Oh yay!
Every since I was little I’ve dreamt of having twins, so I am ultra-excited for you!
does happy dance
:::::::::::::WhOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOO:::::::::::
I am all for twins! ( Singles too) Even with a 2.5 year old and a 10 month old, I could go for twins right now. Why yes, it is time for my medication, why do you ask?
First off, make your peace with a few things:
The sex life that you knew is going dormant for a while. [sub]To all the other parents out there, espeically the guys, HUSH! I’m trying to break the news to him gently [/sub]
The boobs your wife will be sprouting are not your playthings.(She will probably chew your hand off if you even smirk at your mammary glands.)
OK, now onto some parental advice, and boy, do I have tons:
For the baby shower, ask for diapers and wipes.
After the babies are born, some diaper/food companies give discounts for parents with multiples. Ask a twins organization about it, they’ll know.
Don’t be too proud to ask friends if they know of anyone if they have a spare crib laying around that they can use for awhile. ( Yes, yes, I know that your wife will *insist * that the babies room matches and everything will be in its place. I know, I was this way with numero 1 child. By the time my daughter came it was like, " eh, shove some boxes aside and put her right there." ) Chances are it will be given to you (along with a ton of other baby stuff)because most mothers are so sick of tripping over it) and it will save you a ton of money right there.
To be very honest, the first year, if your wife is going to stay home with them, she really won’t be going a lot of places. Might consider basic kids clothing ( sweats/onesies/sleeprs/jeans) as a uniform for home and have the Grandma’s buy the cutesie outfits for holidays/pictures.
Resale shops can be an excellent source for kids clothing. I purchased my daughter’s dress that she was baptized in ( not one of those mini-wedding gowns) at a resale shop and received tons of compliments. When I said I picked it up for $5 at a resale shop, all the old ladies just beamed at me for being so smart as to not waste money on clothing that they grow out of in a matter of days.
Garage sales can be an excellent source for play clothes that you don’t mind if they rip and ruin for 50 cents as oppose to $10 per pair of jeans.
The strollers that are front to back are easier to negotiate through doorways and aisles than the side to side.
Forget the music tapes in your child’s room. Put either a mini boom box or stereo in there with a CD that has continous play on it and Mozart’em all night long.
That’s about it. I don’t want to overwhelm you with *my sage advice *
Do you know the sexes yet?
**and most importantly ** since I did this last year when I was gestating * You Must Sponsor A NAME THE BABY THREAD * where everyone here can put in there two bits on their favorite names and being that it is twins, it is open season for FUN RHYMING NAMES!
(IF You name your offspring something like Earl and Merle, I will personally kick your ass. [sub] Unless, of course, you are bigger than me [/sub])
Congrats !!!
You can touch these all you want.
It is so wonderful. We had planned on waiting until our son was three. WHOOPS. 
SZ is right. Sleep now. After they arrive, it won’t happen. It is wonderful to have two so close together. I know our two are the best of friends right now. I can only hope they stay that way. Twins should be even better.
Best of luck from both of us!
Wow. Congratulations. Don’t have much to add except one of my good friends is in the hospital right now getting his second and third children. He’s still pretty depressed about having to have a minivan already.
I agree. Wholeheartedly. Absolutely. In this you must not fail.
I recommend that you find a place, a special place, and go there each year and take a picture of the kids (maybe on their birthday?). There’s a spot alongside the Mississippi River where I’ve taken my son each year, and I have several of the pictures above my desk at work. It’s incredible the feelings you get when looking at the age progression, and it happens so fast!
My practical suggestion…get a big, comfy, overstuffed rocking chair (maybe two?) with padded arms and no gaps on the sides where a dropped bottle might fall out. Then, come to think of that piece of furniture as your bed and the big, flat thing in the bedroom as a vacation villa that you only get to visit every now and then.
I am so happy for you, cantara! I’ve always thought twins rather conveniant (two for the price of one).
May I suggest reading this thread: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=48757 for a list of names you should not name your children, and put in my two sense: Julia and Diana or Elijah and Noah (my favorite names :)).
Also, Leonard, Howard, Harold, Ethel, Martha, Bertha, and Reginald are also bad ideas.
Best of luck!! Keep us updated!! 
Name on of the Osip!
Mega Congrates to you!
Pardon while I seeth in envy.
What wonderful news, cantara~
You have been doubly blest, I think!
(Keep remembering that during those nights when you just get one of them asleep, and the other one starts crying and wakes up the twin, and then both of them are crying, and…well, I know it will ALL be worth it!)
