Shopping for car seats for twins can be a challenge.

Car seats are one of the most important things you need to buy for your babies. In fact, the medical staff won’t let you leave the hospital without car seats for your twins.

Find a Car Seat You Love, Then Buy Two

Unlike strollers, or even baby carriers, there aren’t car seats made specifically for twins. Do your research and find a car seat you like, then buy two. One advantage of buying two of the same car seat is that you can interchange babies or positions in the car without having to remember the nuances of each particular seat.

Different Styles

Even though you may buy the same model car seat for your twins, you can often get different colors, patterns, or styles. This is really personal preference but you might like some variety in the back seat. As your twins get older, they will have an opinion on which seat they like the best. Different styles could lead to them taking turns and sharing – which is always a good thing.

Car Seats for Growing Twins

One challenge of buying car seats for twins is that the babies grow so fast that they may soon outgrow the car seats you buy. The good news is that you can purchase a car seat that will accommodate your twins as they grow. A convertible car seat like the Britax Roundabout will work for your twins for many years.

Check weight limits on the seats. Are they rear facing to accommodate newborn infant twins? Do they recline and then adjust upright to support a child who can sit up?

Our girls started in a pair of Graco infant car seats. After about 6 months, they graduated to a pair of Britax Roundabouts that served them past their third birthday.

If you can’t get by with just one set of car seats for your twins, don’t worry. You can look for a gently used car seat from a sibling or family member. One tip is that you shouldn’t buy a used car seat from an unknown source. Your babies’ safety is the priority when selecting a car seat.

Car Seats and Strollers for Twins

Do you want an all-in-one travel system with car seats and stroller? Or do you want to leave the car seats in the car and move the twins, as needed, to a stroller?

With our newborn twins, we had a pair of infant Graco car seats. These had a base that was anchored in the car and a removable baby carrier that we could transfer to and from the car with ease. We combined these car seats with an inline Baby Trend Double Snap N Go Stroller.

Considering newborns sleep a lot, it was nice to be able to remove the car seat and snap it into the Snap and Go without waking up one of our sleeping girls.

Don’t Forget Twin Discounts on Car Seats

It can get expensive very quickly to buy car seats for twins. Don’t forget to ask for your twin discount. We purchased two car seats at Babies R Us and they gave us the “twin discount” of 10%.

What to Look for in a Car Seats for Twins

The features you want from individual car seats also apply to the car seats for your twins.

Be sure any car seat you buy includes these features:

• Easy to clean – Can you quickly and easily remove the cover to wash it after your baby spits up or has a diaper blowout?
• Consider air travel – If you will be flying with infant twins and want them in their own seat, make sure the car seat is approved for airplane use.
• How heavy is the seat? How will it be to carry two car seats through the airport? Will you be moving your seats around a lot? Car seats can be pretty hefty.
• Five-point harness – You want your babies securely tied into place.
• Do the car seats fit in your car? Measure and test them in your vehicle before the twins are born.
• Latch anchors or seat belts? Most modern cars have a latch system for attaching car seats. Inspect your car and see how you will anchor the car seat. Be sure the car seats for your twins can safely be attached.

My Recommendation

I recommend you start with a pair of small infant carriers like the Graco car seats we used. Combine these with a Snap and Go inline stroller and you’ll be set for 6-8 months.

Once your twins outgrow those you can move to convertible car seats like the Britax Roundabout that served our twins for more than three years.

I got the following great question from an expectant father of twins:

“Do I really need all that gear and a double stroller or can I get away with one?”

This question underscores one of the great concerns with having twins: the cost of all the stuff you have to get for your babies.

The good news is that you don’t have to buy double of everything for your twins.

Ask yourself two questions when considering the purchase of baby gear for your twins:

Do I Really Need This?

First, ask yourself: Can the main purpose of this piece of gear be handled manually or with something easily available around the house?

Lots of baby gear is designed to do something that has been done with babies for centuries. Odds are you can get by with a low-tech or manual option to solving a particular problem. Think about how you can keep your babies warm, feed them, or change diapers without buying extra gear.

Seriously consider if you really can’t live without the baby product you are considering. Odds are you can get by with a simpler (and cheaper) solution.

Will This Help With Twins?

Next, ask yourself: Do I need this piece of baby gear (or two) to be able to handle and care for my babies at the same time?

Caring for twins becomes extremely demanding when there is only one caregiver. If you’ll be home alone with the twins, it is OK to have some baby gear that will help ease your ability to care for them.

For example, we had two bouncy seats so we could lay each of our infant girls in them for feeding. This made it extremely easy for one person to simultaneously feed our twins.

