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Welcome, Babies!

Preparing Siblings for the Arrival of Twins

By Amy Carey

Pages:  1  2  3  4  

by Margaret O'Hair (Margaret K. McElderry, 2003).

Bringing the Babies Home
The day your babies come home might be overwhelming for everyone – yourself included. Ease the transition by making sure that older siblings have had a chance to see photos of the new babies or visit them in the hospital before you walk through the door.

Rhondda Melton, who lives in Kingsville, Ontario, Canada, gave birth to her babies six weeks before her due date. Since the twins required time in the special care nursery, where siblings were not allowed, she says "the only way [my older children] saw their baby brothers was in pictures and videos we took."

Once Melton was able to bring the boys home, her older children, ages 9 and 6, were already used to the idea that there were two new members in the family. "When [the babies] finally came home, the [older] kids could not stop smiling," she says. "We let them hold and feed them right away, which made [everyone] feel great."

If you're expecting a flood of visitors to parade through the house, remind them to acknowledge your older child before gushing over the new babies. Even better, ask relatives or close friends to take your older children out for a special day trip, suggests Debbie and Lisa Ganz, founders of Twinsworld.com.

It doesn't need to be a trip to the moon; Kesselring knows the little things make all the difference for her older kids. "To make each one of them feel special, we do things like read stories and let a different kid pick the story for the night or they take turns going to the store or we let some of the kids spend the night with Nana and Papa and take the others to do something they really want ... even just [to] McDonald's," she says.

Adjusting to Life With Three (or More)

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