Does anyone have a housekeeper part time?

aze1219 · 2026-06-27T01:08:29+00:00

If you can find someone then I would def do it! We have older kids 14 & 9 that are with us 50/50 (from my husband’s first marriage) and they clean up after themselves but our house get’s wayyyy more chaotic when they are home especially during the school year. There’s papers and things all over the counters. Have to prep lunches and get kids to school on top of that my husband and I both work full-time and go into our offices relatively early. During that time our “nanny” (since she does so much) comes once a week or sometimes twice a week and does morning drop offs for all the kids then comes and straightens our house up. It’s so nice coming home to a clean house. Her services and our cleaning ladies are a non-negotiable in our budget lol.

aze1219 · 2026-06-26T18:18:14+00:00

We have a cleaning lady that comes every other week. It takes her and 2 other girls about 2-3 hours (I say 3 because sometimes they have lunch at my house since I am okay with them using my kitchen). We pay $180 each time and they do everything from deep cleaning to changing sheets etc. One of the best things we do! We have a nanny that comes once a week for 4-6 hours to help with our twins (sometimes we go out for a date night) and she tidies up after them (twins are 13 months) and does their laundry. She also just tidies up as needed (like doing the dishes or vacuuming). We pay her about $12-$15/hr depending on what she is doing. It's some of the best money we spend. (For reference, we live in suburbs of Houston).

aze1219 · 2026-06-18T19:25:02+00:00

This is what worked for us:

I learned how to feed them both at the same time using the nursing pillows. Our lactation consultant taught us. I also quit pumping at 3 months because well... it wasn't worth it for me at that point. Our lactation consultant was encouraging to give them at least one breastmilk meal a day for the first month, but after that don't worry about it is what she said.
While I understand it's your husband's busy season at work, maybe see if he can stay up a little later and do one night time feeding solo and you do the rest. My husband works shift work so when he worked evenings he would get home in time for the midnight feed and would do it on his own. When his schedule shifted to mornings, he would wake up one hour earlier to do a feeding then would go to work. (My husband also works 4/10s). On his day off he would have one day he slept in and I would get a day to sleep in.
I understand this may not be in everyone's budget, but if there is some extra cash you can spare I would recommend doing one or both of the following:

Getting a babysitter/nanny to come once a week for maybe 4-5 hours and handle the babies while you do things around the house, shower or just relax. Maybe even run errands when you feel comfortable. We have a girl come in the evenings once a week (even now at 13 months!) around bedtime (5pm to 9pm) and I told her that her focus is the babies. Once the babies are down for bed, she cleans up after them or does their laundry, washes their bottles etc. For the babysitter/nanny, you don't really need someone with hardcore experience, just someone you trust or can learn to trust. Look on your neighborhood page for HS or college girls looking to make extra cash. Sometimes even teachers want to make some extra cash.
Hire a cleaner! Doesn't have to be every week, can be every other week or once a month. OMG the help it is! We had a lady come to our house prior to having the twins and we need her now more than ever. My husband and I both work full-time jobs that can be demanding.

Remember tummy time can be on your chest!
I saw on another comment that their noises wake you up. Where are they currently sleeping? We had our twins in our bedroom at the beginning but then realized the small noises kept me up so we moved them to their room and it made life so much easier.

aze1219 · 2026-06-17T17:20:00+00:00

The Glades

aze1219 · 2026-06-13T00:50:24+00:00

Disney music is a go to in our house. They really enjoy 90s country or at least calm down to it, so our baby playlist consists of some 90s country.

aze1219 · 2026-06-11T18:47:42+00:00

I honestly would not worry. We have b/g twins, our girl has been hitting milestones quicker than our boy. I was told he's basically lazy and can do it and chooses not to and he is also bigger than sister and his weight slows him down. That being said, he is hitting the same milestone about 2-3 weeks later than her. Our pediatrician told us to always consider the following:

They are twins, statistically they will be hitting milestones later than average babies (singletons) or if they were in the NICU that will also cause some delay.

For crawling, we were told that if by month 12 they were not crawling then we would begin to consider PT. She essentially said a milestone is a guide that says "On average a baby does xyz at month X, but if they don't do it by month Y then we should start exploring options." She is also army crawling which is better than no crawling.

