2 story house/infant twins

Aurora1181

Hi, everyone! I've been lurking for awhile, but thought I would officially say hello! We're expecting twins this fall. These will be our first children.

We have a two story house- all bedrooms and two full bathrooms are upstairs, kitchen and living room downstairs. I'm totally scared for how the first couple weeks will work, and I'm having trouble imagining the logistics of it all. What kinds of things do you think we might want to have BOTH upstairs and down? The nursery will be upstairs and have the "official" changing table, but will we need something for downstairs too (maybe just baskets of supplies?) Maybe a little mini fridge for upstairs? Ideas? Thank you ladies! I admire all of you.

ballygirl

It definitely helps us to have a changing table downstairs.  I think we probably use it more than the one in the nursery.  We end up spending most of our time downstairs in the living room rather than the nursery.  We have the baby swings there and play mats and bouncy seats.  I find most days I just sit in that one room and move the babies around from one 'station' to another and only bring them upstairs to the nursery for nap time and bedtime. 

 

 

pillowass

We also ended up buying a cheap changing table for downstairs. Near my spot on the couch I kept a basket of blankets/burp cloths, a small garbage can, and a laundry basket. Rock n plays are light weight and can be moved between floors pretty easily. The other thing that was great during those first few months was a tray that I could set on the couch next to me so that I could reach my food/coffee/water bottle/phone/remote control, etc. when I was trapped under feeding or sleeping babies and I literally could not lean forward to reach the coffee table without upsetting them.

TheDairyQueenx3

Pack n play with changing table is what we have downstairs and if you are breast feeding a mini fridge upstairs would be nice if you had a section. Otherwise I haven't found it to be inconvenient yet. Congrats!

Rachiemoo

For downstairs we use a pack n play with the changing table attached to it, I use the actual pack n play as a storage area for diapers, wipes, burp cloths, diaper cream, change of clothing, etc and then the changing table is right there so it is very handy.  This is the one we have: https://www.amazon.com/Graco-Pack-Play-Bassinet-Playard/dp/B002TUTP96/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&qid=1395358538&sr=8-14&keywords=Graco+Pack+N+Play+Bassinet+Changing+Table

I didn't find we needed to worry about having two of anything else besides that.

mer313131

Thank you for this thread! We have the exact same house setup and I was worried about the same thing!

lc&jw

ballygirl said:

It definitely helps us to have a changing table downstairs.  I think we probably use it more than the one in the nursery.  We end up spending most of our time downstairs in the living room rather than the nursery.  We have the baby swings there and play mats and bouncy seats.  I find most days I just sit in that one room and move the babies around from one 'station' to another and only bring them upstairs to the nursery for nap time and bedtime. 

 

 

This was my experience as well. Our downstairs changing table was part of our pack and play. We still use it now at 13 months.

I do remember that I spend a fair bit of time upstairs during the first 2 weeks as I was learning to breastfeed because it was easy to spread out on my bed with the kids. After that we spent most of our time downstairs.

seawater

Agree with everyone else.  

Wherever you plan on spending a good amount of time with the babies I'd have: spot for diaper changes/supplies, a stash of burp clothes, change of clothes or two, and somewhere to put the babies when you need your hands free to run to the bathroom or start dinner  (either bouncy seat, rock-n-play, swing, boppy, or etc).  

Are you planning on BF, FF or a little of both?  Also, will the babies be sleeping in your room in the beginning or the nursery?  That's the part that will take the most trail and error to figure out.  You'll spend so much time feeding them that you'll have to decide what's easiest for you (especially overnight).  For us, that meant setting up camp in the living room.  You do what you gotta do in the beginning to get the most sleep possible (for you and babies).  It's definitely survivor mode mentality.  We're still sleeping in the living room.  Ideal?  No, but it works for us.

And try not to get too overwhelmed.  It'll be crazy in the beginning, but it'll be so good too.  You'll figure out what works for your little ones once they are here.  Congrats and good luck!!

southerncharm24

We have a changing table in the living room.we have diapers, blankets, burp clothes and spare clothes on the shelves below. Best investment for us to have these item close.

https://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/10223514/ this is our table

ppants

We had a changing table on the main floor and kept all the bottles in the fridge on the main floor also.  When a baby woke up in the night, we'd take the kid downstairs and warm up and bottle, change them, and feed them.  They head back upstairs and put baby in crib.  We kept the light on over the stove so we had some light but no too much as to wake the kids up further.

shaunah816

The boys didn't sleep in their nursery until 8 weeks, and even now they still rarely play in there, so most of our supplies have always lived on the first floor in the main living areas. We used a PNP with a changing table attachment, and that was a serious lifesaver for the living room. We used that for 95% of the changes. We kept a mini fridge in our bedroom so that we could pre-make bottles and not have to go downstairs to get anything for those middle-of-the-night feeds, and that was also a lifesaver. My boys always took cold bottles, so we never had to worry about warming them up.

