Hello I am expecting triplets and am trying to get some ideas on what other multiple parents out there have done for cribs, carseats, rockers and all other gear we can expect to purchase.
What will we need 3 of and what can we get away with only one?

there are so many different cribs out there, and this is our first pregnancy, should be just buy three of whatever crib we like?

Is there a website that we can shop on that will give discounts for multiples furniture?

any suggestions would be great apperciated!
thank you

Congratulations on your pregnancy! My wife is in the same boat, currently 23.3 weeks along and holding steady.

You are in the right spot, there are many very helpful people here and lots of good information. My wife and I also found a couple of books very helpful. Here are links to them (just when to amazon, but they can be found elsewhere also)

http://www.amazon.com/Everything-Twins-Triplets-More-Book/dp/1593373260/ref=sr_1_9?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1320777774&sr=1-9

http://www.amazon.com/Youre-Expecting-Twins-Triplets-Quads/dp/0061803073/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1320777774&sr=1-1

Hope these help!

Congrats on your pregnancy. You can get whatever crib you like. I got three from people that were getting rid of theirs. I was on a tight budget and I cut many corners to keep within my budget. I got my carseats from the hospital because they were cheaper. You might want to wait to buy the carseats because if they are premie's then you might need a specail car seat and not all car seats are designed for 4 or 5 lbs babies. I am not sure what you mean by rocker. I think you mean bouncy seat. I had 3 because he did feeding in them. You can probably get a way with 1 or 2 swings because not all babies like them.

Congratulations!! So happy for you!!

We were and are on a tight budget so we just purchased the $99.00 range of cribs that had the highest ratings on various websites and then looked for the best price. Then we did buy the more expensive mattress and the mattresses we purchased were more expensive than the crbs we bought.

For future use of crib tents you might want to choose cribs that are the same height all the way around.

Sunshine Kids Radian 80 XLT are great car seats because you can use them forever and never have to even purchase booster seats down the road. You will probably still want infant car seats. We like peg perego because they work with the peg perego triplet stroller which we loved.

i think you will want three of most things: pack and plays, swings, bouncers, high chairs. For exercausers we liked having three options that were all different to include jumperoo type things too.

Babies R Us gives 10% off for multiple discounts if you buy three and if you ask probably most everywhere would offer you this. We like Amazon because you can compare many like products and see how many stars they have and how many review and then read a ton of reviews to help you make you decision. Also great prices and fast and free shipping to your door.



http://tripletmomplusone.blogspot.com/

Mom to BBG Triplets and Singleton boy. Our triplets are almost four and our baby is almost two.

Congratulations! What you need depends a lot on how much space you have and what you consider necessities. Obviously you will need 3 cribs and car seats though. Like a PP, we got 1 crib given and 1 lent to us, and our third was the one we'd got for our first child. Crib regulations have changed though, so you may need to buy new to avoid all the recall issues on older cribs. I would buy cribs with as high a side as possible, so you don't have to deal with climbing issues too early - I saw some at IKEA recently that looked super low, my kids would have been out of them in a flash. We had 1 changing table and that was enough for us, our kids were mostly living on one floor of our house though.

We used the Graco snugride infant car seats because they fit on the Triple Decker stroller frame we bought, and also could fit 3 side-by-side in the back row of our minivan. We now have 3 Sunshine Kids Radian 65s and love them.

When our trio was born, we lived in a very small place, so we didn't have room for a huge amount of equipment. We did find we needed 3 bouncy seats, but could get by with just 1 swing. We used the bouncy seats to set our kids in when they first started solid foods too. Then we bought the restaurant style high chairs which pull right up to the dinner table and can be stacked away to save space. They were pretty reasonable on Amazon.com. When we got to exersaucer stage, we had 2 of those - I would have loved to have had 3, but we just didn't have the floor space.

I would recommend not going crazy with shopping too early though, when people hear you're expecting triplets they often offer to lend or give you items that their kids have outgrown. A lot of equipment like bouncers and exersaucers can be picked up very reasonably at consignment or thrift stores too. The first things you will need are cribs, carseats, some form of stroller arrangement and bouncy seats. I would say focus on those things and make sure you have plenty of supplies like burp cloths and sheet savers - and if anyone asks what you need, tell them DIAPERS!

Good luck with the rest of your pregnancy.

DS 03/06
BBB 03/09 @ 35 weeks, 1 day
Baby A - 5 lbs 1 oz
Baby B - 6 lbs 8 oz
Baby C - 4 lbs 5 oz

Cogrants to you!! Here's the must have's that I needed to care for the babies alone 24/7 (husband works out of town and we live 1.5 hrs from town):

Three (3) car seats - Graco snug ride 35#

Three (3) cribs - got them from Walmart.com - Graco, no drop sides and they work great

Changing table - also keep diapers/supplies in living room and change them there, whatever's handy, also from Walmart.com

Three (3) bouncys - they slept in them for the first 2-3 mos in the living room, ones that vibrate and make noise

Recliner that rocks or rocking chair in living room - I have a rocker in their bedroom but I never use it, piled w/ blankets

Blankets - you can never have too many

Bottle drying racks/bottle brush - no dishwasher so this was a life saver

Three (3) Boppys - @ about 2 mo, I put the boppys on the sofa and propped bottles to feed all 3 at once

Sleepers - lots of them! Outfits are cute and all but sleepers are easy and practical!