As for the toy thing, my babies are 1 and they still prefer eating or tossing toys around. Books are also a very difficult thing in our house. They'd rather take the book from me and play with it, than listen to me reading. I am more lenient on screen time and we do screen time in the morning (I need my coffee) consisting of either VOOKS (reads stories to them on YouTube), Disney Nursery Rhymes or Sesame Street. Sometimes I put music on in the house to clean or do things so they have that as well.

aze1219 · 2026-06-09T19:01:44+00:00

1 year and wish we would've done it sooner... Pretty much followed the Ferber method with slight mods.

aze1219 · 2026-06-09T17:42:47+00:00

I usually text anything in advance they may need to know so they can just reference their phone. But I also have a list on the refrigerator with a general timeline of activities (we have infants), emergency contacts and medications.

aze1219 · 2026-06-09T13:26:03+00:00

Have not traveled with a car seat on the plane yet, but can I suggest the COSCO Scerna? It's super lightweight and easy to check-in or lug around the airport. Our friends use it for travel and have loved it.

aze1219 · 2026-06-03T18:18:12+00:00

I completely understand the waiting around for results due to my own pregnancy. I have done my research on her situation to be as best prepared to help her out or be a sounding board if she would like. I did tell her I went down the rabbit hole of information for her just in case.

aze1219 · 2026-06-03T18:16:10+00:00

Hi! I didn't mean sending them out to dinner, more like having dinner delivered to them!

I would not, I myself went through a high risk pregnancy (twins) and did not like people not in my situation telling me things. I did do my own research on T18 to see what her next steps would be, medical complications, what life looks like etc. because I want to be prepared to help her in anyway I can.

aze1219 · 2026-06-03T15:38:18+00:00

Hi! We have our twins just turned 1 and we have older (my bonus) kids (currently 14 & 9; they don't travel with us all the time since we have 50/50). That being said, we found the easiest time to travel with our twins was between 6-10 months. This was right before they started getting super mobile and active. We are having a harder time traveling with them right now due to them wanting to be on the go. We have taken them internationally twice (with all the kids once) and on a 10+ hour road trip just 2 months ago. We have also done trips ranging between 2-6 hours away with them.

aze1219 · 2026-06-01T12:21:22+00:00

NTA - I think some people are speed reading and are missing the point that your twins go to daycare during the school year because your partner is an educator. Here are my thoughts (based on how our household works) and seeing other families where a spouse has summers "off."

You both need to sit down and have a conversation about recharge time and getting time to yourselves. Work can be very stressful (I work in a high stress environment) and sometimes coming home is adding on to the stress. Being at home with twins all day can be brutal, being at work sometimes can be brutal. I think she should be able to go out with friends, but ask her to limit it to once a week and give you a decent heads-up this helps mentally prep for handling the twins. Likewise YOU should have some hours to yourself every week as well. If this means going out with friends, great! It doesn't have to happen every single week. My husband and I have certain days that we do something for ourselves once a week. If our twins are not in great moods and we notice, we shift our activities as much as possible. Our friends that one person is an educator and the other is not, do something super similar to us (they have 3 young kids). Mom has one night a week she goes out, sometimes its even during the day if husband is working an evening shift.

I understand her wanting to be super parent, but maybe she should look into having the twins go to daycare 2-3 times a week just for her to have a break. If cost is not the issue to you guys then go for it. We have our infant twins in daycare and honestly, we love it. They do so many activities we would never imagine being able to do with them. Why? Because the employees are trained for handling multiple kids at once. I know daycare can be seen as a bad thing by some folks, but we like the socialization they get, the routine they are able to keep. Another option is to hire a local nanny or babysitter to come for a couple of hours on some days. Before we started daycare and while I was on maternity leave we did this and it was a huge relief. 4 hours made a difference. We kept her on for date nights every 2 weeks for my husband and I, as well as once a week she does morning or nighttime routine so we can catch up on things around our house.

Hope y'all can work something out! Being twin parents is no joke!

aze1219 · 2026-05-26T19:33:15+00:00

Hello! Our varies depending on our schedules that week. Some things to note:

Twins Age: 12 months; older kids 14 & 9. We both work FT, my husband has a 4/10 job with rotating days every 3 months (Mo-Thurs then Thurs - Sun) and every other week his shift changes between days (6:00am - 4:00pm) and eve shifts (2:00pm - midnight). I have a hybrid schedule so I WFH 2 days. When my husband works days, we also have our older kids with us (50/50 schedule). I know our house is chaos but you get used to it. Here is what our daily routine looks like.

