Newborn Twin Routines To Help Moms Survive

When my husband and I brought our newborn twins home to our eagerly waiting not-yet-two-year-old, we weren’t sure what to expect. Sure we had been through the infant phase before. But not with TWO babies at the same time.

Before my boys were born, other twin moms had told me to throw out everything I knew of newborn singleton basics. Things like sleeping, eating, and getting out and about, because we were going to be starting fresh.

Those twin moms were spot on. 

We finally got a grip on handling our newborn twins by using set routines. I won’t lie and say it was easy, nothing about having multiples is easy. It also wasn’t always pretty. But, utilizing routines made having newborn twins more reasonable. 

These are the routines that ended up working best for our family. Hopefully, some of these will help you as well.

Newborn Twins Daily Routine

We approached every day with our twins using the “Eat, Activity, Sleep, You” (or E.A.S.Y.) routine, as found in the Secrets of the Baby Whisperer book. Your newborn twins about what to expect in their day. Which is what routines are all about!

My favorite part of this daily routine is that it implements “You” time. Even with newborn twins, I managed to find a snippet of time to take a shower, shove food in my face (and by food, I mean peanut M&Ms because that’s what I lived on the first month of my twins’ lives), and play with my toddler. Or maybe take a nap. 

Another benefit to utilizing the E.A.S.Y. routine was that it helped save a lot of outrageous anger directed toward my husband. He could come home from work or walk in the house at any time and ask, “what step are we on” and be up to speed with what needed to be done in seconds. 

Newborn Twins Feeding Routine

When one twin eats, have the other eat as well (unless, of course, there is a medical issue). At least offer to let the other twin eat when the hungry twin is requesting a snack. Especially during the night. Allowing both the opportunity to eat around the same time will keep mama from being up every hour during those early days.

Newborn Twins Bath Routine

Bath time with newborn and infant twins can be tricky. With safety being the goal, our method involved bathing only one twin at a time. 

Bath time Routine: 

• Set towels and washrags out
• One person bathed the first twin
• Another person prepares bottles and sleep sacks
• Strip twin two down
• Get the first twin out of the bath 
• Get twin two in the bath
• One person takes clean twin for fresh a diaper 
• Repeat with the second twin
• Move to the usual bedtime routine (see below)

If you have to bathe your twins without help, you can use a playmat or bouncer for the twin not being washed. Make sure to have diapers in the bathroom with you to put on the clean twin! 

Newborn Twins Sleep Routine

My top tip for keeping twins on the same sleep routine is don’t let one twin sleep more than 30 minutes longer than the other twin (unless there is a medical issue). The below routine is what we did for naps (sans lotion) and bedtime.

Bedtime Routine (for naps and nighttime): 

• Turn white noise machine on
• Feed the babies their bottles
• Change diapers
• Calming lotion massage
• Put babies in sleep sacks
• Lights out
• Rock babies
• Sing a nighttime tune
• Put babes in their cribs

Routine for Getting Newborn Twins Out of the House

Getting out of the house with two newborns is not an easy feat. I had a mental checklist of things to do before I attempted to get out of the house. Being on our daily E.A.S.Y. routine made it a little bit more manageable to schedule appointments and activities around feeding and naps.

“Getting Out” Routine: 

• Check diaper bag for supplies (diapers, wipes, burp rag, formula, bottles, spare clothes for two babies, toddler snacks/drinks and activities, wallet, keys, water)
• Get diaper bag and other items in the car
• Load stroller and stroller gear into the car
• Start car if needed
• Get babies loaded into car seats inside
• Get my toddler buckled into her car seat
• Get babies and get them into the car 

After a few months of operating on a routine with your twins, you will find life starts to get more manageable. Your twins will begin to know which step they’re on, everyone knows what to expect in their day (for the most part), and you will start to thrive, mama.