Bathtub for sink

Also, I use Aveeno and Aquaphor products (wash, lotion) that are fragrance free/hypo allergenic and Dreft laundry detergent (w/ no dryer sheet).

I had everything ready to go when by the time I was 6 mo because I thought I might have to go on bedrest and I did at 27 weeks. Found many things at garage sales/craigslist. There's a lot of stuff they make us think we need but most of it isn't practical for 3 babies. Good luck!

Julie

Spontaneous GGB
Born 09/29/10 @ 35 Wks
Paige 5.0
Jack 5.7
Libby 4.13

Oh, forgot the most important thing....a diaper pail!

Julie

Spontaneous GGB
Born 09/29/10 @ 35 Wks
Paige 5.0
Jack 5.7
Libby 4.13

Check to see if you have a moms of multiples club in your city or state... you can get lots of inexpensive stuff through those types fo groups. babies r us gives a 10% discount on the 2nd and 3rd crib/carseat ("major purchases")

I also 2nd the need for 3 boppies, we did the prop feeding a lot as well.

Julie
Single mom to

Tristan Declan 4lbs 3oz
Cassandra Madison 4lbs 7oz
Ryland Markus 4lbs 2oz
Born on 9/5/06 at 32 weeks 4 days

www.our3.blogspot.com

Hi there,
I wrote an article about the few things I found handy. I got three car seats that were the ones that lasted until they transitioned to booster seats. No sense in getting infant ones with the carrier handle-you couldn't carry three of those. One of the things I found really helpful, and a less expensive option, were the little booster seats that strap onto regular chairs and have an attached tray-like bigger high chairs. Those ended up being favorites, as well. Have a look at this article for a couple of options. No need to run out and get everything before the babies are home. Bouncy seats are very handy. http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/9155657/twins_triplets_or_more_items_youll.html?cat=25
How far along are you? Best of luck!
Lanelle

Thank you for the advice, i am 14 weeks along and am just starting to get ideas for what we can expect to buy and what to register for so we are not completly overwhelmed.

Thanks again,
Meghan

Congratulations!

http://www.amazon.com/Fisher-Price-Newborn-Rock-Sleeper-Yellow/dp/B002M77N22/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1321976859&sr=8-1

These ended up being one of the best things for us. I could feed one and put him/her in here while I fed the next. Mine had refux so this kept them up right without the major movement of the swing. I could also lay one in here and rock with my foot while I fed one of the others. It was easy to get them out as it was up off the ground which was important for me as recovery was slow for me after they were born due to pre-e. We had three and all of them ended up sleeping in these for a number of months due to their reflux being so bad. We also had two swings and would have liked a third but there was no room. Three boppies for tummy and play time worked great for us. As they got older I only had one exersaucer and jumperoo and rotated them. I second the suggestion of looking for things at the sales that multiples clubs have. You will get great prices there!

We have the davinci mini cribs. They are better for space issues. They look like regular cribs but are a bit smaller. I was also trying to get info on the new Trip Z and Twin Z pillows. My friend has twins and bought the Twin Z pillow. I think I am going to but the Trip Z, the one for triplets. I think it will be helpful!

Congratulations!!

We bought a used triple decker stroller and new Graco Snugride infant seats. Once the babies are out of those, we're using the two Britax Marathons that we have from our other kids, with a Sunshine Kids Radian in the middle (I've already checked and it all fits, whew!).

We have a crib side car mounted to our bed that the babies slept in for the first few months they were home. We kept that crib there even though they sleep in their own room now because I nurse them in my bed first thing in the morning and its easier to have the space to set them down.

Their sleeping arrangements so far are that the girls sleep together in a normal sized crib and the boy sleeps on his own in a mini-crib (looks like a real crib, but its portacrib sized). When I'm done nursing, we'll probably move the crib from our room into theirs and they'll each have their own. I would say that 3 cribs are a must, but you probably won't need all 3 immediately.

I definitely needed 3 boppys, used the heck out of those things for quite a while (or a trip-z pillow, wish I'd known about those!). You'll also need at least 3 places to set the babies, but they don't have to be the same. We had 2 bouncy seats and 2 swings and we got rid of one of the swings pretty quickly.

A rocker would be nice. I've found that I can't nurse 2 babies in the rocker so I have to do it in a bed, but I still use the rocker in their room for nursing one or cuddling.

A lot of it depends on your budget and space constrictions. We have 2 adults, 6 kids, and a dog in a 1400sqf house so we definitely wanted to minimize the amount of baby "stuff" we had.

