Raising twins is like being part of a special club where the membership fee is sleep, your sanity, and a lot of baby gear. As a twin parent, you quickly learn that efficiency is your new best friend, closely followed by caffeine and a sense of humor. Here are our time-saving hacks that may just save your sanity (and maybe even a bit of sleep).
Probably obvious to most, but before having kids, I was one of those type-A folks who really liked organization. After having twins, I gave up and realized that if I stopped folding their clothes, blankets, and sleep sacks, I saved a ton of time. So if you’re like me, just stop folding! No one is going to judge you if your babies’ things are not Marie Kondo’d (Marie Kondo, by the way, said that she stopped tidying so much after having three kids). Instead, I now sort and dump clothes into dedicated drawers and baskets. There’s a shirt drawer, there’s a pant drawer, and there’s a sock drawer. Crazy enough, no visitors are ever looking into those drawers and baskets and judging me. For photos, they might wear complementary or matching clothing. For every day, I just grab a shirt and pants for each and they wear what I grab.
One of the golden rules of twin parenting: never run out of essentials. Get extras so you are never left searching for a clean bottle or pump part and only have to do one wash a day. While I was all about being eco-friendly and only buying a few bottles, very quickly I realized that having to frantically wash a bottle and then make a bottle was not ideal for dealing with hungry, screaming babies. For those pumping, that means extra flanges, pump parts. There’s tons of generic pump parts on Amazon like Momcozy that are cheaper than the brand name ones. I used the Baby Brezza formula maker and a fun fact is that the funnel is only good for 4 bottles and it will then clog and refuse to make bottles when it’s clogged. So, I ended up buying 2 extra Baby Brezza funnels so I always had one in use, one clean one, and probably one ready to be washed.
This applies to everything else too. Get extra burp cloths (cloth diapers can be a cheap alternative to burp cloths that you can buy in bulk), extra baby clothes, extra bibs (I loved these Diaper Squad bibs because they didn’t soak thru as easily as other brands, which means fewer to wash), and more so you’re never left short. Throw it all in at the end of the day in the laundry and only do laundry once a day.
I pumped breastmilk and supplemented with formula, which turned my kitchen into something resembling a baby café. The Baby Brezza formula maker was my knight in shining armor, making perfect bottles at the touch of a button — truly the Keurig for bottles. The bottles it made weren’t as foamy as the ones from shaking, which had the added benefit of making my babies less gassy. When it came to washing bottles, I relied on the dishwasher and washed the bottles once a day, and then sterilized and dried with the Avent bottle 2 in 1 dryer and sterilizer. The 2 in one was key — I didn’t have the time to wait for bottles to air dry and it allowed me to declutter as much as possible.
When my babies got older and their immune systems got stronger, I stopped using the sterilizer and instead just relied on my dishwasher to wash, sterilize, and dry on Sterilize mode. In the last year, Brezza released the Brezza Baby Bottle Washer Pro, which is a 4-bottle washer, sterilizer, and dryer in one, which seems absolutely amazing. I wished it had existed when my twins were using bottles. It’s definitely super expensive at $300, but in those days of endless bottle washing and feeling super stressed out by the clutter of bottles, some twin moms (aka me) would have found it to be worth it.
Hands-free baby bottles (combined with the Twin Z pillow) became my go-to during solo night shifts, because I had to feed two babies, burp, and pump. The hands-free bottles made it possible for me to do a combo of two.
Although the hands-free bottles offered a lot of convenience, keep in mind two caveats: (1) they can definitely leak if they’re not assembled correctly and (2) they’re annoying to clean, so we’d only use them for solo night feeds. I’d always make sure that I had some extra burp clothes to soak up leaks. Our babies preferred the Dr. Brown’s nipples and I found that I could switch in the Dr. Brown’s nipples and it still worked. While I found these to be very helpful for my twins, results may vary. Some twin parents love them, some twin parents hate them. I wouldn’t buy multiple sets until you’ve tried one set with your babies to see if they take to them.
The Snoo Smart Sleeper was my nighttime savior, keeping the babies soothed and sleeping longer stretches. It saved me from having to rock and soothe them back to sleep after burping them, especially when both babies were fussy. It’s definitely expensive, but we were desperate and we resold ours, so we ended up spending less than a Snoo rental. I wrote a post about the Pros and Cons of getting a Snoo here, which also includes a spreadsheet to calculate costs, tips on discounts, etc.
My insurance didn’t cover a hands-free breast pump, but I made my plug-in Spectra pump hands-free with a Talentcell rechargeable portable battery pack attached the bottom of the pump with heavy duty velcro strips so I could pump on the go while doing chores (like sorting laundry) or washing dishes. I could pump while feeding my twins. I had a wearable pump as well, but I found it wasn’t as effective as the Spectra and would leak or spill (will write a blog post about this later on).
You have to take care of yourself if you want to take good care of your twins. First off, wearing your baby in a carrier, putting them in a bouncer, or setting them down in a Fisher Price kick and play can free up your hands to eat. Here's a quick list of what worked for us to whip up meals quickly and save precious time:
We relied on ordering baby supplies on Amazon and Target to save time from going to the store. We live in a city, so parking can be very frustrating and time-consuming to find and we just didn’t have the time to wander the aisles when we could be sleeping. We put diapers, wipes, diaper cream, baby soap, lotion, diaper trash bags, etc. on an Amazon Subscribe and Save subscription so they would be auto-delivered every 2 weeks or a month. If you have more than a few things, Amazon also gives subscription items anywhere from a 5% to 15% discount, which helps.
I got the Target credit card and the Amazon credit card, which both give 5% off in the form of a discount or points. I’d also price compare between the two because sometimes one was less expensive than the other or there was some promotion. Both have phone apps you can use so you can check on the go.
Raising twins is a wild ride, filled with challenges, joys, and a lot of trial and error. These tips have saved us time and maybe a few strands of hair from being pulled out. Remember, every family and their twins are different, so what works for one may not work for another. The key is to find your groove, embrace the chaos, and remember that this too shall pass.
