u/d16flo

I have 12 month old twins and we had been using these little silicone brushes that you put on over your finger and just with water to brush since they started getting teeth, but at their one year check up their pediatrician said it’s time to start using actual brushes and toothpaste. We got some and most of the time they fight it hard. We’ve tried a couple different toothpaste flavors and brushing our teeth in front of them right before doing theirs and they’re into holding the brushes, but not letting us put them in their mouths and definitely not with the toothpaste. I feel like we end up fighting to get a few tiny brushes in every night and then end up giving up. How are you getting one year olds to actually have their teeth brushed?

I have 12 month old twins. we’re both really doing EC, but we’ve been putting them on the potty regularly since about 8 months and usually at least one of them will manage to go on the potty once or twice a day. The issue is that when they pee while sitting on the potty, most of the pee ends up on the floor (best case) or on them, me, books, toys etc. The potty we have is two pieces, an outside that looks kinda like a toilet with a removable dish in it that you empty. They seem to manage to pee between the two so that is all runs through onto the floor or somewhat upwards where it goes everywhere. I always make sure they’re sitting and their penis is tucked downwards, but that hasn’t helped so far. Is there a style of potty that does a better job or catching the pee? Some other positioning trick I’m missing?

My twins just turned one and we’re working on getting off formula and bottles. We’re down to just one bottle a day, their one before bed. Our current routine goes read books while they have a bottle, bath, brush teeth, bed. Should I replace the bottle with a straw cup of milk and keep everything the same? Try to up their calories at dinner and do milk with dinner and skip it before bed entirely? What did other folks do?

I have twins and one of them occasionally gets food in his eyes, often in his hair etc, but the other twin rubs a significant amount of food into his eyes every time he eats and it’s causing issues. He now has red, puffy eyes most of the time with irritated bumps under them which I think makes him rub them more. No matter how often I wipe his hands during a meal unless I’m carefully spoon feeding him myself he manages to get food on his hands and into his eyes. Obviously I want him to be able to feed himself, but I also don’t want eye issues, has anyone else dealt with this?

I have 12 month old twins who have had different sleep needs from the get go. As newborns one fought sleep super hard while the other was fairly easy to put down. Over time they evened out a bit and when we sleep trained at 8.5 months it was super tough for everyone, but they figured it out and we had an amazing 2 months where they were doing 2 solid hour-long naps and sleeping through the night unless something was wrong. Starting at about 11 months though the lower sleep needs guy started showing signs he was ready to drop down to one nap, fighting the second nap, fighting bedtime harder etc. We tried shifting their schedule around, capping one nap at 45min, pushing bedtime later, but nothing helped and eventually he got so he was completely skipping the second nap and screaming through it. One day he had an 11 hour wake window because he skipped the second nap and then screamed solidly until 10:30pm. We decided it was time and shifted them to a one nap schedule. His sleep and mood got way better, but now our higher sleep needs guy is a wreck. Exhausted all the time, so overtired he can’t deal at bedtime, last night was up every 10-45min all night sitting up in bed screaming and no happier when I tried taking him out and holding him. He wakes up after an hour and he clearly needs the second nap still, but if I give each baby what they need we’ll be managing naps from 10:30am-4:00pm and will stop being able to do literally anything else. Everyone in our family does much, much better mental health wise getting out of the house everyday and having them on opposite nap schedules makes that impossible. That would also mean all their meal and snack times would be different and whoever is with them would have no break time which just doesn’t feel possible.Are anyone else’s twins super different sleep needs wise? How did you manage this stage?

My 12 month old twins just dropped down to one nap and I’m trying to figure out what meals look like now. We were doing 7;30 breakfast, 9:30 snack, 10:30 nap, 12 lunch, 2 snack, 3 nap, 4:30 snack, 6:30 dinner, 7:30 bottle. They now nap from ~11:45-1:30. So far we’ve just been pushing their morning snack later and doing a big big lunch when they wake up from nap and trying to keep everything else the same, but they’re definitely hungry by 9:30 so they’re grumpy about that being later and with a big lunch at 1:30 or 2, they’re not hungry for snack until 5 at which point that starts to cut into dinner. Obviously things vary day to day, but curious what other folks eating schedules look like once dropping down to one nap.

