The Smith Family Circus

Now this is kinda like a continuation of the second post. But this is mostly what are some must haves and some new products that I have tried and liked.

Strollers/Car seats/some baby gear: if you have the money, look for a double stroller RIGHT AWAY. This will be one of the first purchases along with your car seats. Make sure your car seats can snap in to make life so much easier. I purchased a Joovy twinroo frame stroller to start with that was compatible with the car seats. Soon I will be looking into a stroller with seats. Your best bet to find car seats cheaper is when you go to Walmart or target. CHECK THE CLEARANCE ISLES AND THE CAR SEAT ISLES! Sometimes they will put the car seats there. 9times out of 10 though; more than likely they will leave them at the car seat/baby gear isle due to having so many of them. When I purchased the car seats for our twins; the car seats I wanted were actually on sale. They went from almost $200 a seat, to $80. CHA-CHING!!!! Lol I found the Joovy twinroo stroller was SOLD OUT EVERYWHERE, but I found it… Facebook marketplace! Was originally $200 and I purchased it for $45.

Diapers/Wipes: so when we found out we were going to have twins, we knew… DIAPERS AND WIPES; AND ALOT OF THEM! so the best bang for our bucks were target up and up brand wipes, hello bello diapers and wipes, and (we have recently found another brand that I am now in LOVE WITH) Rascal and Friends diapers and wipes. Hello bello has this fun deal every month where you can choose what diaper colors/patterns/size/size quantity you get. You get up to 7packs of diapers(you can include training diapers), shampoos, wipes, etc etc. we did that and got over $150 worth of product for only $65. The rascal and friends diapers are only sold in Walmart. They are the SOFTEST diaper ever! Instead of paying $28-$45 for a box of diapers, I only pay $20. I haven’t tried their wipes yet. ALL WAYS BUY IN BULK! Or if you know your babies routine by now, get what you need until whenever.

Nursery: portable noise machine are a must! Or at least they were for us. The baby shusher is what we used for our daughter but $35 for a shusher that only did one noise…. Nah, save $15 and get the munchkin shhhh machine. You can sometimes get it at Walmart too! It does 3 different sounds, portable light night with different brightness settings, a timer, and volume control. Next is bassinet. Get a twin bassinet. Best thing we did because now they are in separate mini cribs and don’t have any separation anxiety from each other. Some twins do need to have their twin next to them. I get it, kids are all different. You do what you gotta do to get those ZZZ’s in.

Bath time: it’s really no different that with our singletons. I will say this, make sure to have everything picked out and ready to use so that way it’s not a rush. What will give you more bang for your buck will be to use normal towels. Not the branded “baby” towels or wash cloths. i will swear by this bedtime spray for the babies cribs. It’s called Zarbees bedtime spray, lightly mist the mattress and allow it to dry. Make sure you don’t spray it on the baby or their clothes because it could irritate their skin if it’s wet. They make massaging oil and balm but I didn’t want to risk the babies having a reaction.

Bottles/pacifiers: in the nicu, most of not all of the hospitals are going to use Dr. Browns bottles and Avent Pacifiers. We actually ended up buying the bottles, but only what we needed. We didn’t go over board like some people do. My twins didn’t like the pacifiers that they used; so I went and bought some that my other kiddos liked. Let’s just say, they love them. My boys like the wide neck bottles; the narrow ones were good until they were literally sucking in the ENTIRE nipple. I can tell you what, DON’T BUY a 1bottle bottle warmer. Go and spend(or check marketplace like I did) a little bit of cash on a brezza warm water dispenser. WORTH IT 1000%! The only down side is that it doesn’t hold a ton of water. Or the other option is if you have 5 gallon water dispenser that has a “hot water” option, use that. Works the same way. But the obvious thing about that is, you gotta make sure it’s not to hot for the babies.

Feeding: two highchairs are a must! With a removable tray and washable seat covers! We went to target and they had highchairs on sale for $35 each.

Clothing: ALWAYS GET MULTIPACKS! Two, four, six, eight, or ten pack of clothes are the best thing ever! You save money that way instead of buying a single outfit for $12, you get 4-10 for $8-$20. Anything that has no feet attached is best. So that way you can use it longer than the clothes that has the footies.

Other baby gear: the only things you should get double of is bouncy seats and boppy’s. You can get other stuff obviously but that’s just money you don’t really need to spend.

Places to always check: before buying ANYTHING(but not the car seats, those have expiration dates) please check marketplaces such as Facebook, let go, Poshmark, and Mercari. If your out and about, check the clearance isles. They will become your best friend. Target offers a discount if you buy everything on your registry towards the end of your pregnancy. Target also has their own baby clearance isles by the baby gear. Make sure you start a registry; that way you get the discount on additional items. Walmart will normally leave baby gear by the baby stuff even though it’s on sale. Join some Facebook groups that are geared towards people that have twins and that they are trying to get rid of stuff.

Even though you don’t think it won’t happen; buy about 10 outfits that are preemie and a pack or two of preemie diapers. If you don’t use them, you can either return them, sell them, or donate them to the hospital.

Don’t bother buying dreft! Unless you want to… but any “free and clear” laundry detergent is basically the same thing.

Pack your hospital bag about a month and a half early. I went into preterm labor 3 times(first time was around 26weeks), and I finally went into the hospital the last time at 35weeks and 1day. Pack the babies bag along with yours. But to be completely honest, only pack their clothes and pacifiers. That’s it. So you could use two gallon ziplock baggies for their clothes. The hospital will provide everything else. They may or may not say also to take all the diapers, wipes, diaper cream, and etc etc. they won’t use it on any other babies so it would get thrown away.