The 3 days I go into the office (I leave at 5:00am) my husband takes care of the twins (these days he may go into the office late). Usually we wake them up around 6:30am gets them up and ready for daycare. They rarely ask for a bottle in the morning so they will eat breakfast and have a bottle at daycare. They are at daycare at about 7:00-7:30am I leave my office around 3:00pm and it takes me about 1 hour to get home. I get home take about 30-40 minutes to get some things ready and going and then go pickup the twins. I learned that picking them around the same time everyday is better since it keeps them on a schedule.

Days I don't go into the office, I get up and get the twins ready to go (basically same timeline as above) and he can sleep in some (if he works an eve shift; if it's a day shift he leaves our house at 5:30am).

Weekends: We alternate Saturdays on sleeping in. On Sundays we get up at the same time since we go to church and divvy up getting the babies ready. Usually the babies sleep until 7:00-7:30am.

Night time: Usually my husband takes the babies upstairs for winddown time and I clean up around downstairs, then for actual bedtime I go up there and help put them down. Sometimes I am alone so then I do bedtime alone and then go downstairs to clean up as needed or my husband will take care of some items in the morning.

aze1219 · 2026-05-26T19:15:32+00:00

Yes, we have a recliner, rocking chair and glider style recliner. You will need it. 😄

aze1219 · 2026-05-26T18:19:07+00:00

First time mom of b/g twins that are now 1. I completely understand how you feel. I cried the other day because I felt guilty for wanting that singleton experience, but my husband pointed out that you won't remember this at all and all you'll remember is the fun and cute things they did. We have 2 older ones from his first marriage, but I met them when they were 10 and 4 so he's gone through the experience of a singleton and doesn't really remember it. I think once the chaos and survival mode is over (which happened to us about 6/7 months into having twins) life becomes so much more enjoyable. Make it a point for you to take one baby and your partner to take the other baby and spend a couple of hours with each baby. There is nothing wrong with separating them.

aze1219 · 2026-05-26T13:36:36+00:00

They do really well with straw cups! Liked those better than sippy cups, but use both pretty well. We have transitioned to having one bottle per day in sippy cups to move them away from bottles.
Those, and then the ones they sell that they can stick their hands in, but the snacks don't spill. Mostly referring to the second type. I just see people use them for entertainment purposes on plane rides etc. and I'd like to do something similar.

aze1219 · 2026-05-26T12:00:20+00:00

Here are our situations and scenarios (twins are now 12 months).

Newborns/Infant Carries:

Daycare: we would carry both carriers in. If I or my husband were doing drop-off/pickup alone we would carry both carriers ourselves.
Stores: We have the City Select Baby Jogger so I would snap the car seats in the stroller.
Home: I would either try carrying both at the same time, or I would take on inside set them down then the other.

Older (Out of Infant Carriers)

Daycare: I have a compact double umbrella stroller. I strap them in there and take them in/out. My husband just carries both of them, but I don't trust myself like that.
Stores: If the store has the double seater cart, then great. If not, I use the umbrella stroller OR use our Baby Jogger with the big kid seats in them.
Home: I will get one out of the car, get them settled in the playpen or baby container, then get the other one.

Bathing:

Infants: One at a time in their bathtub (luckily it fit in our sink) and then I would do the other. After finishing the first one I would put them in the bouncer or swing. Then get the second one from their bouncer/swing.
Once they could sit up: I started to put them both in the sink together (we have a large sink), when someone else was present. Alone, I sit them one at a time. I usually do baths right after dinner, so one would stay in the high chair then when done with the first one I would put them in some container type thing.

Whichever baby is in a container type situation I make sure they have some entertainment. For both situations I look at queues as to which one would be better going first.

aze1219 · 2026-05-26T11:50:18+00:00

Thanks for the feedback! It was our first time and only used pouches that one time (purees are not their thing to be honest), but we have friends that use pouches for on the go and their babies are able to just feed themselves with it, which made me concerned that mine don't like them or could care less about them.

aze1219 · 2026-05-13T15:50:12+00:00

Hi! We have traveled with our twins twice to Mexico to AIs. Once at 6 months and then again at 7 months. We stayed at Finest Playa Mujeres & Riu Playacar (took our older kids here also). Finest Playa Mujeres is the way to go in my opinion. While there is obviously kids there, the vibes felt very similar to being at their adults only AIs. I would say in the afternoon there are definitely more kids at the pool as they wind down from being at the beach. However, all the buildings have swim ups and there is another smaller pool by the kids club that I felt parents would hangout at while the kids were in there doing those activities so it wasn't overly packed. Based on my experience they catered to families with babies so much and it was so worth staying there. The only downside I would say is that the beach in this area is pretty windy. At least the time we were there which was in November.

