A baby is a great blessing, and multiple births represent multiplied blessings to parents. But with twins or triplets, your joy will be accompanied by a lot of (yes, a lot of) work. People with a single baby often makes their mistakes one at a time; parent of twins often make their mistakes “doubly”. On the bright side, when you do things right, you have success in multiples too.
In Singapore, the number of women giving birth to twins has increased by almost 50 per cent in the past decade. I am one of those women! In this article, I share my experience after giving birth to twin girls and taking care of them.
My attitude is important
I remember the day when I went for my pre-natal scan and my doctor told me she could see two sacs. She repeated that statement at least twice because I did not respond at all! I was in total shock. A million thoughts raced through my head. The thoughts of having to give birth and take care of multiples were overwhelming. In 9 months of child bearing, there were many moments when I felt very helpless and overwhelmed.
But I have realized that feeling helpless would not be beneficial for my children at all. My children can sense my attitude. If I approach their care as if it is a burden or drudgery, then my children will respond in a burdensome way and I will experience drudgery. Instead, I should welcome them and see each day as an adventure and know that each stage of my children’s development is precious.
Bringing my twins home
When I gave birth to my twin girls, thankfully, the birth process was a smooth sailing one. My birth plan was to have a natural delivery, with epidural. At 36 weeks, I checked myself in to KKH for induced labour.
One twin was head down and thankfully she came out first. For my younger twin, she was in breech position in my last trimester. She was scooped out by my gynaecologist. 29 hours later after I checked in, my twin girls were born😊
My childbirth process was smooth, girls were delivered 5 minutes apart and I did not have to be wheeled into the emergency operation theatre to deliver my second twin.
After birth, my younger twin had jaundice and needed to stay in the hospital for monitoring, but the older twin could go back home already. I spent the next few days shuttling around, pumping breast milk for both babies, to establish a milk supply for them. It was a very hectic and tiring period, immediately right after my delivery!
Lesson learnt: It is important to have the right birth plan and childcare arrangements. Organise, think ahead and be prepared to those plans through even if you might meet obstacles along the way. Once the babies are born, there will be even more things to do compared to the time when they were in my tummy. The days are long but the years are short.
Help!
I could not have taken care of the twins without extra help. Delegating tasks was one of the keys to preserving my sanity with multiples. I had extra help from my in-laws, confinement nanny, my childcare centre and many others.
I did not have a big budget but there are many subsidies that are available. Especially for enrolling my children into an infant care or childcare centre. Do check out this article for more information.
We bought double of many things (2 baby beds, a twin pram, 2 car seats). Needless to say, the money spent on diapers and milk powder also doubled😊
I became quite expert on which online stores sold the cheapest diapers for the brand that I wanted. Whilst my maternity leave did not get doubled☹, I got additional subsidies for my youngest child. For more information on subsidies, check out this article.
More help!
I needed help to ensure a healthy separation between the twins. From my own experience, I have discovered that regular separation between the twins is actually good for their development. Each will have her own strengths. By always grouping them together, it might cause unhealthy competition or sibling rivalry. It is important to take time to spend with one child. After some regular time separated with one another, the twins come back and interact much better with each another.
Individual time is essential to happy multiples. Not only do my twins need independent play time each day, they also need individual and one on one time with mummy and daddy.
For parents of multiples, out of necessity, we tend to think of multiples as a unit. We feed, change, dress and bathe them all at the same time. With a proper schedule and routine, it is much easier to make sure you are being fair and that everyone’s needs are being met if you keep the babies on a schedule and do all major daily activities collectively.
Once you have that routine, you can then plan the babies’ play activities that offer a sensory-play experience or outdoor play that your children will love.
Find out more
It is not easy to take care of 1 child, let alone multiples. We are here to help😊
Nurture Infant House (Tampines) At Nurture Infant House, our passion is to love and care for each infant and to provide a safe and interactive environment for infants to learn and grow in body and in mind independently. If you are looking for infant care in Tampines or in East, do visit Nurture Infant House. We have over 30 years of experience in nurturing thousands of infants, toddlers and pre-schoolers.
If you are looking for a preschool for toddlers and older children in Tampines or in East, do visit Genesis Childcare 1989.
Feel free to book an appointment through WhatsApp.
You can visit us at the following venues:
Nurture Infant House (Tampines) (2 to 18 months Infants) Blk 433 Tampines Street 43 #01-61 Singapore 520433
Tel: 96664141
Genesis Childcare 1989 (Tampines)
Blk 433 Tampines Street 43 #01-63/65 Singapore 520433
Tel: 96664141