Real Tips for Going from 1 to 3+ Kids

Real tips from NIMBA families who went from 1 child to a crew of 3 (or more)

• A gift for our daughter from each of the twins when they visited the hospital AND a gift from our daughter for them.
• Daycare began playing ‘twins’ whenever there was play with dolls and talked about it.
• Our eldest came to one of the scans with us and still talks about it.
• We really tried to not put too much emphasis on there being any difference between ‘twins’ and any new sibling. Our eldest had lots of friends who were getting baby siblings so we just explained that this was our version of normal.
• "We bought a couple of babies to practice with and look after them when I was looking after the twins, spoke about it as much as possible and had two books we read together including ‘There’s a House Inside My Mummy’."
• We gave them pictures from scans and talked about the two babies in them. When they came home from special care I got them involved as much as I could: pressing the start button on my breast pump, labelling bottles etc.
• My husband started picking up more of the routine-based bits (bedtime etc) to prepare for when I’d be stuck feeding the twins at bedtime – this was a game changer!

This article was first published in NIMBA member newsletter Issue 317 | NOVEMBER 2024