Scotti
Had a whole post all typed up, then Explorer crashed. I’ll hit the highlights.
Tandem strollers good, side-by-side strollers bad.
Disposable diapers good, cloth diiapers bad, especially for parent of twins.
Kanga-rocka-roos good. Feed two kids at once!
Sleep good, but you won’t be getting any. Of anything else you might have previously described as “getting any.”
House guns bad. Get rid of any before you are tempted to use them on yourself.
Thank God you aren’t having triplets.
I can’t babysit for you. Washing my hair that night.
Get a newer one, with dual doors in the back. Godsend. My Voyager only has the one big sliding door, and heaving that kid over the other’s seat is a pain.
Stock up on Sleep, Sex, eating normal meals, and everything else.
I have a boom box that has been on in the kids room since the first one was born. PRM, 20 hours of classics a day.
Dog or Shopvac, your choice.
-
Had an itty-bitty Dodge Colt 2-door hatchback, not van, when the twins were born. Two huge car seats flanking a four-year-old. Nearly destroyed my back getting the kids in and out.
-
My boombox was set on autorepeating Beethoven’s “Pastoral,” AKA "the pony music–see “Fantasia,” for about two years. CD beat flipping the tape every 45 minutes. Expect financial things to be tight for a while. Spend money while you can.
-
Dogs double as security. Shop vacs won’t frighten off strangers. One of the twins was left home sick the other day–they’re much older now–but I felt better about it because she had a phone and a collie.
Thank you all sincerely for the warm wishes and advice…although on the advice of FairyChatMom I am going to ignore it all (except hers…oh, hell, we can use all we can get).
We are really looking forward to this, now that we’ve had a chance to digest the information. Mrs cantara was sitting quietly in the car last night (on the way to second-hand kids clothing store) and suddenly erupted with “We’re having twins!” and chuckled to herself.
This was the first ultrasound and said that they should be able to determine the sex of the kids at the next appointment near the end of the month. I’ll start a “Name the Twins” thread early in the new year (currently our leaders are Matisse and Piper and Ahmed and Buster…hey boys names are tough!).
To keep the two straight (at the start, anyway), I figure I’ll give them each a hand stamp…or maybe tattoo (hey, relax, I’m kidding…do you know how much ink I would go through?)
We haven’t started planning the babies room yet, but will have to start that in earnest soon. The full-term date is June 1, but the info I’ve gleaned from the net so far indicates a twin full-term as about 35 weeks, which puts us at the beginning of May.
Niether of us is particularly fond of minivans, but will have to bite the bullet for the sake of our sanity (geez, I’ll have to start thread about that too…)
TMI follows…
-she’s grown from a B-cup to C already and is not enjoying the change (we both prefer smaller breasts and are hoping that after this experience they will return to their former glory).
-it’s difficult to ‘stock up’ now due to the constant nausea she is having…so we’re looking forward to a quiet 10 minutes in July!<groan>
-
Wife cut off their hospital bracelets as soon as we got them home, then showed me the fold in their left ears that was different. “You’ll have to learn to tell them apart eventually.”
-
July of what year?
Okay, so I’m only the aunt of twins, but I did manage to pick up a few things esp. in the case of identicals:
Always remember twins are not photocopies of a single entity, they are two seperate and distinct creatures each with his or her own personality, likes, and dislikes.
Do not force them to wear ‘cute’ little identical outfits, allow them to be individuals.
Do not go for ‘cute’ rhyming or alliterative names. Tiffy and Tammy or Prancy and Fancy may sound sweetums when they’re 1, but try thinking of grandma Tiffy.
Do not get a puppy until your children are toilet trained - you don’t need the extra work. [Brother and wife were given a puppy as shower gift :rolleyes: ]
Check into discount suplies for parents of multiples.
Just another county heard from.
Missus Coder and I have only 1 kid, Ralf Jr. When he was born, we had a Ford Escort and a Ford Ranger pickup. The car seat was a pain in both vehicles. Later on we got a van, and that was much easier. Now I have a Pontiac Montana minivan with 2 sliding doors. I can’t imagine going back to one with only one door.
Sleep when the kids sleep, never be too proud to take advantage of a free babysitter, and know that you will adjust.
Oh, jeez, I just thought of something… if you’re going to put the kids in daycare…
MAKE THE ARRANGEMENTS NOW.
Find a quality daycare provider now, one that will have openings for 2 kids. Finding an opening for 1 will be hard enough. Finding 2 will be worse.