Products Simplifying Multiple Pregnancy & Parenting

My own triplets just turned 12, but I cease to be amazed by all the helpful new products and services that keep coming out to make the lives of new parents easier. I am particularly enthralled by the apparent creative genius of inventions that continue to roll out to benefit parents with children born close together, and even more important, to help multiple parents who's children were born REALLY close together, usually just a minute or two apart.

Again and again, I think why can't I be the one to come up with these great ideas that help both expectant mothers of multiples as well as parents raising twins, triplets, quads and higher order multiples? After all, when I was pregnant with triplets, as well as after my trio was born I realized I had three newborns but there were only two parents to take care of them all. In fact, during those exhausting Halcyon days (an oxymoron for sure), I thought of plenty of needs that we had as new multiple parents that weren't being met with solutions by any of the products and services available at our local ToysRUs back then.*

*BTW, I'm not sure about now, but between 1997-2000 I think ToysRUs was the BEST place to buy discounted disposable diapers (premie to toddler size) by the case without having to clip $1.50 off coupons during late night feedings to buy the single diaper packages sold in supermarkets. I can even remember the image of the "diaper warehouse" clearly in our garage, where we had boxes of ToysRUs diapers stacked 5 boxes high!

Back on Subject: To give you some perspective of life in the "olden days" with multiples, when my own triplets were born in the mid 1990s our brand new Perego Triple Stroller, custom-built in Italy, was so state of the art. Perego and its multiple stroller competitors have continued to reincarnate that product category many times since, improving upon and fine-tuning the features us multiple parents want and need.

Today, multiple-expectant friends I know either pregnant or in their first three years of child-raising keep telling me about these great new gadgets they're using.

Like the Baby Dipper bowl that doesn't tip over and makes feeding a breeze and the Prenatal Dance Fitness DVD by a Jennifer Jimenez, a Prenatal Fitness Specialist. I certainly could have used Jennifer's DVD when I was pregnant with triplets and ordered to gain 25 pounds PER BABY (3 x 25 = 75 lbs). Of course this fitness program had not been developed yet, but neither were those Baby Dipper Bowls when I was feeding FOUR in high chairs. Did I mention that my surviving twin son was only born a year before my triplets? It certainly would have made me happier and the kitchen floor would have been cleaner!

Last, but not least, we now luckily have the Internet that is readily accessible, even someone who is on bed rest expecting triplets might easily be connected via Wi-Fi. How I wish there had been blogs back in my triplet pregnancy days and immediately after, when my DH and I found ourselves home from the hospital having to learn from the ground up how to manage this multiple blessing!

Everyone takes the Internet for granted today, it seems. But, if I really think about it, it would have been such a relief to join a list of other triplet parents such as the Triplet.TV list I have belonged to since it first went live. That's not to mention the useful websites with information on multiples such as Triplet Connection www.tripletconnectionconventon.com, which puts on an informative and fun annual convention for multiples and their parents. Back in my day, you'd find a multiples club by accident (usually because someone told you about it), but today all you have to do is a Google search for twins & triplets local clubs nearby and you can find West Los Angeles Multiples and even a website by a triplet mom www.Tripletsandus.com, where you can find a LIST of all kinds of other resources to help you navigate through the world of multiples.

And to be able to post to Blogs like this one, as well as all to contribute to the other blogs that I read and and always learn something new from. The Internet and it all it offers today is really great and I still wonder what the world would be like right now without it.

Stay tuned for my next post on which companies have special coupons, free merchandise, and discounts for triplet, quad, and higher order multiples. I hope you'll contribute to my list of sources to help new parents out with this. Also please tell me about the products and services that have made your own lives with multiples easier as I will write about those here, too, on this blog shortly.