Five things to do while you’re still pregnant

Here are five things we did before our twins arrived that I highly recommend you do too:

1. Joined MBSA. I joined up a few months before our twins were born and would highly recommend not putting it off until after your twins, triplets or more arrive! Having access to the sales group AND the forum was super helpful in planning, purchasing and preparing. (I also did lots of middle-of-the-night lurking when I was desperate for guidance after they arrived too).
2. Purchased a chest freezer and fully stocked it. We moved house when I was four months pregnant (FYI this is NOT one of my recommendations LOL) and we were lucky enough that we now had room for a small chest freezer. We had a meal prep afternoon one weekend together, and every time someone said, ‘Let me know if there’s anything I can do to help!’ I would ask them to make some meals for our freezer. We ended up with a fully stocked freezer and basically LIVED off it in the first few months. Curries, soups, pasta sauces, rice dishes, frozen waffles and treats. It was a godsend, and a great way to accept help from people.
3. Communicated. This applies AFTER the babies are born too, but I think my husband and I really nailed the preparation. We talked about different scenarios that might occur: What if the girls are in hospital for a long time? How much time will you take off work? What self-care do we need to prioritise? Who will be allowed to visit at the hospital? How could we split the night shifts? I could go on and on. These conversations meant not having to assume or guess whilst in the newborn trenches. He needed time each morning to make and drink a coffee, I needed time every evening to have a shower. If everything else in the day turned upside-down, we would prioritise those two things, and the rest would all be ok somehow.
4. Installed low birth weight (LBW) car seats. I did extensive research and realised we would likely be taking babies home who were under 3kg (as many multiple birth parents do!). When I discovered only a handful of capsules on the market were safe for this size baby, I saw my options were to either buy those from the get-go OR hire them after they were born. I decided the last thing I would want to deal with in the days after giving birth was trying to source LBW car seats and install them- and I was right. Save yourself the headache and get them ready as early as you can. As RAA members, we were able to purchase our desired car seats direct from them cheaper than elsewhere, plus they installed them for free and did ongoing free fit checks. Side note: Our girls were in hospital for two weeks and were less than 2.5kg when we took them home!
5. Make a list of people who offered help. People always say, ‘Let me know if you need anything! Let me know if you need help! You call me after the babies are born if you need groceries! I’ll pop round so you can shower you just let me know! And of course, if your postpartum haze you can barely remember your own name let alone who offered help or what kind of help.

I’m not good at asking for help at the best of times, so while I was pregnant, I made a list in my phone of EVERY person who said those things to me. So, when it was a Thursday night and we had no food left in the house, I would check that list and message one of the people who offered to bring us groceries. When we had a particularly bad night, I would check that list and see who offered to come sit and hold a baby so we could have a nap. I figured, worst case their offer was empty, but our village showed up. Every. Single. Time.

If you are an expectant multiple birth parent, I wish you luck! And welcome to our beautiful community 😊

Lauren is mum to 6.5-month-old twin girls.