They don’t stay babies forever…
Once they’re out of diapers, you can still connect with those other POMs you met through your local twins club, and get together with other multiples for fun outings about town.
Here are friends of ours, Age 9, with their 11-year-old friends, at the AGO in Toronto this past summer.
Keeping Your Babies’ Skin Pure and Safe with Beneficial Products
The following is a guest post contributed by Patricia Rock, Arbonne Skincare Consultant, who writes about healthy skin for expectant mothers of multiples and their babies. Thanks for your contribution, Patricia!
Our first instinct as mothers is to hope for healthy babies! Hope is important but intangible. We can play a large hand in our babies’ health when it comes not only to what products we put in them but also on them, and this process begins before they’re born. Read the rest of this entry »
A Fun Birthday Tradition
April 2012 marked my boys’ 8th birthday. For those readers still expecting, or newly minted as parents of multiples, I know 8 must seem like an eternity!! Believe me, I can hardly believe we are out of the baby and toddler stages, and well into middle childhood!
As I was pouring through photos from this year’s events, I couldn’t help but smile at the evolution of a tradition we started on Alex and Simon’s first birthday.
When the boys turned one, we wanted to mark the day with something a little out of their ordinary routine, so we attached a helium-filled birthday balloon to each high chair. They were mesmerized by the floating orbs, and delighted in looking up at them as they waited for their “breakfast” (mushy cereal, of course, at 12 months!) Read the rest of this entry »
How to Decrease the Sibling Rivalry Between Your Twins
Being taught to share is one of the first lessons we learn as children. And if you’re a twin, you’re expected to share clothes, toys, friends, schools, activities and even the same parents. As much fun as some of this sharing can be, however, sometimes sharing the exact same things all your life with someone who may even share – as in the case of monozygotic twins – your physical appearance can create a tendency for twins to act out for attention as well as strain the twins’ relationship.
Of course, a little bit of rivalry is common between siblings—but to ensure that competition, fights and jealousy don’t tear your twins apart, be sure to check out the following ways to decrease the sibling rivalry between them:
Spend time with each child individually.
Twins can sometimes feel like they only come as part of a package deal…and because of this, competition often arises. To avoid competition between your kiddos, make sure that you set aside special time to spend with each twin on his/her own to give them each your undivided attention. Focusing on one twin at a time and strengthening your bond with them individually can contribute to each child’s happiness, and will often lower the inclination they have to fight with each other. Read the rest of this entry »
Why the First Year with Twins is a Blur
Today we have a special guest post from Joe Rawlinson of DadsGuideToTwins.com.
Joe is the father of two boys and identical twin girls, and is also a new friend of BabiesinBelly.com. Enjoy!
Before our twins were born, we had friends with twins tell us that the first year would be a blur. I believed them because I figured they knew what they were talking about. However, I didn’t realize exactly what they meant until I lived the experience.
You’ll be in a blur with your new twins for several reasons:
• You’ll be suffering from sleep deprivation.
• There will be no time to relax.
• You’ll constantly be taking care of one baby or the other.
• Every day will seem like the last.
• You won’t be eating as well as you should since you’re so busy with the babies.
• If you have other kids, they will be extra demanding of your attention because you, out of necessity, are giving more to the twins.
• If your twins were in the NICU, you’ll have logged countless hours at the hospital. Read the rest of this entry »
Dental Care for Pregnant Mothers
This is a guest post shared with us from TopDentists.com. Thanks!
Many pregnant women do not fully understand, in advance, the number of ways in which their bodies will be affected by their pregnancies. In fact, however, pregnancy changes the body in just about every way imaginable, well beyond weight gain and other noticeable side effects of pregnancy. Particularly for first-time mothers, or mothers expecting twins, triplets or more, these changes can be alarming and unexpected. For example, did you know that pregnant women are more susceptible to oral health deficiencies? It is of course always a good idea to keep a close eye on your dental health, but if you are expecting to give birth, this is a more important concern than ever.
Techniques for Photographing Twins, Triplets and more!
