As promised, here is the second half of our advice for parents of twins. This part is a bit longer than the first, so it may help to take notes along the way so you can keep track of the parts that are important to you. Enjoy!

Saggy Insides

Know that you'll likely feel like your insides are sagging after they're born—for a week or so at least. All those muscles are stretched so tight for so long and then suddenly they're not. Plus, your insides get pushed around into other places and it takes a while for them to "find" their way back. So you really might feel sloshy when you walk around for the first several days. Try using your Bella Band for some support. When you sleep, if you sleep on your side, you may find it more comfortable to continue to put the pillow (or rice bag) under your tummy for support until things tighten up again.

Swaddle Bath

At the hospital, ask them to show you how to give a "swaddle bath." Basically it's keeping the baby covered or wrapped with a warm, wet, wash cloth or blanket while bathing them in a little tub or sink. It helps them regulate their temperature and stay nice and secure which is especially important for preemies. This is our version of a swaddle bath (see, no crying, just a relaxed baby). Basically, it's just warm wet washcloths over the baby. Remember to continue to wet the washcloths with the warm bath water during the bath. A little cup is helpful for that.

Before Leaving the Hospital

Before leaving the hospital, ask to see the lactation specialist. Schedule a appointment with her. Even if breastfeeding is going well for you at the hospital, she can give you some great tips to help you and your babies even more. And, if you want to try to breastfeed both at the same time, try it in the hospital with her help first. She'll know all the tricks for getting everyone in the correct position and helping the babies latch on.

Keep the diaper bags the hospital gives you—you'll need at least two bags at some point, and they should give you one for each baby. They're not super cute and stylish, but they are unisex enough that dad won't feel weird carry them. (Our bags are black and tan—very manly.) We use two diaper bags when we go to church or other functions that require us to separate and each take a baby. Trust me, you'll each want your own bags of resources instead of trying to track the other person down for diapers, wipes, Cherrios, etc. We also have one big diaper bag to use for outings in which we're all going to stay together. You'll use all the space when you're packing for two babies.

Take everything they give you at the hospital. Once the supplies are in your room or in your baby's crib area, they can't be returned and have to be disposed of if not used or taken. So take the diapers, the wipes, the lotion, etc. Same goes for your hospital supplies. You can't take the baby blankets or hospital gowns, though.

Feeding & Nighttime

Know that newborns, especially preemies, take a long time to eat by nursing or by the bottle. One feeding can take 45 minutes to an hour, so it really is essential to try to accomplish both feedings at the same time, if at all possible. However, I found that if a baby is sleepy and doesn't want to eat, you're going to spend an hour waking the baby up and trying to get her to eat and another hour later she'll want to eat because she didn't get much down the first time. My advice, wait 30 minutes and let them sleep, and then try again. Of course, there comes a point when newborns just need to eat and you need to bug them enough so that they wake up and eat.

You can't prepare enough. With our newborns, every night before we went to bed, we cleaned all the bottles, dried them, and measured powdered formula into all the bottles. We put them all in a little basket along with a water bottle and refrigeration pack and took them to our room. Then, for middle of the night feedings we weren't running to the kitchen making bottles. We just turned on a little lamp, added water to the bottles and were ready to feed hungry babies. If they didn't finish the bottle, we put the leftovers in the refrigeration pack to save. In the morning, we took everything back to the kitchen. The night before I also set out a change of clothes for each baby in case they leaked through the diaper during the night. That way you (or your husband) are not rummaging around in a drawer in a dark room trying to find something for a wet, crying baby to wear.

Warming up bottles can help little babies take a bottle better. However, it can also take a while to warm them up and when you have two crying babies, it's hard to be patient during the warming process. I suggest over time, gradually ease them into room temperature bottles and then to bottles that are filled with colder tap water. Trust me, it's worth it. Once they get used to warm bottles, that's all they'll take and it's hard to make warm bottles when you're not at home.

Dad or somebody else has to help with the nighttime feedings for the first couple of months, otherwise mommy will not be able to manage the stress of two newborns during the day when she has them alone and dad gets a break at work. Eventually, when it's down to about one feeding a night, mom can manage it on her own during the weekdays and dad takes full night duty on the weekends. Mom has to get a good night sleep at some point during the week to keep her going.

