We have a few products that we loved during the first year of living with triplets, and many many more that I don’t remember but know would be useful to share! Some of the items listed below made our lives easier, during a stage when cooking dinner, or sitting down on the couch even, was a distant thought and priority to managing the many baby tasks. I hope these make your lives easier, faster and smoother and are very useful during an incredibly busy stage of life!
We will continue to add new content of useful items/products as we discover them! #tripletlife
Oversized sofa chair in the nursery – Out of all the things we bought in preparation for babies, we value the purchase of an oversized chair for the nursery as one of the most helpful and most used things. The chair we bought from a local furniture store is smaller than a loveseat, but able to easily fit two adults and is comfortable. Over the past four years, this chair was used consistently each day for baby feeds, snuggling, pumping, sleeping/napping, and everything in between. As the girls matured, they sit and read books on it, cuddle or arrange stuffies on it, and run to it when they are upset and need a little space from their siblings. It is still in the corner of their bedroom in all its glory, over five years later! It helps with those “awake at 2 AM” moments that happen more often than preferred. We highly recommend if it will fit into your babies’ room; it has been a lifesaver.
Lalabu Baby Wearing Shirts – One of Craig’s favorite finds is a baby-wearing “dad shirt.” This awesome shirt allows dads to carry one baby and can be ordered straight from the Lalabu website or on Amazon. It is made of a heavy spandex material and can hold an infant 7-15 pounds. The greatest thing about these shirts?! They are SO easy- no straps, clips, buckles or knots. Just slide the baby into the pouch, cinch if you need to help hold up their head, and go about your day, all the while snuggling with your little one and freeing up your hands! Because the girls were premature, we fit into the weight range for quite a long time and Craig was able to use them for walks, to prepare dinner, and to just snuggle in general.
I even tried one out so we could walk with a friend and no stroller, the Soothe Shirt for Moms. Unfortunately it didn’t want to go over my postpartum bust…so make sure to size up if you plan on buying one for after the kids arrive! Or just insist Dad has to carry them around for you…
Here we are carrying all three in Lalabu Simply Babywearing shirts thanks to help from a friend. Going on walks around the neighborhood, with the dogs in tow, was so much easier this way when the girls were small. Because we had preemie babies, we used these shirts for several months before the girls outgrew them. We highly recommend; they make life easier and more efficient. So much of our day is filled with clean up and preparing for the next part of the day; these shirts give you the time and hands to wash bottles, fold laundry or go for a walk. 🙂
These great shirts can be purchased at https://www.lalabu.com/. Don’t forget to keep an eye out for sales!
A fantastic website and app to check out for all parents, but also for very tired and worn out multiples parents, is The Wonder Weeks. This tool shares all your child’s development milestones, called “leaps,” and shares when you can anticipate sleep regression or other developmental attitudes changes, and so much more. I was not convinced an app could be so accurate until I actually used it.
Pro tip: if your kiddos are premature, make sure to correctly calculate their age based on the guidance. In other words, if your kiddos are born at 33 weeks like we were, their mental development is based on that timeline, not what would have been their 40 week due date. This makes a big difference and by the toddler years, the difference will no longer be an issue.
Teething Toys – As the girls start teething, we’ve discovered a few toys that they like a lot more than others. Every baby is different, and each one takes to a different thing most of the time. Now that all three are drooling and teething (at six months old), everyone seems to like several certain ones.
The banana or “Nuby Nananubs Banana Massaging Toothbrush”: the girls absolutely love it and quickly picked up how to hold it and chew all sides of it. We have 3 of them!
These teethers can also be put in the freezer for additional relief, although they don’t stay cold for very long once given to the kiddos. They are available at most stores (Walmart, Target, etc.) or on Amazon at: Banana Teether
The “RaZ-Berry” teether: this one mimics the look of a pacifier but is also a teether. I just ordered several more in different colors! This is the first toy that the girls will roll on their side and reach for, and put into their mouths without assistance (which they don’t do on their pacifiers very often yet!). The bumps on the “raspberry” help with fussiness and they can chew on it for a while.
Available at most stores or on Amazon at: RaZ-Berry Teether
Activity Time
Jumperoos – My favorite development stage in the first year related to baby jumpers. Now some people say these are bad for kiddos to use, but that can be said for anything. We loved them and they were immensely useful in containing the girls once they started crawling. Not to mention…they LOVED playing in them. Of the three, one kiddo hated it at first and took her time to ease into it- by the time they aged out of the toy, she had fully committed to the idea and was all smiles and giggles.
One thing to keep an eye on- ensure your kiddo is not on their tiptoes the whole time. One of the reasons folks dislike jumpers is it can teach kiddos to walk on their toes instead of flat footed. We had a bit of this, but worked with each baby to jump flat footed and after a few times they were good to go.
Our favorite jumper of the three is the Fisher Price Rainforest Jumperoo. It was by far the girls’ favorite one and used for hours over a couple of months. So much happiness and giggles!
We ended up purchasing three different jumper styles from other local parents. One activity center was not liked, and went back in rotation. We rotated the girls around the different styles to keep them interested and give the parents a few minutes without all three moving about the play area. Watching them jump and laugh and smile is still one of my favorite baby moments.