This guest post comes to you from Cristina Sacco of Boy Girl Photography Studio:
Photographing multiples requires a fully-charged camera battery, so that you are ready to capture the full load of action coming your way!!
I have been the owner and photographer of Boy Girl Photography Studio since 2006 and based on my past and present experiences with photographing weddings, I was ready to take on the challenge of photographing all 5 brothers in the Asuama family during a recent photo shoot in Toronto: 10 year old Twins, Jeffrey and Justin and 6 year old Triplets Jeremy, Joel, and Jason!
When looking to photograph twins and a set of triplets at the same time, your best bet is to bring them to an outdoor playground so that they are free to run and play. Also, if your camera is on the manual setting, you want to make sure that you do not forget to change your settings with the aperture and shutter speed throughout the photo shoot as the lighting conditions can change with the clouds moving in front of the sun. I normally decide on my aperture setting based on the number of children I am photographing, in this case there are 5 brothers, so I made sure to have my aperture setting at F-Stop 5 and I did not lower my aperture setting unless I was shooting one boy at a time.
If you end up using your wide angle lens to fit all the children inside your photo, just make sure you do not end up getting too close with it or else you will end up warping the kids who are closer to the edge of the photo. The same thing applies with your point and shoot camera lens. I used my Canon EF 50mm f/1.2L USM lens, which is my favorite lens for taking portraits. Although I could not zoom out with my lens, I used the next best thing, my legs! Just take a couple of steps back and voila, you have everyone in your image and there is no warping to the children.
I also like to look for patterns and use of shapes when I’m setting up my clients to be photographed outdoors. Right away I saw the monkey bars on the playground and had the twins and triplets stand on them, and this created a great image. As for the weather, although it was a chilly day, we were lucky to have a cloudy day because the clouds created a soft box effect in the sky and this in turn created an even distribution of light on the twins and triplets.
Clothing is also important to consider when you want to take some great family portraits of your children. We had the boys dressed up in their white tops and blue jeans and this made the photos look fresh and clean. If the children are dressed in different colours, than you will want to make sure you coordinate where they stand beside each other based on the colours they are wearing.
Now that you have learned a couple of techniques to use to photograph your twins, go outside, make it a family day and have fun capturing your kids!! If you have any questions on how to photograph your twins and triplets, or if you have a set of twins and triplets like Vida and her husband, feel free to send me an email at info@boygirlphotography.com with your questions.
If you’ve finally mastered the art of diapering your newborns, and are getting them changed superfast like an assembly line, you may be surprised to discover your twins suddenly wiggling free of the diaper change area and “launching” themselves up whilst you attempt to change them!
This typically happens at around 5-6 months of age, when babies become more active. Lying around getting changed is no fun, and launching themselves into the air and watching mom or dad freak out can be quite entertaining for a baby this age!
Try to incorporate songs, stories or other fun and engaging activities into change time to keep your babies in one spot while you wrestle on a new diaper: Sing a short by engaging song, or try giving them a new and interesting toy to examine in the air above them while you quickly zip off one diaper and put on the next one.
At this stage, it is also extremely important to NEVER LEAVE A BABY UNATTENDED! One self-initiated launch could parachute your baby right onto the floor!
Alex and Simon visiting their little twin friends Ben and Oliver
If you are in the middle of newborn twin chaos, you may be wondering if things will ever get better! And important and valuable part of your support team is the “volunteer”. The volunteer could be a neighbour, teenager, or professional volunteer from a local organization. In any case, volunteers can really help fill the spaces in your week where you need an extra set of hands to help out with newborn twins, triplets or more.
Volunteers can help feed one or more baby, they can read, sing or talk to a single baby to give him or her that important and tricky individual attention, or they can help with household chores like walking the dog, doing a load of laundry or preparing the next round of bottles (if you are using bottles).
Once your multiples get a little older, why not consider paying it forward? One of our greatest rewards has been watching 6-year-old Alex and Simon bond with a little set of twins we recently started volunteering with in our community!