A double stroller is something I definitely recommend for twins. The good news is that there are some affordable options that won’t break your bank.

You thought you only bought those baby wet wipes to help with diaper changes. It turns out those little wet wipes come in handy anywhere you go.

Here are some ways you can use baby wet wipes:

1. Wipe off the kitchen counter
2. Clean up the spilled liquid off the floor
3. Wipe up that mess around the toilet when your kid misses
4. Clean hands in the car
5. Clean kids’ hands when they refuse to wash in the sink
6. Get bird poop off your car windshield or hood
7. Get bird poop off swings or slides at the playground
8. Wipe off the insect repellent from your kids once they are done playing outside
9. Swipe away the sweat from your face on a hot summer day
10. Sanitize after using a public bathroom with the kids, especially if there was no soap
11. Wipe sticky food/residue off of toys
12. Get dirt off your hands after you just loaded up your truck with mulch at the home improvement store
13. Dislodge crusty boogers from around your kids nostrils
14. Wipe off the dog or duck poop you stepped in while playing with the kids at the park
15. De-stickify the outside of your kids’ water bottles
16. Remove the residue that always seems to appear on your deck furniture
17. Dust your hard surface furniture
18. Remove dirt, grime, stains, and crayons from your walls
19. Help clean up a skinned knee
20. Quickly clean up the bathroom surfaces before guests arrive
21. Remove the grease and dirt from your hands after you worked on the car
22. Clean off your car’s dashboard
23. Remove make-up
24. Sanitize your computer keyboard
25. Clean the hand prints and smudges your kids leave on the car windows
26. Clean up after play-doh, glue sticks, and washable markers
27. Wipe down doorknobs and switch plates
28. Don’t forget to have one or two handy after you finish that bucket of KFC!
29. Wipe up spit-up from the leather couches
30. As a bullfighter’s cape when your rowdy toddler wants to be the bull
31. Hasty wipe down of the table after you’ve been seated at the restaurant but before your server appears
32. Compress to soothe fevered brows
33. Cleaning up twin bums after your twins have synchronized poops

What would you add to the list? What is your favorite use of wet wipes?

Just because you are having twins doesn’t mean you need two of everything.

What are some items that you can get away with only having one of instead of two?

If you already have a child or two, or whether twins are your induction to parenthood, try to think about possible scenarios where your twins can take turns using one piece of baby gear. Here are a few examples to get the creative juices flowing.

For example, you only need:

One baby bath but two towels

One changing table but diaper supplies for two

One crib (shared in the beginning) but two as your babies get bigger

One playpen or play set where you can sit one baby on each side

One bedroom that the twins can share

One of any given toy until the twins are old enough to both want the same toy at the same time

One wardrobe of clothes particularly if you have identical twins that can share everything they wear

Be judicious with your purchases. You’ll need double of a lot of things (like diapers and doctor visits) with twins but there is no need to spend more money than is necessary. Your twins will share a lot as they grow up together, you might as well start them early.

One of the big expenses with raising twins is diapers. From the day they are born until they master potty training and keeping their pants dry overnight, you’ll need to buy diapers.

Twin Diaper Usage

Newborns average about 10 diapers a day per baby. So your newborn twins will need about 10 diapers X 30 days X 2 babies = at least 600 diapers for the first month.

After about a month diaper consumption goes down to about 8 diapers per day. You’ll need 8 diapers X 30 days X 2 babies = at least 480 diapers per month for a few more months.

After three to six months, your babies should fall into a regular pattern with more predictable diaper usage. The blow outs and leaks of the newborn days are gone and you’ll see a pattern emerging. From 3 months to 1 year you should wean down to about 4-6 diapers per day per child.

So based on averages (your twins’ usage will vary) you are looking at using about 2,000 diapers by the time your twins turn 6 months.

After the year mark, diaper use is usually down to about 4 a day: one change when they wake up, one before naps, one before bed, and one for the random poop that happens every day at unpredictable times. So your toddler twins will need 4 diapers X 30 days X 2 toddlers = 240 diapers per month.

This means your twins could use close to 3,000 diapers in the year between ages one and two. (Makes you want to potty train early, doesn’t it?)

Diaper Transition

Once your twins potty train, you’ll be free from the traditional diapers. However, in some cases, you might need Pull-ups for nap times and overnight sleeping until they master the overnight dryness too.

Unfortunately, Pull-ups (and especially the overnight extra absorbent kind) tend to be more expensive than regular diapers. Fortunately, the volume of diapers during this transition period is cut in half.

Diaper Budget

You may want to establish a generous diaper budget for yourself as you stock up on diapers during pregnancy and maintain regular diaper use through the first two years or so.

