Gemini: all double? My experience

When we talk about twins, images of twin strollers, double baby seats, double cots, double seats, double toys spring to mind… with the two parents suddenly surrounded and forced to move around in a confined domestic environment and more like a nursery than a home.

But even in this, the twins know how to amaze, often demonstrating an innate predisposition for sharing spaces and an extraordinary ability to adapt to each other’s times and needs, compensating and expecting each other, almost aware from the outset that they are in two with a single mother.

In my experience, thus, the transition from zero to two has proved to be gradual in many respects, allowing us to gradually equip ourselves with what the children required.

In fact, upon returning home, my husband and I realized that our twins Giulia and Davide needed to be constantly close, on pain of nervous and unjustified crying, and that the ideal arrangement was in a single cot, with both positioned horizontally , instead of vertically, in the normal sense of use of the beds. To recreate for them the sense of protection of the mother’s womb, we used two U-folded anti-draught pillows, also ideal for maintaining a minimum of detachment between the children and preventing any movement from one from annoying or waking the other. The children thus shared the cot for the entire first four months of life.When space became tight, we placed two cots next to each other in a single room, sure that the perception of each other would still guarantee them to fall asleep peacefully.

In the bathroom we equipped ourselves with a single changing table , aware of the fact that in any case diaper change and bathing would have been managed as successive moments on most occasions, given the impossibility for a mother to manage four agitated feet under the same jet of water (and given the impossibility of bringing additional furniture into our bathroom). In the very early days we didn’t use any particular equipment: as long as one child was washed in the sink, the other remained lying on the bouncer , moved to the bathroom to allow you to always have both children under control. When the twins grew up, we purchased a single reclined support equipped with suction cups to insert in the tub, continuing to manage baths as a subsequent activity (we invent everything to entertain what’s outside the tub, without risking drowning what’s inside!). Sometimes two four-handed parents dedicated themselves to the “family bath” with the two children sitting in the tub on a non-slip mat and one parent each dedicated to a single baby.

In the kitchen , with the start of weaning, we equipped ourselves with two baby food high chairs, the least bulky models on the market, which allowed the children to be kept side by side in a confined space and with the two mouths within easy reach. For the rest, a single compartmented saucer, a single spoon and a single small glass for water proved to be sufficient , given the successfully adopted practice of alternating a bite to one and a bite to the other.

Undeniably, twins involve a greater economic and physical effort for their parents, but with little precautions one can get by with less than one might imagine.

In the early days, discussions with great-mothers who have already entered the role can help identify efficient solutions and can guide them in choosing the purchases that best suit their children’s needs. Then in small steps you gain experience in this too!

Here then is that double energy is not always necessary for a great mother, indeed often even with necessarily measured times and strengths, results are more than doubled!