Two under two - what are your tips?

With b2 due in a couple of months, I'd love to hear your tips.
How did you coordinate naps, routines, feeds etc? How did you manage to get out of the house with two kids? Have a shower? Do jobs like the washing, supermarket shopping etc? Entertain a busy toddler?

Thanks!

Mine was a wee bit older than yours. Then first few weeks I refused to leavev the house without DH. That was the hardest as there was only a 2 hr window where I coudl go out.  
I thought it was going to be really hard as I didn't know how DS would be with the baby. He was quite good at entertaining himself so when I was feeding he was ok to just play. Or I'd give him a bowl of bit of fruit and dry cereal, cheese and crackers.
If he was having a feral day I sat him in his highchair while I fed DD.

I grocery shop at night. I shower at night when DH is home. One time I had to shower in the mornign due to a baby poop explosion so I put baby in the bouncer in the bathroom and got in the shower with ds lol he thought it was great.

Can people not do washing with a baby??? I have my laundry in the garage (I/A) and there a washing line in there, an extendable one. When I'm hanging it ouside, and both children are awake, DD goes in the moby and DS just toddles out with us. Its all fenced off so he just runs around. He loves pegs.

Yep, dont stress it does all happen somehow!!

I had 19-20months between my two.

It's really not too bad, the supermarkets have double trolleys and if you go anywhere else you can keep them both contained in a pram!

Feeding - me and baby got really good at mobile feeds!!

cooking dinner etc, I had one of those bouncers (essential if you ask me!!), so I could put it on the bench (watching it full time ofcourse), then DS1 could play without me worrying about the baby.

Hope I dont scare you, but the first year is probably one of the easiest, the new baby stays just were you put it, that's novel!! Although mine are getting easier now, they will play happily for a few hours at a time (some days, other days they will fight every two minutes!!).

Having them close is hard work but wonderful, they end up very close in abilities etc and great friends!!

One suggestion I read is for keeping track of the milestones because you are so often busy you dont have the timeq liqkeq you did with numbe`r ``1` so have a calendar up and mark on the calendar the milestones for either or both so that when you have time you can go back and fill in the baby book

i have 12 months between mine and they are still young but so far its been really easy. mack will play alone really happily on his own so feeds and stuff havent been a problem at all. as long as he has a couple of blocks within reach at least. lol.

i make his lunch at night once the kids are in bed.

i shower at night once both kids are in bed (ive always been a night showerer though)

i always have 1 kid awake at a time cos neither of them are really day sleepers so ive just managed to function. finn sits in a bouncer in front of the window while im doing stuff like washing, study, playing with mack etc..

mack doesnt eat morning or afternoon tea for some reason so snacks dont help much cos he just isnt interested but i have heard from lots of ppl that it can be a life saver.

mack is old enough to feed himself so no issues there.

gettting out of the house isnt hard at all though it can take about 15 mins to get bags packed and kids dressed warm etc.. so leave a wee bit of time. i keep spare nappies, wipes and a spill cloth in the car so if i decide to spontaneously go out all i need to do is grab bottles or food and we can go without much effort or stress. it also saves you from having to have a big bulky nappy bag.

supermarket we do in the weekend and DH comes too but if i have to go during the week i just throw them both in the trolley.

washing, cooking, and so on i just do like normal but we have a safety gate across the arch into the kitchen so mack cant get in and under my feet.

we dont have TV here but maybe you could put the oldest in front of it while you cook dinner or need time out etc...

Take lots of sleeping drugs and an annual solo trip to the Maldives  

lol just kidding SpecialK....this is a great thread cos I'm in the same boat as you!! What were we May Mummies thinking?.....  

Emmecat wrote: Take lots of sleeping drugs and an annual solo trip to the Maldives   lol just kidding SpecialK....this is a great thread cos I'm in the same boat as you!! What were we May Mummies thinking?.....

Lol Karen! Not much thinking here...

Seriously, these have all been great suggestions, thank you.

I've got a bouncer and an ergo and it sounds like I'll be getting a lot of use out of them!

I second everything everyone else has said.  Mine two are 18 months apart and I'm doing it on my own so it must be do-able!  It's a great age gap and these two are already pretty close.  DD's face just lights up when DS walks into the room, and DS is always chatting to his sister and giving her cuddles.  As soon as he hears her waking he is keen to run into her room and talk to her (not always what you want!!).

I would say the double buggy is a fantastic tool - I love mine. 

I don't even attempt to co-ordinate nap times and never have.  DS will still have a 1-2 hour afternoon sleep and so I generally try to be home for that.  Other than that I have always expected my babies to sleep in the buggy if we are out - I just don't make it a full day thing (although DS was always a good sleeper wherever we were).

Involve your older one even though they are still little.  Ollie is quite capable of 'helping' by getting wipes or a toy or something and it makes him feel like he is helping which he loves. He has also started getting one of his chairs out and standing at the bench with me to 'help' make dinner.

I read to them together at bedtime and sometimes bath them together.  If I'm bathing DS and not DD she quite often comes and lies on a towel in the bathroom and just hangs out with us.

If it's a day when we need to be out of the house fairly early I will get up and have a shower before they wake, otherwise we just go with the flow and I wait until DD (the baby is asleep) and leave the door ajar so that Ollie can come and go as he wishes (whoever said they never showered alone anymore, I completely agree with that one

Always have snacks on hand, and a stash of homemade or jarred baby food so that you are never caught short.  I also sometimes have nappies etc in the glove box just in case.

I now try and alternate who goes first and talk to Ollie about it a little so that he understands we are alternating a little - it has only come up for us because I quite often need to put one of them in the car and come back for the other so we talk about it.  I don't know if that's a big deal really - it just came out of a conversation with him so I went with it figuring that it might be good for him to see that it's okay to 'share' being first!

I suspect having two close together is no more difficult to any other age gap - it just brings different challenges but I wouldn't swap it for the world. 

 

oh i have been there a few times lol
the biggest age gap i have between my 4 boys is 23mths.

i found the hardest thing was doing groceries with a toddler to entertain and a baby to keep happy.
none of my babies liked being in the baby seats on the trolleys and they never stayed content enough to just leave in capsule. my slings/wraps were the best solution. if you havent got one already, get one. i wish i had my wrap with all my babies but only had it with my last baby.
out of everything i have for babies that is deff my must have.

i found that after the 1st baby the rest just end up working their own routine around whats already going on.

the hardest part is those 1st few weeks your feeding what feels like non stop, waking a few times a night, constantly trying to get baby to just sleep more than 20mins etc.

deal with one child at a time even if they are both wanting something right now, pick who you will sort out 1st and tune out from the other one, just make sure you dont pick the same one all the time. that would be my hardest point in any day is when im bombarded with "i want" from 4 directions.