Blog Magazine's Blog Twins Guide to the First Year, 2007 Edition
Twins Guide to the First Year, 2007 Edition |
| Magazine - Twins Magazine | |
| Sunday, 30 March 2008 | |
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Tales from the trenches...How to survive!!! You’ve joined the ranks of Super- MOMs...Mothers of Multiples. And you may rejoice at first, but you’ll think you’re losing your mind before the worst is over! You and other Super-MOMs are the Medal of Honor heroes of parenting in our society. You’ll find this year is an endurance test beyond your wildest imagining, not too different from surviving Marine boot camp. You’ll experience an emotional roller coaster, euphoric and full of unutterable joy one moment, and crying your eyes out the next, because you haven’t slept in days. But time flies by in a whir and a blur, so quickly you’ll wonder where six months disappeared. You’ll move as if you’re encased in a thick grey fog for weeks on end. Don’t despair. It’s normal. Everybody goes through it. Legions of your peers, Super-MOMs who’ve survived to tell the tale, offer some dynamite advice: Take time to laugh and giggle with your babies. Your laughter helps hem and you, trumping your exhaustion and soothing your postpartum hormones. Subscribe to TWINS™ magazine... we’ve been told by literally hundreds of Super-Moms it’s the best thing since sliced bread” and is a sanity-saver beyond compare. Participate in the TWINS™ Magazine Message Board at www.TwinsMagazine.com. You have a specialized Forum at your disposal entitled “Your twins’ first year.” Lovingly known by thousands of Super-MOMs as the TMMB, it is the perfect complement to the magazine, and links thousands of moms just like you, providing friendship and information about your twinsworld. Join a twins club in your area if there is one, and make time to attend meetings. Your peers will become your best friends, and you’ll find the support and advice and friendship invaluable. Recruit friends, relatives and neighbors to help you with household tasks during your first six months with twins. Catch some quick-winks for 5, 10 or 20 minutes whenever your babies are quiet. Become the Queen of Cat- Naps as well as a domestic goddess. A Super-MOM knows: “You need to sleep whenever your babies sleep, for heaven’s sake! The washing can wait!” A DNA test is essential if your twins are both boys or both girls. Don’t believe anybody who tries to tell you they’re fraternal (dizygotic) or identical (monozygotic). So-called “experts” have been wrong many times. Knowing for sure helps you figure out many things about your kids—medical, psychological, social, etc. Zygosity matters…and only a DNA test will tell you the truth. Try swaddling when your twinnies fuss and cry. Twinfants often respond well to swaddling, because they were crunched together for 9 months. Impose a schedule on your twinfants right away if you’re able. This is one time it’s best not to “go with the flow” and let confused infant body-clocks rule your life. You can help them being to know day from night, when to sleep, when to eat, when to poop, when to play, when to laugh. Breastfeed your twinfants if you possibly can. Their immune systems are so much stronger with breastmilk. You may have to pump-and-store and feed them breastmilk from a bottle. That’s okay. Don’t feel guilty if it doesn’t work, but do give it a try at the outset. Let them sleep together in a single crib...twinnies love to be close and this can help calm them. Keep an open mind about childraising issues, such as ways of getting them to sleep. As cruel as you may think it is, crying-it-out will teach your twinfants to self-soothe and put themselves to sleep. The time may come when you need to try it. Buy at least one bouncer chair. Two, if you can! You don’t have enough arms to carry-and-calm two babies at once. Bouncers are lifesavers, for calming and for feeding two little mouths. Try white-noise for jittery babies who keep waking up—vacuum cleaner, background music, air compressor. Anything works that more or less replicates loud whooshing sounds your babies heard while in utero. Set limits and boundaries. Take charge, even if you feel ill-equipped and overwhelmed. Playpens and play-yards work well with twins to corral the little movers, especially when visiting someone else’s house. Talk to your twinfants constantly. Each baby needs to hear you speak to him or her individually, in order to learn language. Twins often experience language delays because they aren’t addressed separately as much as singletons are. Keep your cool when out in public. Develop quick but gracious, courteous replies to the bombardment of silly, awkward and plain-dumb questions you trigger when out-and-about with you twinfants. You’ll grow sick to death of hearing “Are they twins?” or “Are they identical?” Reacting in a bristly or snappy way doesn’t get you anywhere. Lighten up. Remember people are trying to be nice to you, even if they put their feet in their mouths. Being kind will make you feel better if if you’re tired and cranky. ... Download Twins Guide to the First Year, 2007 Edition PDF format, 9.18MB, 48Pages. CONTENTS: Tales from the Trenches 4 Visit TWINS Magazine Official Website TWINS™ Magazine -- Loved by Parents of Twins since 1984--we are the premiere publication for everything relating to TWINS! TWINS™ Magazine is the premiere periodical for parents of multiples, from twins and triplets to quadruplets, quintuplets and more! Published six times each year, TWINS™ Magazine is the "bible of parenting multiples," loved by moms and dads of twins and higher-order multiples since 1984. From the moment couples discover they have a multiple pregnancy, they turn to TWINS™ Magazine for the professional advice and reassurance they find in our articles. Expectant moms pay extra attention to nutrition and physical symptoms and conditions during a multiples pregnancy. Parents want to know the risks that are involved, including specific twin-related health risks such as TTTS (Twin-to-Twin Transfusion Syndrome). They prepare for twins by reviewing research on breastfeeding, schedules for newborn twins, baby furniture, products and supplies for two or more. Life with twins is a very different experience when buying two of everything! TWINS™ Magazine is the ultimate parenting tool with content devoted exclusively to issues of twinship, twin bonding, twin prematurity rates, pregnancy, co-bedding, multiples in the NICU, colic or digestion problems, special needs and every subject related to coping with infant multiples. Other topics regularly covered include: physical development, language development, sleeping, twin behavior, twinergy, toddler twins, rivalry, competition, psychology and twins in school. Bookmark
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TWINS Guide to the First Year, A Special Editon of TWINS magazine. Created Exclusively for New Parents of Twins, Triplets or More.
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