8 Fantastic Life Hacks For Raising Twins

As a dad to twins, I want to share my experiences and help others in a similar journey. Today, that means sharing my 8 fantastic life hacks for raising twins.

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1. When you’re raising twins, you must keep to a strict schedule

I have said this before and I will say it again. Keeping to a strict schedule is going to be a lifesaver for you. As you begin your journey raising twins, you will find that your twin babies need sleep more than anything. I remember thinking it was so strange that we would give our twins a long nap in the morning, a long nap in the afternoon and then expect them to sleep through the night! But it works.

During that first year, do your best to give them nap time at the same time each day. Feed them on a consistent schedule each day. Give them a bath on a consistent schedule. Start their night time routine at the same time each night. This does mean sacrificing play dates during that first year at times. But get creative. Get outside, but do it in small increments. Keep to a strict schedule and it will help you as you reach new milestones with your twins.

2. Invest in the Double Bob Stroller

I highly recommend investing in a double stroller. And although a bit pricey, we absolutely love our Double Bob Stroller. We got this stroller shortly before giving birth to our twins. And to this day, we use it everywhere we go. In fact, we recently took it along on our trip to Disney World. This stroller held all three of our children while we moved from one side of a park to the other side. It also held two backpacks, all of our water bottles, snacks, sunscreen. You name it.

We take this stroller to the beach and bring it right onto the sand. When our twins were babies, we would plop them right into the stroller and take walks right by the water on the beach. It’s so versatile and has easy made it worth the investment. It’s also a perfect jogging stroller…if you’re into that sort of thing. I have jogged with it and it is very smooth to run with. You get the idea. This stroller is worth the investment and will last you years.

3. Raising twins is easier when you split duties with your spouse

Teamwork makes the dream work. It sounds corny. But when you’re raising twins, it’s 100% true. I became a diaper changing pro, although I will admit that the messy diapers still scare me to this day. But I did my best to change the diapers so she could feed the babies. I would do the dishes while she fed the babies. If one baby was crying, the other baby would start crying. It’s now a joint effort in cuddling both babies so they can get back to their sleep schedule. Help your spouse and it will make life a lot easier.

4. You’re raising twins, so don’t rush into potty training

Potty training is the one subject where other parents will tell you the exact age of when their kids were potty trained. As a parent, it makes you overwhelmed because maybe your kids aren’t there yet. Here’s the thing: Every kid is different. Your situation is different. You have two kids that you have to potty train at or around the same time. Don’t rush it. With boy/girl twins, we found that our son was ready a few weeks before our daughter. However, he did plenty of accidents in the middle of the night and she never had an accident at night! Every parent’s situation is different. Take your situation in stride.

5. Invest in two baby swings

Make another purchase and invest in two baby swings. I highly recommend the Graco Simple Sway Swing. We had two swings set up right next to each other. Our babies loved to watch one another swing back and forth. There was lullaby music you could play on the swings and it would always relax both of our babies. It isn’t the safest to let babies sleep in the swings, so I would consult your pediatrician first. We always made sure that my wife or I were present and alert while they were in the swings. That way, if they did fall asleep, we could monitor them for safety.

6. Learn to feed two babies at once

When we first brought our twins home from the hospital a few days after giving birth, it was an experience. We would be up with our son feeding him and it would take 20-30 minutes to change him, feed him and put him back down. And then we still had to do the same with our daughter. So we would be up for 45 minutes or so feeding them. Then, we had about two hours, maybe a little less, to get some sleep before starting over.

Then we tried feeding them at the same time. Wow. We gained back so much sleep as the months went by. This also proved useful when my wife started going back to work. I became really skilled at warming two bottles of milk and propping both of my babies in my lap. Then, somehow, I managed to hold both bottles and let them drink at the same time. It saved a lot of time and got them on the same feeding schedule which worked wonders for our sleep schedules.

7. Invest in a playpen for your babies

As our twins got a little older and started to crawl around, things got really interesting. Imagine having two babies who are just looking for trouble and excited to explore. They start to head in opposite directions. And daddy is at work, leaving mommy to work the zone defense. That is when we ordered Evenflo Versatile Play Space.

This is essentially a baby gate that you can fold and connect into a large circle. It’s big enough to hold both of your babies. And they can’t get out. My wife was able to put both of them in there so she could use the bathroom. Or grab a bite to eat. It’s super safe and if you play the right toys in the play space with them, they will end up playing together and stay entertained for a while!

8. Bathe both babies at the same time

Bathing both babies at the same time will save you time. That is true. However, I’m looking at this from a different perspective. My twins are best friends. They hate being away from each other. They also didn’t like bath time when they were younger.

We changed that by bathing them together. It became part of their bed time routine. They began to really enjoy and look forward to bath time because they knew it was an opportunity to play together. Bathe both of your babies at the same time and hopefully bath time becomes something positive for your family.