Every day I'd make sure to bring downstairs my pump, pacifiers, and any breastfeeding supplies. We kept a stash of clean clothes and swaddles in the living room PNP.

daisy19782011

We have most "play" stuff in our living room---boppy pillows, play mats (for later), pack n play, swing, rock n plays (these moved around with us). Like a PP said, most of the time, we were in the living room or our room, but our room is downstairs. We changed diapers on the coffee table! haha...on a towel It works.

oughtonk

Our plan is to have a changing station (primarily supplies, I hardly used a changing table with DS) on every floor of our house, 3 total (office is in the basement).  I think we will be on the main level majority of the time other than at night so the plan is to keep majority of stuff in the living room.

Thanks for posting this! It was great to hear what other ladies have done, I've been thinking about the logistics as well.  

TobieRose

Congratulations! 

We started out with a changing table downstairs, now it's a pack-n-play with a changing-station attachment. Inside the pack-in-play itself I keep burp cloths and extra diapers and wipes. Our house is a split-level so we only have half a flight of steps to their bedrooms, so eventually (once they're on more of a schedule, hopefully in a month or two) I figure we'll get rid of the pack-n-play and I'll get some exercise by going up the steps to change them.  

We also have a changing table in our room because while they start out the night in the cribs they usually wake up in our bed by morning!

We also keep the bouncy chairs/swings downstairs. 

Wishing35

The first week home we camped out in the family room so I would only do the stairs once for a shower, that was so much easier on me. We keep supplies for changing diapers, bibs and onsies downstairs in a basket. We also have a diaper pail both in the nursery and the downstairs bathroom. We have safe spots to park them in most rooms, excersaucers in the family room, high chairs in the kitchen and bouncy seats in the living room. I still wind up going up and down a lot during the day for naps etc but it's not so bad. I forgot to add we ff and in the beginning I had a tray where I would make up all their night bottles with powder measured out and had a bottle of water I kept it on my nightstand. This way I would just pour the water in and shake, didn't have to go up and down in the middle of the night and they didn't mind room temperature bottles.

HeavenBlessedMom

Def need some of each things on each floor.  We divide our time between all 3 floors..the lower level, 1st, and 2nd floor.  Have a changing station or two on each floor, bouncers/swings on each, and supplies on each floor.  Will do the same night time prep when the triplets come home as we did with DD...all nighttime bottles prepared in the evening and taken up in a soft cooler, to be warmed in bottle warmers upstairs.

twinmom1121

The only thing we really needed to have downstairs was an extra changing space with diapers and wipes. The first couple weeks we stayed downstairs for most of the day and headed upstairs for bedtime. Now at 4 months we are upstairs until about 12 or 1 and then hang out downstairs until bedtime, playing in swings and bouncy seats, etc. I was worried at first too about our 2 story house but its really not too bad.

mmhopeful

Thanks for posting this!  I, too, will be in the same boat!    I hope to have a changing station downstairs too.  My husband already kept a mini-fridge in our bedroom for our IF meds, so it will work out well to utilize it again.  

rn8

I have a 2 story house and had a changing area (I use the top of a dining room cabinet thing with a changing pad) for the downstairs.  It was a total lifesaver.  I ended up with the double whammy delivery and shouldn't have been doing the stairs as much as I did, I can't imagine if I had to go upstairs for diaper changes.  I think the top of a  pack and play is fine to use in the beginning, but I think the weight limit is usually around 15lbs so it might not be a great long term solution.  My twins are almost 2 and we still use the downstairs changing area, more than the nursery one.  I like to keep them within eyesight,...I did not go crazy with baby gear and this was one purchase that I think was totally necessary.

I had 2 swings and 2 bouncy chairs.  I put 1 swing and 1 bouncy in our room and the other set in the living room.  We were pretty housebound the whole summer after they were born.  I couldn't drive or lift their carseats into the stroller for the first month and July 2012 was one of the hottest in history in our area.  So, it was nice to be able to escape upstairs for a change of scenery for me during the day.  If you already have a little fridge, then yes I would totally keep it in your room.  Whether you use it for formula or to keep you hydrated for nursing, it totally beats walking downstairs at 2am.

Felicity86

Honestly, until my twins started crawling, we spent 90% of our time upstairs (unless we were out of the house, of course). I set up a formula mixing/bottle washing area in the spare bathroom upstairs. I'd also keep their car seats upstairs. When we were heading out i'd strap them in upstairs and then carry them down in their seats one at a time. Now that they're walking, if they're home and awake, they're downstairs