Development and Play
Despite the many myths that surround twins your twins are unlikely to reach their milestones at exactly the same time. Sure enough, when one twin begins to talk, crawl or walk the other is bound to copy and follow shortly after but it is doubtful that they will both walk on the very same day at the very same time!
One certainty is your twins will keep you on your toes at every stage of their growth and you will need to be both creative and flexible when facing the challenging role of parenting twins. Just as you leave one difficult phase you will enter another. The relentless feeding demands will slow down and before you have time to reflect, you'll be trying to contain two crawling babies heading in very different directions!
I quickly learned that I needed a soft area on the floor and promptly assembled one in the living room. It consisted of a futon mattress covered with a duvet with lots of pillows all around the edges. I realised that carrying two babies around in my arms all day was impossible and often they would want comforting at the same time so if I couldn't bring them to me I decided I would get down to their level. I could lie between and be close to them both this way. This practice continued through the baby stage and helped when they wanted to sit up and play.
Keeping twins free from accidents is a key issue with parenting them and you will need to find extra ways to manage especially when there is only one pair of hands. Safety gates will go up earlier than normally necessary in order to help keep your twins away from the dangers of the kitchen, bathroom or from the stairs.
Just as they are crawling you will want them to walk to make life a little easier for you and then when they do reach the walking milestone you'll be chasing after two little people who run at every opportunity in different directions!
Of course, all babies/children are different, and your twins may not be so adventurous. If they are the less adventurous type you will still have your hands full with two children at the same developmental stage. If you have older children you may find that your twins appear to develop faster as they have the constant stimulation from the other children and the ability to mimic at every opportunity.
You may read that it is more common for twins than singletons to have speech and language difficulties due to the number of twins that are premature or low birth weights and their parents having less time to attend to them individually helping them to develop their verbal skills.
Both our Fraternal Twins and our Identical Twins have had no problems with developing their verbal skills. In fact, our identical girls who were 5 weeks premature and of low birth weights and had to share attention with their older brother and sister have an extensive vocabulary and are talking in sentences and are only just 2. I believe a big part of this is due to having the older brother and sister and a very busy and noisy household. There is plenty of conversation at all times for them to listen to and always someone for them to play with.