My 12 month old twins who had been pretty good sleepers since we sleep trained at 8 months have been terrors for the past few weeks. One twin especially had been skipping naps and up for hours in the night screaming bloody murder and unable to be soothed or put back to sleep. We’d been considering switching to one nap and we’re trying to wait and keep extending their wake windows instead because everything I saw online said to try and wait longer, up to like 15months. But after two days of skipped naps and one 11 hour wake window we decided to bite the bullet and it went great! It’s only been a few days, but they go down so much easier both for nap and nighttime, there’s still been screaming overnight, but more like half an hour instead of 2-3 hours worth, and they’re not exhausted.

I have one year old twins and I feel like cheese in various forms is probably 1/3 of what they eat, even more if you add in yogurt. One wont eat eggs unless they’re full of cheese, cottage cheese (with or without fruit) is a staple when they don’t like something else, cheese toast is part of most breakfasts, both my husband and our nanny will often offer pieces of cheese while trying to figure out what else to serve, cheese helps things like rice and quinoa stick together to be easier to eat etc. Is this a problem? Are your kiddos also made of cheese?

We sleep trained at 8.5 months and it was rough, but after the hellish two weeks they were reliably sleeping through the night and two naps a day for about 3 months. We had to adjust the schedule sometime and there were some sicknesses etc, but overall fine. Suddenly at least once per nap/night (but usually more) twin b will not sleep. And not like takes rocking and bottles or something, but full body, ear splitting screams for literal hours on end even while being held. It’s been happening some for almost a month now, but it’s getting worse and worse. Yesterday he had an 11 hour wake window because he wouldn’t take his second nap and then screamed until 10:30pm. Today he skipped the second nap again, managed to go to sleep at bedtime only to be awakened by twin a at midnight and I’m currently holding him at almost 2am and he only just stopped screaming. The twins can no longer sleep through each other so they’ll set each other off constantly for hours even if we have them on opposite sides of the house (which means one parent in their room and one in the living room, we don’t have space to have them in separate rooms). They’re not sick, they are teething, but no more so than they have been for months now. I’m at my wits end. I think tomorrow we’re going to try switching to one nap, but their first nap has been the only time he’s consistently slept lately so I’m worried about pushing that two hours later. What did the 2-1 nap transition look like for you? Anything else that could be going on that I’m not thinking of?

I have 12 month old twins who have always been voracious eaters (both of breastmilk/formula and solids). We’re currently in the process of weaning off of bottles and formula. They’ve been night weaned for a good 4 months, but now that we’ve gotten down to 1-2 4oz bottles a day one twin has been waking up in the middle of the night unable to go back to sleep without a bottle (like hours of screaming even while being held, rocked, changed, water etc). I don’t want to lose the progress we’ve already made, but clearly he’s not getting enough food during the day now without bottles. They typically have 6 meals/snacks of solids per day, towards the beginning and end of each wake window and he usually eats a fair amount of food at each. Any tips?

I have one year old twins and feel like I am constantly struggling to have enough food around for them to eat. I’m hoping to get better about making dinners we can all eat (whether or not at the same time) and I’m running. Out of ideas. What are your go tos? (I am a vegetarian and only cook vegetarian, but my husband does eat meat and occasionally gives some to the kids)

I have twins who are about to turn one. They currently do two formula bottles a day as well as a lot of solids, water, and sometimes more formula in a cup with a meal. We know we need to get them off bottles and are working down to only cups, but the general recommendation seems to be to offer cows milk with meals. If they’re already eating yogurt and cheese is there any actual scientific reason to give them milk? My husband and I don’t buy or drink milk now. I’m happy to start if there’s a benefit for the babies, but it seems like getting nutrients from food would be at least as good if not better for them.

I have 11 month old twins and live in an old New England house without central air or normal windows. We have one of those floor ACs with a tube up to the window that we had in the nursery last summer, but they were newborns and so they didn’t know anything else. So far this spring we’ve just had a fan in their room with the window open and that’s been fine overnight, but today was day 3 in a row of over 90degree heat with high humidity and that was no longer tenable. I wrestled the thing into place and moved the cribs to make room for it all while feeding two babies dinner and sweating bullets. I get it up and running and leave to room to cool down. Fast forward a couple hours to bedtime and I come to find out that the babies are both deathly afraid of it. Like screaming in terror. I can briefly get them calm while drinking a bottle and I let them touch it, show it’s not scary etc. but 2 hours of scream crying later they are finally asleep in 81degree heat because I gave up and turned the thing off. What should I do?