Fisher Price Little Superstar Step ‘n Play Piano –
In addition to jumpers, we found a piano activity center that remained popular by demand well past their first birthday. There are many variations to this type of toy, and while it takes up a lot of space in a room, that allowed for several babies to use it at the same time, on different sides. I especially liked the piano because one baby could be in the seat while the other two practiced and learned to pull themselves up on the outside of it, and eventually all three played on it regardless of sitting in the seat or not. Downside? It takes up a ton of space, especially if there are already three jumpers in the room, and makes a lot of musical sounds. Other than that, we kept this toy in rotation for quite a while!
All Things Food Time!
When it comes to feeding time, bibs are a must. As the girls grow, they discover it is fun to pull off their sisters’ bibs, or their own, right in the middle of a meal. To remedy this, we found the Aden by Aden muslin bibs have snaps, and the girls can’t pull them off. Did I mention they are soft, cute, and come in a variety of styles and a three pack!? You can find them here.
Another multiple family necessity is the Triplet Feeding Table (real title is the Kid’s 4 Piece Activity Table and Chair Set). This table is sold in a few places, but we found that Wayfair (here!) had the best option of shipping to Alaska. The table boasts three forward-facing seats in a variety of colors, is light weight, and can be adjusted in height between 19″ and 27″. The seats easily pop out for cleaning and fits kids up to 30 pounds (at at year we are only at 20 so we will use it a while longer!). It not only decreased feeding times, but is also a great spot to put the kiddos when you need free hands for a moment. As the girls get older, we will start doing arts and crafts and other non-food related things here too. This table is a game changer!!
Sleepy Time
Sleep Sacks – We are a sleep sack family…with the help of sleep sacks, the girls (mostly) slept through the night the first eight months home from the NICU. This greatly resulted from several different sleep sacks. Halo sleep sacks (available on Amazon) are incredible at stopping preemie babies from startling throughout the night. As the girls grew, we matured out of them and let their arms free, using arm free ones from J.C. Penney’s (here!) that are a bit cheaper than the Halo brand. They have some pretty cute patterns and colors for babies. For those cold winter nights, we used the Carters micro fleece sleeping bags to keep the girls nice and toasty while letting them wiggle their arms as much as they wanted. Unfortunately these only go up to about a year in size, or we would still be using them. Lighter weight muslin ones are great as they continue to grow.
Wyze Cams – These cameras are AMAZING. In addition to being very well priced ($25.00 each on Amazon), using multiple cameras at the same time is not only easy, but extremely helpful when trying to quickly ascertain which baby is fussing in the dark. The quality is fantastic in both the light and the dark, and you can record or time-lapse as well to track sleep habits or funny interactions between the kiddos. We replayed the 7.2 earthquake we had in 2018 and it was pretty cool (or also terrifying) to replay. The cameras also attach to the wall by magnet, or you can purchase ones that swivel. We have both and have adjusted them several times as the girls have grown; and have the cords stapled tightly to the wall to keep small hands from ripping them down.
Getting Out and About!
Portable Playpen – Another very useful purchase for managing three small, and very speedy toddlers, is a portable playpen. We purchased this one off of Amazon. This 8 panel, fold up playpen is easy to haul, lightweight to carry, and keeps the kids contained whether you are out in the yard, at the park by yourself, or in your own living room. The model we purchased is available here. I could take them solo to the park and push a stroller with all three and this laid across the top. It fits great in the trunk with the stroller as well.
For you triplet parents…make sure to order the 8-panel one, not the 6-panel. It provides more room for the kiddos to play, especially when there are three of them, and lasts a little longer to use as they grow! Once the girls started trying to climb out of it, we retired it and moved on to finding new ways to teach containment.
Lightweight stroller – One thing we’ve learned post children is how many strollers you collect over the first year! We have at least five now, with all intended for different purposes. The double stroller fits our Chico infant car seats, with the third kiddo getting clipped to the handle when going somewhere solo.
The Zoe XL3 Triple Stroller is another game changer. Not only is it extremely lightweight, but it easily folds up into the trunk or at the gate before boarding an airplane. It continues to be heavier to push as the girls grow, but overall is very useful. The Zoe was new when we found the site and ordered one, and it worked great for our needs. It swiftly converts to a double stroller and came with a double bar across if the third seat wasn’t needed for an event.
Our biggest complaint on this stroller is the durability of the wheels. They are definitely intended only for smooth surfaces (like pavement), and do not work well on rock pathways or uneven dirt. Hopefully this will be remedied with a tougher wheel type at some point.
You can find the triple stroller here and the company does sell an option for a quad. They also resell returned ones for cheaper, and there are often big sales too. Did I also mention it comes in multiple color options? I really liked the teal, even though we have three girls.
If you are an outdoorsy family like we are, the double Chariots are where it’s at for all things outdoor. Not only are they very easy to push, but they have a rain cover, a mesh bug cover, lots of storage, and take minimal effort to push. We have two of them since they sadly do not make a triple one (yet!!). The Chariots also have ski and bike attachments that are easy to use and two wheel options. Biggest downside is their size if heading somewhere in your vehicle; we predominantly used them for neighborhood walks through the trail by our house, or to pull behind bikes for a ride around.
Portable Travel Booster Seats – As we started to do more activities once the girls were walking, we found portable boosters that provided containment when needed, especially for park visits to settle everyone for a snack or lunch. A great example that we used is found here on Amazon. The chairs come in small bags that easily fit under the stroller and we used these for restaurant visits too, especially places that might not have three available seats. The seats have a removal tray and leg straps.
And much much more!
The Douglets 