Entertaining the Twins

Know that you can survive these first few months and that it does get better. Each month that goes by gets easier in some areas and also brings new challenges. But overall, it gets easier. You'll get more time for yourself soon enough. The older they get the more they are able to play and entertain themselves. Eventually they start playing together and entertaining each other, instead of being so dependent on you for entertainment. However, you have to allow them opportunities to do this is if that's the outcome you want. When they can start play on their tummies for a good amount of time, set up toys around them and then sit back and let them have their space to play. You don't have to be right next to them all the time, or engaging them all the time or that's what they will expect as they get older. Let them learn to play independently and learn to entertain each other.

Noisemakers & Sleep

White noise is great to help them go to sleep when they are newborns, but don't leave it on all night or they get used to it and can't sleep without it. Switch to soft music when they're about 4 months old. Also, try just "shushing" your newborn when they are upset or wake up in the middle of the night prior to a scheduled feeding time. When we had the babies sleeping in our room, we were able to shush our babies at night and get them back to sleep without even getting out of bed. If shushing alone doesn't work, try giving them a pacifier. This worked well for our kids and, the pacifier meant "sleep" to them. Gradually, as they wanted to stay awake and play more, they gave it up because they knew it meant sleep and they didn't want to sleep (at about 4 -5 months). It has it's pros and cons. But at least we're not trying to search for lost pacifiers in the middle of the night to calm a crying 10 month old, or trying to wean a tantruming two-year old from pacifiers.

Stain Protection

Cover everything with blankets, including couches, carpet where you often feed or burp babies, chairs you sit in while holding babies, yourself, etc.Formula and spit up are oily and thus attract dirt and can cause staining if not promptly cleaned. Trust me, there will be many times when you can't "promptly clean up" the mess just made, or you didn't see it happen. Some babies are very stealthy when they spit up. Blankets can be easily washed once a week. Use Dreft or Oxy Clean to get the spit up out. You may think you cleaned yourself up well after that massive spit up, but, when you take your clothes out of the dryer with the stain set in, you'll wish you used Dreft or Oxy Clean.

Getting Out

Don't submit to your need to get out to the all of the many babies' needs. Both can be met (once they're old enough and your pediatrician is okay with it). If you think you're stuck in the house, you are. Get out! It is doable but it takes a lot of preparing, practice and patience. It gets easier the more you do it. Be prepared for everyone to gawk at the twins. Babies are always cute, but when people see two babies, they just can't help themselves.

Don't put on what you or the babies are going to wear when you're going out until 5 minutes before you go out. You'll save yourself a lot of time not changing your clothes or their clothes multiples times due to spit-up and diaper mishaps.

You're Doing Great!

Don't get caught in the "guilty trap." There's always more to do than can be done by a normal human being caring for infant twins. It's okay that you're dishes aren't done and that your clean laundry is still waiting to be folded. It's okay that one baby cries for a few minutes while you're changing or burping the other. No permanent damage is done. Trust me!

Pictures: Separate but Equal

Take pictures of the twins together and separately. It will be important to you and them when they're older to have both, especially when they're asked to take a baby picture to school. They'll likely want an individual picture, not one with the other twin in it too.

Baby Swap

Don't assign one parent to a particular twin consistently. Both parents need to be able to comfort, feed, change and care for each twin. Don't get locked into this one's mine and this one's yours.

Sharing Bottles

Everyone has their own opinion about bottling sharing, but the majority of moms of twins I've talked to agree that bottle sharing is perfectly fine for many reasons.

1. If one gets sick, it's virtually impossible to keep the other one from getting sick too unless you move them to another house. Think about it, they share toys, they slobber all over their hands and touch everything including you and the other baby.
2. Sometimes one isn't as hungry and it's easier to give the hungry twin the rest of the other's bottle instead of leaving them both to make another bottle—especially in the middle of the night.

Buying Two of Everything

We didn't get two of everything. We got one swing, one jumperoo and one floor gym (although the gym could accommodate two due to its design). Just rotate the babies between the swing, jumperoo, floor gym and tummy time (very important). And of course there's one-on-one mommy and daddy time too.

