'You've got your hands full'

So you think you know about twins?

 

THIS is the first guest post in a special week of multiple birth inspired topics. So it's a big welcome to Harriet from the much admired Is there a Plan B? blog which charts the trials and tribulations of shifting from being a London lawyer to a stay at home mum of three in Scotland.  

Her post made me laugh out loud. When I read about some of the questions she has been asked, it takes me back a bit. So, thank you very much Harriet and now it's over to her...

“Goodness, you’ve got your hands full!”
Thank you to Linda for hosting this week of multiple birth inspired posts and for her support of Tamba,

This is a post about about twins. And more precisely about the stuff everyone thinks they know about twins. 

And the stuff everyone says to mothers of twins (I’ve got A and S, who are eighteen months old and identical as well as 3-year-old L). 

And  about the stuff, that sometimes we wish they wouldn’t.

Q&A with Littlemumpreneur.com: How I started a business

THE following is from Littlemumpreneur.com. I hope you may find it interesting. I meant to point people in Erica's direction a while back! Thanks Erica for the questions.

Q1. What is your business called and what does it do?

I’m the director of Passionate Media. This is an agency in Staffordshire, working on various types of editorial and social media projects and commissions for national and regional clients. We also train aspiring writers, journalists, non-profit organisations and companies in making the most of social media and/or journalism/commercial writing skills.

Olympian with 1-year-old twins juggles hurdles and motherhood

MOTHER of twins and silver medalist hurdler LaShinda Demus prepares for the Beijing Olympics by tag-teaming with her husband. Her sons, Dontay and Duaine, were born in June 2007, and she started running three months later. Trials for track and field are coming the end of this month.

We wish her all the best!

...

~ Posted by Becky, who also blogs at Deep Muck Big Rake and Being Savvy: Tampa. Write her at becky_handsfull@yahoo.com.

Are you suffering from sleep deprivation?

WHO gets up in the night if your children cry out?
For us, it's much much rarer these days - in fact, it hardly happens. Emily and Melissa are eight after all. But it's still me.
As with many couples, the pattern was established before I returned to work after giving birth.
I didn't think it was fair for a man who's working a 40-hour week to be up in the night as well. Years later, I'm working lots and can really feel the effects of a dodgy night's sleep.

Twins, Triplets & More Week: Five best things about having twins or more

LOOK I'm not one to moan, but we all know that there are plenty of ahem, challenges that having a multiple birth family can bring.

I've written about them often enough - from the increased risks in pregnancy, the higher incidence of post natal depression and the emotional and financial costs of having more than one baby at once.

But as Tamba's Twins, Triplets & More Week is upon us, please can we take a moment to think of all those reasons why multiple birth parents are so very blessed?

See over the cut for my top five reasons why it's great to have twins!

Ever considered hiring a maternity nurse?

PARENTS who can afford up to £200 a day are increasingly employing maternity nurses - with multiple birth parents making up a significant number of customers.

A rising number of parents with twins and triplets is a major factor in an increased demand for private maternity nurses on hand 24 hours a day in the first weeks after birth, a survey has found.

The poll, carried out by nannies' firm Tinies, discovered that more parents were now looking into hiring a maternity nurse whose services cost between £125 and £200 a day. Twenty-one per cent of jobs are said to be for parents with twins or triplets.

The reality of being a multiple mum

I WANTED to write an article on what it means to me being a multiple mum as there are an increasing number of multiples being born in the UK, writes Kirsty Gray.

However, there still seems to be not only a lack of understanding what it really involves but also a really negative perception about having multiples.

I wanted to get across that it isn’t negative, it’s actually a huge positive and multiple parents really do feel truly blessed - if a little exhausted.

Together or apart? Changing attitudes to bringing up twins

Dress us the same and Kanga gets it.A generation ago, you knew where you were with twins, they were dressed identically - whether or not they were identical - and had similar sounding names like Tim and Tom or Lottie and Dottie.
The poor little mites were given one present between them at Christmas and on their birthdays and books on bringing up twins emphasized their “sameness”.

Childcare choices for parents of multiples

How often do you read features pondering the dilemmas of returning to work after starting a family and want to scream: "But what about me?" For most mums with a multiple birth family, the decision is taken away from them. We just can't afford it! Read a piece here that explains the options and reports on how families found solutions that were right for them. The picture is of a rare moment when my mum and mum-in-law were both in the same place at the same time - and so were the girls!