What should you do with that money after you don’t need diapers?

You’ll see food consumption rise as your twins get older. That increased expense will likely offset any savings you see in no longer buying diapers.

Alternatively, you could start saving the money you did spend on diapers in your twin’s college savings funds. That way when it is time for college, you can remind them that they don’t have enough money because they refused to potty train until they were four.

When you find out you are having twins, you will think that everything you own is too small to handle your suddenly bigger family.

You may be right.

Your first thought may be that you need a bigger house. In fact, you may not need a bigger house with twins.

Your next thought will be about your car. How are you going to transport your new twins and your current family around town?

Do you need to buy a new car?

Here is the simple formula:

Current Number of Kids + Twins + Parents + Future Kid Plans = How many seats you need in your car

If the number of seats you need in your car is greater than what you currently have in your vehicle, it is time to start shopping.

Before we had any kids, I swore that we’d never own a minivan. I told myself and wife that we’d just get a big SUV to haul around the expanding family.

That plan worked until we had two kids. At that point we knew we wanted room to grow and so bought a minivan. Don’t feel bad if you have to take back a similar “no minivan” promise. They aren’t so bad after all.

So when we found out we were having twins, we already had room in our van and didn’t need to buy a new car. However, the girls’ arrival immediately maxed out our seating space.

Remember the formula above. If twins are your first kids and you have a back seat in your car, you may be fine waiting to buy a bigger vehicle.

If, on the other hand, you already have a child and just a little Honda Civic, it is probably time to upgrade.

Keep in mind that car seats are often bigger than a normal person is wide. So just because you have three seat belts in the backseat doesn’t mean you can fit three car seats back there. Take your car seats to the car dealership when you test drive to make sure they will fit.

Good luck!

As a proud father, you’ll want to preserve the arrival of your twins for future posterity.

To do so, you need to be prepared with a plan for getting the pictures and video you want.

You need to keep in mind how your twins will arrive, where they will arrive, and what you will be doing during delivery.

How the Twins Arrive

Your twins will arrive in one of two ways: naturally down the path God created or a more direct route courtesy of a Cesarean section procedure.

Either way they arrive, they will come one at a time.

Where the Twins will Arrive

Where you are when the twins are delivered often depends on how they are being delivered. You may be in a birthing room for natural delivery or in an operating room for the c-section.

The “where” may restrict what you can take pictures or video of. Be sure to ask your OB when discussing delivery options early in the pregnancy if you can take pictures and video of the delivery.

Some doctors will be video shy. After all, you could sue them for something they did wrong. Ugh. Fear of lawsuits shouldn’t prevent you from getting your kids’ arrival on video, though. If you have a good rapport with your doctor, take some time to discuss their concerns, your desires, and find out exactly what the hospital policy is. If it’s important enough to you and your doc is adamantly against video and pictures, then you may need to find a new care provider.

Right Equipment

For the birth of our twins, I used a digital camera that also takes video. To the outside observer, it looks like a camera, which your medical staff shouldn’t have trouble with.

The tricky part is that I could switch to video mode and capture my girls’ first moments while the medical staff thought I was taking pictures.

If you walk into the operating room, for example, with a big camcorder, they may not let you use it.

Timing

Time starts to speed up once the first baby is emerging from mommy. You need to be Johnny-on-the-spot and have that camera ready. If you have a digital camera that takes video, you can switch modes and keep rolling. If you have two separate electronics, you may want to duct tape them together as someone suggested to me.

Once your first twin is born, you’ll likely follow her over to where the nurses suck out her nose and mouth, get her cleaned up, and swaddle her in some blankets.

You’ll be so excited that you may forget there is another one coming. Keep an eye and ear on what is happening with the second delivery so you can quickly move back to your wife and have the camera ready for your next child.

I struggled with wanting to see my first newborn, comfort my wife, and watch the second birth all at the same time. Nevertheless, I managed to get video of both births and of their first few moments of life.

Awesome Experience

Watching your twins be delivered is an amazing experience that you will never forget. Plan to be there and be prepared to capture the moment for the future. After all, you wife won’t be taking pictures during delivery, so it is up to you.

When your twins are ready to start eating solid foods, you’ll need somewhere for them to sit.

Traditionally, this means buying high chairs.

Since you’ve got twins, you are already used to unconventional methods, so here is another tip:

Buy booster seats that fit on your normal kitchen chairs instead of buying high chairs.

Eventually your kids will need booster seats anyway. So if you skip the high chairs, you save money and can use what you buy for a longer period of time.

