Monday, September 9, 2013

Week 32

No news from SCI, but a few random thoughts in my head to share. Have been quite busy with the remaining preparations. Most of the shopping for the major baby items are done. Still need to pick up a few smaller things. I have to say the hardest decision was buying a double stroller. As other parents can attest, you would need at least two sets of car seats and two sets of strollers for babies throughout their childhood. The choices for double strollers get limited and can get expensive compared to single strollers.  After lots of research and visiting baby stores, we finally decided to start with a simple "Universal Baby Trend Snap N Go" stroller, where you can easily snap two infant car seats into it. Hopefully after a few months when we don't need to snap car seats into the stroller, we will buy them a double stroller (hopefully City Select or City Mini). Funny how these days I turn my head on streets when I see strollers, not only to check out the stroller, but also the babies inside! :)

In past few months we have got many great advice from parents from all walks of life. Interestingly we find many contradictions. What works for one parent may not work for another. For example, our neighbor keeps swearing the diaper genie is a must-have, whereas I hear from others it's waste of money! At the end of the day we have to assess each item to see if we really need it. We tend to lean towards the advice of other twin parents, specially those in NYC because they share similar challenges.  In past few months our good friend Stacey, an SCI mom, has been so helpful with her advice on so many things including stroller and car seats. I have relied quite bit on her because she has twins via surrogacy, and they live in a small apartment like ours.

Since we live in a two-bedroom small apartment in Brooklyn, at this point we are only buying things for newborns / infants below 6 months. For examples, we are starting with a mini crib and will eventually buy two cribs once the babies get bigger. That should give us time to make room and do the research and also knowing the gender will be helpful in making decisions later on. Definitely raising kids in a big city like NYC is quite challenging as space is limited. I love this storage ad that I recently saw in Manhattan:


Last week my sister and her family visited us from California (the Bay Area), and it was so wonderful spending time with my nephew and niece one last time before becoming parents. Those kids have been a major reason for us to pursue parenthood, and we would always love them and cherish the relationship we have with them even after we have our own kids, although I know we won't have as much time for them as we used to.  This weekend my sister surprised us by announcing that she's expecting her third baby in January! So I am thrilled our twins will have a cousin their age to play with :) My sister and I are only 16 months apart so growing up we were very close like twins. So in a way it's nice to have kids in the same age so we can share the experience. We were joking that once we all get together next year, people might think our kids are triplets! :) Interestingly we have about 7 friends from various cities that are pregnant within few months of us. This is in addition to all the friends expecting via surrogacy. So we should have plenty of support as we go through this journey.

Our next scan is due in 10 days. Time is flying fast. We are now focusing on buying a car, hotel and airline reservation. October 11 is supposed to be my last day at work.  Have a great September everyone.

8 comments:

  1. Congrats on becoming an uncle again! It's such an exciting time, isn't it? Everywhere I look, I see babies as well! Who knows, we may cross paths in Delhi!

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    1. Thanks Ben. Would be wonderful to see you guys in Delhi and hang out :)

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  2. Thanks for the shout out guys! You are almost ready, so excited for both of you.

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    1. Thank you for all your support from the very beginning.

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  3. We have the same double stroller for our twin babies and are pleased overall. Be aware that they recently changed the design from snapping onto an adjustable bar to fit most car seats. Car seats are now secured onto the frame using a strap that "snaps" across the bottom of the seat to prevent it from falling out. It is not too much extra trouble and it is easier to visualize that the seat is properly secured than the old method. The frame folds nice and compact for your apartment. Just be careful collapsing it. Until I got used to it, I pinched my fingers a couple times between the folding metal bars.

    Congrats on your upcoming arrivals!

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    1. Thank you guys. Wow, you have two sets of twins! So cool :) We haven't even open our box to check out the stroller. I wonder if it has the new design you mentioned here.

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  4. Happy to offer some first hand experience with twin tested products. I agree with you on the twins sleeping in the same crib for the time being. It is really not necessary to split them up until after they get bigger and start breaking out of their swaddle or rolling. If it helps to defer crib purchases until after birth, Graco makes a pack n' play that has double bassinets on top in a gender neutral pattern called "Vance." I got it on Amazon for under $200 and the little ones slept in it for the first two months before we bought cribs. And now that they are graduating to cribs, the bassinets come out and it remains useful as a regular playpen for one of them to hang out in when they get older.

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