Baby Furniture & Accessories

Get two bouncers/vibrating chairs/papasans—they're helpful for feeding time. And if they have reflux when they're really little, it helps to keep them at an incline after they eat and these chairs do a wonderful job.

Get two Boppies—also helpful for feeding or naps when they're little and can help support them when they're learning to sit up.

Get one infant bathtub with a sling (a must). But, get two bath chairs. They love bath time together.

Don't get a bassinet—unless you have room for two bassinets. There's really no need. Just use one crib for both babies unless you don't have room for a crib in your room. We used the bassinet top of a play yard for quite a while because we were in the process of moving and didn't want to set the crib up. It worked okay, but it's not very soft and comfy like a real crib mattress.

Don't get a typical play yard, they're too small for two babies. We got one and really have not used it at all other than the top bassinet part for the first few months. We might have gotten a play yard that extends over a large area, but conveniently our furniture can be arranged to create a big play yard once we move the ottoman into its place acting as the gate.

Don't get high chairs, they take up too much room. We prefer booster seats. Several things are helpful in a booster seat:

• A one handed release
• A removable tray to wash in the sink or dishwasher
• It's fully plastic so it can all by wiped down and disinfected
• Ones that recline are available for when they 4-6 months and not sitting up super well. If you don't get a reclining one, which we didn't but wish we had, you can use your bouncers to feed them in until the are better at sitting straight up for long periods of time.

Make sure you put a towel or blanket on the ground and over the seat for stain protection.

Storage

Get several large Tupperware bins. I have one for each of them for their keepsakes (e.g. their blessing clothes, the clothes they came home from the hospital in, prints of their hands, etc.—this will continue to be used as they grow and go to school and bring home art projects, school pictures, etc.) To keep closets and dressers organized and not over-flowing, I got two more bins for clothing they outgrow and clothing they are not yet grown into (I like to buy clothing on sale in larger sizes). You'll likely have to buy a few more bins as they grow for clothing they outgrow. I keep these bins handy so that it's a constant process of removing and replacing if you don't like the once or twice a year "spring cleaning."

Cribs

Get only a couple of crib sheets per crib. Unless you have a baby that leaks out his diaper a lot (please see the diaper part), you really don't need to have more than that. Every week you take the dirty sheet off and wash it and put the clean one on again. Trust me, changing the sheets is difficult and time consuming because of how tightly they fit the little mattresses. You won't want to do it more than once a week unless forced to by an untimely diaper explosion.

Mobiles with lights and music are great! Our kids loved them. However, at about 6 months old they grew tired of them and we took them down.

At about 6-months old we took the bumper pads out of their cribs for two reasons:

1. Our kids like to sleep in corners (like smash their nose into the corner) and I was worried about adequate air flow and SIDS
2. They played with the ties and the pad itself—anything to keep themselves awake

The drawback is that once in a while they get their foot stuck in between the rails an aren't coordinated enough to get it out. And, sometimes they bump into the sides with arms, legs, heads, in the middle of the night and it makes a loud sound but they've gotten used to it and usually it doesn't wake them up.

Supplies within Reach

Keep diapers, wipes and diaper ointment in the different rooms you are most frequently in (e.g. the family room, your bedroom, the babies' bedroom) along with a changing pad or thick towel in place of a changing pad.

Flat Heads

Know about Torticollis and plagiocephaly. They are both fairly common with multiples due to the tight quarters in the womb, possibly creating little room to move and stretch muscles in the neck. Torticollis is a twisting of the neck to one side that results in abnormal carriage. Basically the muscles in the neck are stretched out on one side and super tight on the other. So, the head is pulled to one side. It's hard to tell when they are still a little floppy. It can become more obvious around two months when they try to hold their head up more or try to look around and neglect turning or looking to one side.