High chairs are great when you have one baby at a time. However, with twins, here is why you want booster seats instead of high chairs:

• two booster seats are cheaper than two high chairs (and many times even cheaper than ONE high chair!)
• two booster seats take up less room in your dining area than two high chairs
• high chairs have more surface area to clean than booster chairs
• you can leverage the chairs you already have in your kitchen with booster seats
• booster seats are easier to transport if you need to eat at Grandma’s, a friend’s, or if you take a road trip–anytime you are away from your kitchen for a meal

We purchased some Fisher-Price Healthy Care Booster Seats and have loved them. We cover our existing kitchen chairs with a towel and then put the booster seat on top.

The seat’s tray can easily be washed by hand or stuck in the dishwasher.

The hard plastic seat can easily be wiped down. When too much of a mess builds up on the towel under the chair, we simply swap it out, throw it in the wash, and put a new towel in place.

Another advantage of buying booster chairs instead of high chairs is that you’ll save money. Saving several hundred dollars for baby seating is totally worth it.

Transporting your twins is a challenge worthy to be included on The Amazing Race. You’re leaving the house with twins? You’re awesome. Pat yourself on the back.

However, gone are the days of up and deciding to go somewhere on the fly. Now you find yourself getting the babies (and anyone else) ready to leave at least 30 minutes before you actually need to leave the house.

There’s a lot to think about and a lot to remember to make sure outings go smoothly once you leave the safety of your home. So do yourself a favor and let your brain rest once you’re on your way with this one little tip.

A tip that is worth the price of admission:

Get an inline double baby stroller.

In fact, not just any inline double baby stroller. We bought a Baby Trend Double Snap N Go Stroller Frame that easily fit both our Graco car seat/infant carriers.

I can safely say that this piece of baby gear is unequivocally the best purchase we have made to date.

Why? It’s light, compact, easy to maneuver, and you never have to disturb a sleeping baby by taking him out of the car seat. Just lift out of the car, snap into the stroller base, and go.

Seriously, if you don’t take a single other piece of my advice, take this one: get this piece of equipment. You will thank yourself many times.

Once you are done with your inline stroller, you can easily resell it on Craigslist or at a garage sale when you are done with it. Snap N Go strollers are very popular and high in demand.

Inline vs. Side-by-Side

There are a bazillion stroller options out there. Thankfully, having twins narrows that number to a couple hundred. But really, there are only two basic types: inline and side-by-side.

You’ll have to weigh the pros and cons of each kind based on your situation and the way you think you’ll use a stroller. The reality is that you may end up trying both kinds over the course of infancy and early childhood and that different types of strollers will work for you at different times of life.

How Long Will It Last?

In our case, we started with the inline and then moved to a side-by-side. The inline stroller only lasted for us until our girls got long enough to kick the other car seat, and consequently, her sister’s head. (We hit this problem about the six month mark.)

Once our twins could sit up on their own, we switched to a more basic, double stroller like the Jeep Wrangler Twin Sport All-Weather Umbrella Stroller. Since these umbrella-type strollers don’t need the bulky car seat carriers, they take up less space and aren’t such a wide load problem.

When you bring your baby twins home, can you let them sleep in the same crib?

Absolutely.

In fact, at the hospital, the nurses had our twins together in the same bassinet. When we got home, we just continued this pattern. From their time in utero, each twin has constantly been with their sibling. Why not continue?

We found that our babies would actually turn towards each other when they were sleeping side by side in the same crib.

As newborns, your babies aren’t going to move around much so where you put them is where they will stay. In the crib, this means that you can have both babies sleep together.

We’d swaddle each baby individually and then have another blanket swaddle them together.

What about wiggly babies?

Eventually your babies will start to wiggle and hit each other. Don’t freak out. They were doing this in the womb for months (just ask your wife). If it doesn’t bother them, it shouldn’t bother you.

When to Separate

We kept our girls in the same crib for several months until they started getting bigger and rotating around. We knew it was time to separate when were jarred from sleep because Twin A had put her foot in Twin B’s head and Twin B was crying.

When that time arrived, we had two cribs in the same room, with one baby in each. The girls seemed to miss each other at first but would call out to each other via squawks or gurgles in a form of echolocation (think bats) to make sure their sister was near.

Hard to Sleep?

So you may ask: Don’t they wake each other up if they sleep in the same room or crib? No, not necessarily. Typically one twin can sleep through the cries of the other. You’ll even find one of your babies with arms or legs sprawled over the other with both twins sleeping contently.

Some Extra Advantages

Feel safe and confident starting with one crib. This may give you time to move an older child out of his crib like we had to do, or can give you time to defer that expense a few months.