I have twins who will be 1 in just a couple of weeks. Their current schedule is 3.5/3.5/4.5 (DWT: 7am, first nap 10:30-11:30, second nap 3-4, bedtime 8:30) We’ve been on a similar schedule for several months now and they’ve recently been struggling both with naps and with bedtime just not seeming tired enough, but sometimes over tired. For a long time they would wake themselves up at the one hour mark or before, but then we started having to wake them up from their first nap. Our nanny was struggling to get them down for the second nap and they skipped it a few times so she asked to try capping their first nap at 45min. The issue is they are SO grumpy when we wake them up now, and will often stay grumpy all afternoon. I’m wondering if instead we should let them extend their first nap and cap the second nap by starting it later? If they’re going to move to 1 nap soon is there a recommended strategy for gradually moving that direction?

I have twins who are almost one and eat a TON. They also always want to eat anything we’re eating. I would theoretically love to start doing family dinners where I make the same meal for everyone (maybe altered a bit for them), but I can’t figure out logistically how to do that. My husband and I both work. Currently one of us can manage to cook a meal only if the other parent is actively feeding the babies their dinner while we cook. We then typically don’t eat until 8:30 when they’re in bed. Does family dinner only work with a stay at home parent? Do you meal prep for the whole week on the weekends and defrost things?

My twins are 11 months and have been having some new sleep issues over the past few weeks that make me wonder if we should be dropping their second nap. Their normal wake time is ~7am, but lately one twin or the other has been waking up at 4am, 5am, and/or 6am. Usually going back to sleep, but sometimes not. One of them has also been fighting going down for the second nap hard. Yesterday he skipped it entirely, but then fell asleep when we were out in the stroller later. Today both of the screamed bloody murder and wouldn’t go down for their second nap at all. They are also constantly teething (they’ve got 6 teeth and more coming in) at this point and are transitioning to a ton more solids and less formula so I’m not sure if it’s something else. I don’t want to drop the nap too early, but I’m not sure how to tell.
Their current schedule is 7am wake, first nap 10:30-11:30 or 12 (capped at 90min), second nap 3-4 or 4:30 (capped at 90min), bedtime around 8:30pm. They usually wake up from naps after 45-70min, but occasionally go longer.

My twins are 11months. One of them has been crawling for a little over a month now and he gets around quick. The other one just started crawling this week. They can also both cruse around walking if they have something to hold onto and are both working on pulling up to stand. All of a sudden a bunch of my previous systems are no longer working and I’d love to hear how folks managed the transition to two mobile babies. When you bring them from one room to another do you always put them in a container at each end (so crib to high chair, high chair to play pen)? Did you 100% baby proof any rooms? Currently I’m finding that if I’m in their room and am changing one’s diaper the other one is trying to eat the door stop or pull to stand on the potty or grabbing the cord for the air conditioner. If I let the good crawler out of the nursery he beelines for the door to the outside. They both now hate to be contained and scream when I put them in their playpen, but if I have them out in the living room they’re hard to corral. What systems of baby gates etc worked well for you?

Our nanny recently asked if we could give her a healthcare stipend. We cannot afford to do so (we pay her extremely well already, more than half of my husband and my combined annual income), but I’m trying to figure out if we could set up an HSA for her. Everything I’ve found online is for small businesses with multiple employees who need to pay for an expensive service to manage it. Is there a way to do it without that? We use Nest payroll which does deductions, but doesn’t seem to have an HSA option. Is it even possible?

We’re taking our first ever trip longer than a 2-hour car ride with our 11 month old twins next week. It will involve a 2-hour drive, spending the night at my mom’s house, a 45min drive to the airport the next day, ~2 hours of airport time, a 3.5 hour flight, and then getting a rental car and another 45min drive to my aunt’s house who we’re staying with. They have their own seats on the plane, we got the cosco car seats everyone online recommended (although they seem huge). We’re planning on wearing them in carriers through the airport. They are formula fed (plus solids) and have never had screen time other than FaceTiming with family. How do we best transport enough formula for them to eat while traveling (both day of and for the whole trip, do you buy some there)? How many books and toys do we need to bring? (I’m not actually opposed to them watching movies on the plane, but they’ve never done that before so I don’t know if they’ll be engaged and we don’t have a tablet or baby headphones.) Would you just buy diapers at your destination? I’m also stuck on the stroller question. We have a very nice enormous and heavy double jogging stroller than I’m not comfortable bringing. Our only other option is the snap and go frame stroller we used with their infant car seats. It looks like we could put one of the cosco seats on it and still use the under part for bag storage, but is that more or less hassle than just trying to find a luggage cart at the airport? Any other tips?