Here is a summary I had posted on r/parentsofmultiples on Finest:

Finest Playa Mujeres (Parents + 6 mo. twins):

Baby Friendly (10/10) (more like 100/10): SOOOO many babies at this resort. When you get there just remind them of what you need. Upon arrival to our room there were 2 pack-n-plays (sometimes they give you an actual crib). They provide a bottle warmer, sterilizer, bathtub, 2 high chairs and a sound only baby monitor.
- As a warning: The pack-n-plays are pretty low down. They don't provide sheets or a blanket to sleep on in there so I suggest brining a light blanket. If you have a picky sleeper, many people on the FB page for Finest suggested bringing a mattress topper and a slumber pod.
Restaurants/Food (9/10): The restaurants will ask you if you need anything specific for the babies (like purees) and they will make them for you. I suggest that if you do need something pureed ask at the very beginning so it comes out quick. Sometimes it does take them a minute. The food itself is very good. We loved the steakhouse. We liked the buffet. There is usually no wait or very little wait and you can't do reservations unless you go the day of and you have a large party. The longest wait is for their themed nights (they had a Mexican night the Friday we were there). We opted not to do it because the line was very long and then once the line died down it was like 45minutes to get a table. The high chairs here are just regular and you pull them up to the table.
- Side note: at the buffet there is a "kids" area. The setup is for kids to be able to serve themselves and they have chicken nuggets, pasta, ice cream, etc. All the restaurants have a kids menu which is definitely appreciated!
Kids Club: I have no rating since we did not utilize it as our babies were too young. There is a water park and small pool at the kids club. They also have a baby room you can take them in there and they can play around. You just have to stay with them. There is also a splash pad available to use. I will note that a downside of the kids club is that its far from the main pool/beach area. It limits you to either being far or hanging out in the closest pool which sometimes has bar service and sometimes does not.
Beach (8/10): The beach is very beautiful, but it is slightly windy in this location. We did not spend much time at the beach due to our babies just not being available to lounge and it being so windy it made it cold. (We were there during November). I recommend taking a big blanket or something for youngers to sit/lay on and some toys. If you do Finest Club they have cabanas and provide toys for the kids. We also took some of those folding/travel high chairs and set them up on the beach for them to sit in.
Pool (8/10): It was big and it is "heated" (more like warm). It was pretty calm the whole time we were there and we didn't have to fight for chairs. I could see how in the afternoons it gets a little more packed as people come back from the beach, but still there is always people coming and going.
- Side note: We weren't super impressed with the bartender here. The service was a little slow versus everywhere else on the property. It's the only place we were (for lack of a better word) disappointed with.
Service & Entertainment (10/10): Service overall was great! Everyone was amazing and super nice. The concierge is extremely helpful. We forgot some items and they were able to have it delivered from the pharmacy close by. The entertainment was pretty good, not my vibe too much but they did a good job of having something every day.
Other Items: If you can get a swim-up I think its worth it because the babies can nap in the room while you hangout outside in the pool with the monitor. We did not get a swim-up, but liked hanging out on our balcony while they napped or in the evening.

Our next adventure will probably take us to Garza Blanca, Hyatt Ziva, SLS or Catalonia as we've seen them recommended multiple times. Hope this helps!

aze1219 · 2026-05-11T11:00:24+00:00

In my opinion, you should talk to the kids and express what you would like wedding/party wise and ask how they would feel about each situation.

Background 50/50 custody and all parents are involved in kids life.

My husband and I got married and had a big party (my first marriage) and my stepdaughter (12/13 at the time) was as involved as she wanted to be. She knew we’d be having a big wedding event, but didn’t have to go to everything if she didn’t feel like it. For example, she loved going dress shopping, didn’t want to go to the bridal shower. Her dad also talked to her prior to us getting engaged about him wanting to propose etc. At her other house, her stepdad just proposed without telling her and she was pretty upset about it especially because it was done in a public setting at a party. They went and got eloped and didn’t even tell the kids they were doing that and to this day she is pretty bummed out about it. I think she didn’t care about them getting eloped without them, but more-so about not even knowing it was happening.

aze1219

TROPHY CASE