Parenthood

[johnboyjjb]

Dear God help me!

I went in with my wife for her first ultrasound. We were 99% certain that she was pregnant but the last one didn\'t go so well and were afraid the numbers were false from the previous miscarriage. So, the nurse pulls up the picture on the ultrasound.

The conversation was like this:

This is the gestatial sac and this is the heartbeat. And this is another gestatial sac and this is the other heartbeat.

So, I found out that not only am I certain to be a father, I get to be the father of twins.

Any advice?

 

[dauber22]

Shoot yourself now!!! lollollol

ps - congratulations

 

[matty1001]

Congrats

My only tip is buy 2 of everything
e.g. two bottles of vodka, two sets of sleeping pills and two more hands! lol

 

[treide]

Might want to invest in a dry erase board. I knew someone who had triplets, and that was the only way he and his wife could keep track of which baby had been fed, changed, etc. They also color-coded the clothes, bottles, etc. to keep things straight.

Congratulations!

 

[vincegamer]

start watching Super Nanny

 

[Ogrebane]

Dood way to go. Get it all over and done with in one hit. But dont be fooled into thinking its twice the work and twice the trouble its actual 4 times lol. Good luck and congrats.:drunk:

 

[Swordwind]

I\'d stock up on reserves of sleep now.

Congratulations!

 

[dougaderly]

congrats. Having one at a time was hard enough, two at that age is going to be interesting. Just know that the first 3-4 months is gonna suck ass, but you\'ll survive it, and then it\'s wonderful! As a matter of fact, the first few months aren\'t bad, they just involve not sleeping. or resuming relations with your wife. Or eating. or sleeping. Did I mention the no sleeping? Yeah, sleeping is out too.

CONGRATS!

 

[Gin1906]

Booze, lots and lots of booze!lollol
Seriously though, congrats on the twins, double the fun!
And really two babies really are not that much harder than one, take it from a pro! I have my own two that are a little over a year apart. I also frequently have same age babies in daycare. Right now I have two one year olds! (remember what I said about the booze!)
I would suggest a double stroller (this will be a life saver) As for color coding, buy exactly the same thing in multiples... matching high chairs you can swap trays... matching clothes...even easier you don\'t have to worry if that pair of pants go with that shirt... think mix n match!

Oh and the BEST thing what we call baby jail, a large play yard plastic walls,

Great pace to get some time away from babies... oh and to drink that booze

Good luck and keep us posted!
Gin

BTW, when are the babies due?

 

[charley1968]

Congratulations to the 4 of you and best wishes for the arrival
As for tips:Go with the flow:Sleep when they sleep, instead of tackling the chaotic household.In case you go to work and your lady is with the kids:help with chores at home. (no use getting into fights and having to console 2 crying babies cuz you woke them with your shouting).
In case they don\'t wanna sleep at all, cuz life is so interesting: take a ride in the car, most babies fall asleep within minutes.Works also should they be colicy.
last not least: take all the help you can get!Good luck , you\'ll get used to them!!

 

[Dragonsreach]

Originally posted by johnboyjjb
So, I found out that not only am I certain to be a father, I get to be the father of twins.

Any advice?

1: Paint everything you can Now! Cos there\'s no chance in Hell you\'re gonna be painting for a long while.
2: Kiss your bank balance goodbye.
3: Be prepared to lose A: Weight, B: Social Life.
4: Start taking care of your own health cos one thing you are never gonna be able to afford to lose is seeing your kids grow up.
5: Be prepared for the adventure of your life.

Seriously thought Congratulations.

 

[Jericho]

Wow, that\'s awesome news. I\'m still working on stage 1, convince woman to go out with me I guess I should qualify that by saying \"convince a specific woman to go out with me\" so I don\'t look quite as pathetic! Is refusing to even think about all but one woman being a little too picky for a 21 year old?

My interesting but unrealistic advice is as follows:

Save yourself the effort and invest in facial tattoos early. None of this mistaken identity nonsense! Just stay away from whoever did Mike Tyson...

