When the girls were tiny the vibration and sound soothed them down for naps but for some reason don’t work as well anymore. They were also helpful during those first nights when no one felt like sleeping. Make sure to have a million C batteries ready.
• Cloth bibs - The more the merrier. They drool so much!
• Onesies with crotch snaps - Also, the more the merrier. We got lots of fancy baby clothes but these are the most versatile. The NICU only allowed this type of clothing.
• Fletcher's Laxative, Root Beer, 3.25 Ounce - Weird, I know but my mother in law swears by it. Formula often causes constipation issues and this stuff has really helped give some relief to Cookie when she’s stopped up. The other constipation medicine has been too strong and gave the girls gas. This was much more gentle and is made of natural ingredients (whatever that means).
• Gripe Water - This helped the twins with cranky fits and gassy tummy pain. It soothed them when they got a pit colicky.

Not so useful registry stuff:

• Fancy bottles - Dr. Brown’s bottles have nearly five parts to them causing you to go through Ikea assemblage every time you wash them. Those bottles with the bag insert are also a pain to put together. The Tommie Tippie bottles leaked when the nipples caved in on themselves during feedings and they don’t fit in our bottle warmer. Glass bottles were too heavy and I dropped one on our tile floor causing a mess. In the end, the girls favorite bottles came from the Dollar Store. They are reliable, have a faster flow, and were cheap. We’ve found that a bottle is just a bottle and you don’t need the fancy $15 ones.
• Boppie - After two washes caused by projectile vomit (thank goodness those have stopped) the pillow is too flat for the girls. It was nice when they were tiny and I used it to snuggle with them but they grew out of that quickly. I got the most use out of it while Breast Feeding at the NICU but I don’t think they are worth the expensive price tag.
• Plastic Bibs - These seemed like a great idea until Peanut started using them to teeth on and Cookie saw what she was doing and thought, “What a great idea!”.  This made for some extra messy feeding sessions. When food fell on the bib the baby would rub it all over her face while trying to chew on the plastic. They came out cleaner without the bibs so we don’t use them anymore.
• Feety Pajamas - First of all note that we live in Florida and the girls were born in March. These things are just too warm for a Florida Spring but we received some feety pajamas from friends. The first time I put one of these on Peanut she wailed for 15 minutes. I think that she hated her feet being covered up. There are also a million snaps on these things which is a pain when you change 12 diapers a day!
• Sack Outfits - These are those outfits with the drawstring on the bottom like SweatPea wore in Popeye cartoons. Again, Peanut hated that her feet were covered and these are too hot for Florida.
• Hats, Socks, Headbands, and Bows - The twins pull all of these things off the minute I turn my back. They were cute for pictures but end up on the floor every time. The bows are cute but my girls don’t have enough hair to hold them yet.
• Pacifiers - I was all ready with a dozen different pacifiers but in the end I think they only cause the girls to be more pissed off when they’re crying. It’s like, “How could you give me this thing instead of fill in unknown baby need here.” I guess it’s for the best because we’ll never have to wean them off the habit.
• Wipe Warmer - Cookie giggles as you wipe her butt no matter what temperature the wipe is.
• Changing Tables - I’m all about multifunctional furniture so we got a dresser that doubles as a changing table. When the girls are off diapers I’ll just take the changing pad away and we’ll still have a dresser. Also, many changing tables seemed a bit unstable and Peanut wiggles way too much for that.
• Tandem Breastfeeding Pillows - Great idea but poor execution. Balancing two squirming babies on a pillow while trying to shove a boob in their mouth ended in three crying girls (two babies and mom).