Why it’s easier having twins as your first children

"No matter what people tell you about having twins, this is the truth," writes Aussie mum Karen for Kidspot.

Our ‘first baby’ turned out to be non-identical twin boys.

When the sonographer told us there were two bouncing babies in my belly, I don’t think I’ve ever been as shocked or as excited about anything in my entire life.

I immediately burst into happy tears!

At that first scan, we were already full of adrenaline and butterflies, so finding out this incredible, mind-boggling news made it extra special and I couldn’t wait to share it with everyone.

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We had no expectations about my pregnancy at that stage. It was a new journey for us and we were just happy to see what unfolded. The news of expecting two babies didn’t faze us – it only increased our excitement about what was to come.

I really do think it was easier having twins as our first children, rather than having a single baby first followed by twins.

When you go from being childless to suddenly having two babies, your life jumps from 0 – 100 km/ph and you have to figure everything out fast. There are a lot of benefits to not knowing what you’re getting into as you don’t know what you don’t know.

Starting with the more challenging experience first means that things get easier when you only have one baby next time round! (Assuming your second pregnancy isn’t another set of twins!)

Source: Supplied

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Here's what I can tell you about being a new mum to twins

There were so many advantages of twins being our first experience of parenthood. Here are a few of them…

Second time around felt so easy!

Having two together first meant that my subsequent singleton pregnancy felt like a walk in the park. I put on over 30 kg with my twin pregnancy, and less than 9 kg with my single baby. That made a huge difference to my ability to stay on my feet. My complication-free second pregnancy was so easy in comparison.

The same follows for raising newborns. Two came with challenges of juggling two babies and their routines and trying to do too many things with one pair of hands. Our single baby after that was easy-peasy! I went from never having enough hands, to having a whole hand free!

Going from zero to two babies is crazy, but you’re already radically changing your life so whether it’s one or two, everything is going to be shaken up anyway. Going from having one baby, to having a second is a challenge, but going from one baby to suddenly having three must feel like a big leap.

(I have so much respect for you if you’re navigating this at the moment - you’ve got this, supermum!)

Two babies to hold

When our babies arrived and we had that novelty of being first-time parents, it meant my husband and I had two babies to hold. We didn’t need to fight over who got more cuddles because we had one baby each! It also meant that when groups of family came to visit, they had two babies to pass around for cuddles so nobody had to miss out.

Karen's twin boys. Source: supplied

Leaving two is easier than leaving one

Having two babies made it easier for me to leave them when I needed to. Knowing they were together when they started kindy, or if they stayed with a babysitter, made it all much easier. They have always got each other, and that is really comforting to know.

Sharing is caring

Having twins meant they could (and still can!) share a lot of things. We’ve always put all of their clothes together in the same drawers. It makes sorting laundry so much easier, especially with school uniforms! It also means we have plenty of hand-me-down toys so our third child has always had plenty to play with.

Having two babies first also meant they were used to us sharing our attention from the beginning, so we didn’t have to navigate an only child getting jealous when another sibling came along.

It helped us be partners

Having twins as our first children forced my husband and I to be a strong partnership, not that we wouldn’t have been anyway but having two babies meant dividing and conquering to get things done. We’ve become an amazing team and are so good at joining forces to get to places on time, get bedtime under control or whatever the challenge of the day might be.

I’m thankful my first baby turned out to be twins

I think I’d have struggled if I’d had my kids the other way around.

Our singleton daughter slept soundly through the night from the first month, she ate everything we gave her and she never ran off as a toddler. It would have been a real shock to the system to go from such a calm baby to having a whirlwind pair of picky-eaters who couldn’t sit still, played tag teams with night waking and who spent their days trying to scale anything and everything in sight. 

I’m so thankful my first pregnancy gave me two babies. Starting our family with two at once meant that everything that came after was so much easier!

Originally published as Why it’s easier having twins as your first children