My Sister is preg with twins.. she is nearly 12 weeks so hopefully all good at this point.. she is also single. Does anyone have any advice they can give me that I can do for her to make her life easier.. products, feeding tips etc... I am planning to be there for her as much as I can but I do have my own family to look after. We all knew twins was a possibility but it has still been a shock for her and I still don't think she has accepted it yet!!!!

Just want the world for her and to be there for her. Forgetting the benefits of breastfeeding (I know all that having had 2 kiddos myself) .. if she is alone all in her house most of the time would it be easier to bottle feed or to breastfeed? Gosh, the logistics of it all are quite scary but I guess as it is her first she isn't going to know much different...

Advice please? Any essential tips or products she needs?
Thanks heaps.

I'm not a twin mummy, but my best friend is, and I would say the best idea is to recruit everyone she knows to help out in the first few months, even if it's just washing bottles or folding baby clothes. Every little job that someone else does saves precious time. One of our other friends' gift to her was to do all her laundry for the first year. It was a huge help.

My friend expressed for the first 6 months. I honestly could not believe how much milk she could make, but if your sister can't cope with the time out needed to express or breastfeed, then she shouldn't feel guilty about putting the babies on formula.

Good luck to her!

This is an awesome present!! I would love someone to do that for me!

Having preprepared meals in the freezer is a good idea - those first few months are so busy.

For me, I think breastfeeding is easier, but I've never had issues with supply etc. It seems easier to be able to just pick them up and attach them rather than preparing/washing/sterilizing etc. It's also one less thing to remember to take if I go out (think I left my memory in the delivery room ). Though, I've never formula fed so have no real idea about that side of things

Hi

The best thing you could do for your sister would be to try and be there so she can sleep if she is lucky enough if they both have their naps at the same time. Sleep deprivation is an issue for any new mum, but some twin mum's have it extra tough if their babies do not nap at the same time.

If possible, I would encourage her to put the babies into a routine from the beginning. A twin mum has twice as much to do, but in half as much time!

Also, encouraging her to set up a home shop grocery list so she can shop on line in those first few months is handy. I had Wooles deliver our groceries periodically when our twins were babies and when I became so big I could not get out of bed. It was a god send if my parents were away.

Breast feeding is certainly achievable, but she should be prepared for initially spending alot of time. When my boys were babies it could take 1 and 1/2 hour to feed them and that was feeding them together.

Also, I would encourage her to read up about premature labour. I had my head in the sand about the high risk of a twin pregnancy, I just thought "those" things would never happen to me. My waters broke at 30 weeks and I did not even know I was in early labour.

So many of the previous ideas are fantastic.

Oh man how good would it have been for someone to do all the laundry?....lol

Meals brought to her is a fantastic idea.

I would encourage her to do a huge plan at about 30 weeks for about 7 or 8 different freezable bulk meal idea. She may need to put away some money each week now to be able to do the giant shop. And then write out all the ingredients needed for each recipe in one combined big shopping list. (Of course this is all dependant on her having a large seperate freezer- otherwise I would actually recommend investing in one.) I took a friend shopping with me (to help carry it all)

At about 30 weeks I made (with help from a lovely grandma type) about 10 different dishes ranging from 2 different soups to spaghetti bolognese to mild curries and a variety of casseroles. I even cooked the pasta and the rice.

I bought about 50 or more cheap plastic one meal size containers from Coles. And then froze all the different dishes in "one person size" meals. This way there was never any issue for about 3 months of what to cook or what to eat. The soups especially were fantastic at lunchtime.

A way to help her is to also always call her before coming to see if she needs anything at the shops. Fresh rolls, bread and milk (and chocolate maybe), nappies, wipes etc. Tell everyone who is going to visit to do this always!

I have a friend who is a single mom right from pregnancy and she was lucky to have her Mum live near her. She said that just knowing she could call someone to come and help her, (sometimes at 2am) saved her sanity. Although she had very allergic to everything children. So another idea is, if there is a big enough network of people to organise a roster of coming to help her at "arsenic hour" and to be on call at night time.

I would also encourage her to both breast and bottle feed right from the start if at all possible. I only say this from the perspective of having babies that happily take a bottle. Many breast fed babies wont take a bottle- if this happens to her it may be "hell in a nappy" for her as she will never be able to get any respite.

She needs to be prepared that she or the babies may not tandem feed well and she may need to feed one at a time. This can be sped up if one is able to take a bottle at the same time as the other is being breast fed.

Truly though the best thing all her friends can do for her is to walk into her house and do some housework of some type- from cleaning the toilet to doing the washing to even changing the sheets or dusting. Looking after the babies is in my opinion not the hard part- it is looking after yourself and the house that is hard.

Thanks for the idea... they are great. Unfortunately our Mum has passed away so no "grandma" types around for us. She lives an hour away from the rest of us (My dad, other sister and my family) as we are trying to get her to move closer for at least the first 6 months and rent out her house.. All these things for her to think about I think are a bit overwhelming at the moment.

Is the father in the picture at all? Are any of his family helpful?? (Not being nosy sorry!!) What about getting an au pair in for the first 6 months? Minimal cost, and not full time help, but a start! Multiple birth playgroups/friends are great - I enjoy hanging around with my friends with multiples - it is easier than my single baby friends TBH!

I had a girlfriend make me 30 or so containers of casserole/pasta/soup and I had Mum with me for the first 3 weeks so I didn't have to do anything more than cook rice or pasta or toast and reheat a meal for the first 10 weeks. I already had mountains of baby gear so people tended to bring meals instead of gifts. This was a huge help - otherwise I would have lived on takeaway and chocolate.

For the first 8 weeks I had Mum or DH there to give the babies a feed of expressed milk once a day so that I could get a bit of extra sleep and this was fantastic for making the sleep deprivation manageable.

I don't think there's one right answer for which is easier (bottle/breast), it depends on things like whether there are supply issues or whether the baby has feeding issues. My personal experience (after 2 singletons and the twins) is that breastfeeding is easier in the long run but it took me a good 10-12 weeks each time to get things going well and get feeds done in a reasonable time.

I hope things go really well.