God bless you all, I hope everything goes smoothly from here on in. You\'re on a real lucky streak already, just keep up the good work

 

[darkartminiatures]

Congrats! have a :beer: now while you have the chance

 

[Highbulp Billy]

Originally posted by Dragonsreach

Originally posted by johnboyjjb
So, I found out that not only am I certain to be a father, I get to be the father of twins.

Any advice?

1: Paint everything you can Now! Cos there\'s no chance in Hell you\'re gonna be painting for a long while. Too true
2: Kiss your bank balance goodbye. Although you do save money by having no social life
3: Be prepared to lose A: Weight, B: Social Life. A: I\'ve actually struggled to get my figure back since my wife had our first last year. Combination of weird sleep patterns and no time/energy to exercise etc. B: see above
4: Start taking care of your own health cos one thing you are never gonna be able to afford to lose is seeing your kids grow up. True, every minute with them really is precious
5: Be prepared for the adventure of your life. ...or at least as prepared as you can be for the totally unpredictable

Seriously thought Congratulations.

Many congrats etc and hope all goes well with the pregancy, birth and ALL that follows. My advice for dealing with twins...

1. Sticker their foreheads so you can tell them apart (this can progress to tattooing their foreheads when they are older)
2. Pick a favourite early on an concentrate all your efforts on that one. Better one over-achiever than two mediocre offspring.
3. Ignore the above and just enjoy the fun and challenges and massive sense of achievement you will get at the end of each day.

Good luck :beer:

 

[airhead]

Deep breathing excercises now. (You\'re going to need the practice).

My two girls are 2 years apart. Their personalities are very different, so don\'t try to force either of them to be something they are not.

Enjoy every minute of them. They will grow up before you realize it.

Love them unconditionally. Even when you are mad at them.

Did they tell you if it was boys or girls?

 

[Ritual]

Sell your paints!! They will all have dried out before you get the chance to paint again!

 

[MPJ]

Well, I second dauber22... Shoot yourself now, get it over with. :drunk:

I\'ve got one 6 (boy), one 3 (girl), and one due in February (girl). Since twins run in the wife\'s family I was in abject fear that the last one would in fact be two but luckily it isn\'t.

As for practical advice, assuming you don\'t follow my first tidbit, I\'m the wrong guy to talk to. My wife is great at getting the kids into a tight schedule and maintainig it. I found that it did work great. Take a couple weeks to figure them out, they will develop a bit of a pattern on their own then modify that pattern somewhat to fit your schedule (nap times, play times, etc... Can\'t do a whole lot about feeding at first) and most importantly of all... STICK TO IT. If they don\'t want to sleep at scheduled nap time then put them down anyway and leave them be, if they want to nap at play time then don\'t let them. They will adopt to the schedule pretty quickly and your life will be much easier. Also, don\'t be afraid of making noise at night and such, my wife always did the vaccuming after the kids were in bed, it gets them used to noise while sleeping and soon enough it doesn\'t disturb them.

Oh yes, I also very much like Highbulp Billy\'s advice point #2. Pick a favorite. :drunk:

 

[dougaderly]

\" Pick a favourite early on an concentrate all your efforts on that one. Better one over-achiever than two mediocre offspring.\"

lollollollollollol

 

[Gin1906]

Pick a favorite lollollol I love it!!!

Actually MPJ gave GREAT advice about scheduling, Babies start out sleeping all the time, but as time goes on they can be scheduled, by 3 months you should be able to put them on a basic moring nap (1-2 hours) then an after noon nap roughtly the same time as the morning nap. Most kids will do this pretty easily but you must enforce it. I see quite often in my daycare where parents will disrupt our daily schedule on the week ends because planning your life around nap time is hard. On Mondays I get tired and crabby kids! As MPJ said, even if they don\'t act tired stick to your schedule. You will be better off for it.

As to Mini Painting... well yea plan of storing your stuff for a year to 18 months.. really you will not have any time to paint and at 18 months plan on painting after bed time.. plus with twins... you won\'t have any space for your stuff anyhow!

Have fun.
Gin

 

[supervike]

Twins!

Awesome.

My sisters are twins and even though all our siblings are close, they have a very special bond....even now (they are in their 40\'s) they have a weird sense about them when together and even when they are apart.

Its also very strange how we have always considered one to be the \'oldest\' even though she was only 4 minutes sooner than the other.