Some babies get a flat head (plagiocephaly) on one side due to their neck being turned to one side and always laying on that side. It may be the back of their head that becomes obviously flat with a less obvious slant to one side. Some people think it's because you don't hold you baby and he's laying down too much, but if they have torticollis, that's not the case. It's due to tight and floppy neck muscles. The earlier you catch it the better. Otherwise your baby may end up wearing a helmet for 23 hours a day for months—trying to round out the skull and correct the plagiocephaly. Moms hate that! You'll also spend a lot of time doing physical therapy with your baby trying to correct the muscles in the neck—babies hate that! We started to notice that their heads were looking rather flat around 2 months, and my sister-in-law noticed that they didn't turn their heads very well to one certain side. At our 2 month checkup our doctor confirmed it and sent us to get a physical therapy evalulation. It was then that I realized how bad they were. They couldn't turn their head past a 45-degree angle on one side and thus, didn't look at objects on that side at all. We were told they were a moderate case and if we were strict with the physical therapy, they likely would get better and not have to wear a helmet. They showed me stretches and activities to do with them based on the type of stiffness and looseness they each had. They were both different, so the stretches were different. But, tummy time was the biggest thing they wanted them to do strengthen their neck muscles all around. Our kids hated it, but I made them do it and it paid off. At 4 months their heads were not as flat and they were greatly improved in the range of motion. By 6 months, range of motion wasn't an issue at all—although their heads were still trying to round out. At this age they slept on their tummies all the time, which will also help with the rounding out. Some people say, "oh, I can live with a flat-headed baby." Well, it's more than just cosmetic. A misshapen skull can cause issues with eye sight because the eyes don' line up and usually one side is neglected. It can cause balance problems and one ear can be higher than the other or set back farther than the other. It can cause a misshapen jaw as well. Trust me, it's not something to ignore and the earlier you catch it the easier it is to correct. So be aware and don't be afraid to bring it up with your doctor. Make sure if he wants to send you to physical therapy for an evaluation that he gives you the diagnosis of torticollis and plagiocephaly. Most insurances don't cover treatment for plagiocephaly.

See how Luke's head goes to one side and Ella's head goes to the other:

Diaper Rash

Newborn skin, especially preemie skin is still very sensitive. Both of our babies got really bad diaper rashes in the hospital using their hypoallergenic "sensitive skin" baby wipes. Once they get a diaper rash, they take forever to heal—it's horrible! My doctor finally recommended that we don't use wipes but that we use only room temp water and a super-soft paper towel or cotton balls and put Vaseline on their bums. At that age, the diaper rash ointment didn't seem to help much either (even the hospital grade stuff they gave us). When we started using just water to clean and Vaseline to protect, it was much better. We would tear up tons of paper towels into four squares and keep them with a tiny spray bottle with all the diapers. That way you're not trying to tear up paper towels or run to the sink when you have a crying, squirming baby with his diaper off. Just spray a little water on the paper towel and you're good to go. Make sure their little bum isn't wet or even moist when you put the Vaseline on because that will trap that moisture into their skin and that's part of what causes diaper rashes (or at least what keeps them going). We used the paper towel method for probably a couple months. By then their skin wasn't so sensitive and we could use regular wipes. However, we go back to water and paper towel method whenever they get a diaper rash now. But instead of Vaseline, we use Bordeaux's Butt Paste. Works well for bigger babies. (Our kids always got horrible loose stools whenever they were on antibiotics and thus we also got diaper rashes as a result.) A good soak in a warm tub and then allowing their bums to air-dry afterwards also helps to heal. When they're little though, especially boys, air-drying can be dangerous. ;)

Sleep in the Dark

If your babies are not sleeping well in the morning and waking up earlier than you would like, try taking extra measures to make the room dark. I found that the sun coming in the window woke them up before they were really ready to get up. We put blankets over the windows and the first morning after we did that they slept in much longer. It's worth a try!

When you start feeding solids, double-bib the kiddos. All the plastic bids I bought were too big around the neck to keep food from sliding down the chin and down the neck onto the shirt. Put a smaller cloth bid that fits a little more snugly around the neck and then the plastic bid on top to really protect a greater area. Without double-bibbing, I was always trying to get stains out of the collars of their shirts. (Oxy Clean worked best for this.) This is why we double bib!

In Conclusion

That's all the advice I have to give—at the moment. Take if for what it's worth. But to sum it all up and end on a positive note, I LOVE having twins! It has been so fun to see them growing up together. Of course, that's easy to say now that we've almost made it through the first year. But honestly, if I could chose do have twins again, I'd do it in a second (okay, but in a few years from now). It has been such a blessing to have our precious Ella and Luke together at the same time.