Good luck to you and have fun shopping.

Morgan
M 17yo
J 5yo
C 3yo
GBG triplets born at 29wks in Jan 2011!

This was a biggy for me. What did we really need to spend the money on to have 2 or 3 of?

Here is a list of what things we could not have survived without 3 of:

Bottle warmers,Boppys, Bouncers, cribs and crib decor, pack and plays, car seats, mirrors to put in car, puffy high chair seat covers, feeding seats (we did not do high chairs, we used seats that fit onto our dining table chairs), stuffed monkey blankets, swings

Here is what we used 2 of:

Bjorns, Jumpers, Mats, Changing tables (one upstairs and one down), Diaper Genies, Bottle props, Bumbo seats

We used 1:

Bathing Tub, Wipe Warmer, HoMedics Sound Spa Lullaby

How about all the other stuff? Registering for me was a crack up. Talk about overwhelming. Here is what I would recommend:

10 bottles per baby, 3 crib sheets per baby, 2 sheets per pack and play, 6 binkies/ passies per baby (2 sets upstairs in nursery, one set in diaper bag, 3 sets down stairs), 3 receiving blankets per baby, 9 bibs per baby (more if you do not plan on doing laundry every day--at the beginning each feeding had a new bib), 2 bath towels per baby, 5 burp cloths per baby (more if not doing laundry each day),

Hopefully that is a good place to start. Please let me know if you have any questions.

BBB born on 8-6-10 @ 30 weeks
Matthew, Baby A, 3 pounds
Michael, Baby B, 3 pounds 3 ounces
David, Baby C, 3 pounds

A and C are identical.

My ggg are almost 2, and we also work on a budget (who doesn't these days). You'll have to set things up to fit your house and lifestyle but I can tell you what works for us.

3 car seats- we use graco snugrides (I like that graco is the only company that tests at highway speeds, and tends to have fewer recalls), we used these for when our boys (now 7 & 4) were little as well. Once they outgrew those we switched them to the Graco Comfort Sport convertables (which are good up to 40lbs front facing).

2 cribs - the girls sleep 'sidecar' style in our room (1 crib set next to bed with mattress level and front removed, for easy access in middle of night), because I nursed mine (email me if you want to know more about that) and didn't like the idea of trekking across the house every night for night feedings x3. Our other crib is in our 'daytime nursery' / office (used for naps, daiper changes, and the occasional time out) which will become the girls' room full time once they're older.

changing table - we actually had a lot of trouble with this one. My hubby and I are quite tall so finding a changer we didn't have to kneel in front of was next to impossible. Instead we found a dresser (my parents donated an old one, but we found some potentials at furniture stores and yard sales) that was a good height and fit our space and my dad built a changer top for it. We painted it to match the dresser and lined the top with a cheap vinyl tablecloth (for easy cleaning) then just velcro'd a changing pad (the shaped ones, we got ours at target) on top. Now we just change out the fabric covers on top as needed.

stroller - we got (used) a triple decker stroller (do have to be carefull, attatchments are brand specific) because it folds up (unlike the runabout), can use regular car seats (you don't have to buy stroller only seats for it like the per preggo), and when babies outgrow their infant seats you trade them for bicycle toddler seats that get bungee'd on (instead of a new stroller).

bouncer / rocker seats - we got 3 of these, 2 bouncers and 1 rocker. they are life savers until they grow out of them or become moblie enough to climb on them. I did make some changes to mine so that the toys on the bar could be changed or removed as needed.

bottle drying rack - I actually found a lid rack that had spokes instead of bars for the same price as a bottle rack and now that they don't need bottles it holds my pan lids nicely in my cabinet.

Some baby stores (Baby Depot used to, not sure if Burlington Coats, Baby Depot's parent company does) will give a discount if you buy more than 1 big item at the same time, it doesn't hurt to ask the manager though. Yard sales and thrift shops are good palces to look for clothes (not car seats or cribs though, as you don't know where it came from and if it's still safe to use). Baby resale stores are also a good way to go for things like clothes and bedding, and some of the larger pieces (watch out though, many of those stores charge almost full retail) and you may be able to sell back to them (usually for store credit) when you're done with things.

If you don't mind my asking . . . where are you located? I'm in So. Cal. I still have my 3 infant seats (now 2 yrs old, no accidents, no stains, with boxes) and if you're local I'll happily pass them along. I also have boxes of clothes (from micro preemie to 18mos)and 2 bouncer chairs that I'd love to pay forward. All my stuff is girl oriented (I have some boy stuff left, but not in small sizes. I have mostly nephews). I don't mind shipping the clothes, but the bigger stuff will cost too much to ship (almost as much, or more than to just buy it). email me (lashanaboh@hotmail.com) if you're interested, or just want someone to listen who's been where you are.

- Vixi
boy (7)
another boy (4)
GGG (almost 2)