Imagine the surprise of learning you are pregnant with twins! Then, imagine your anxiety over where these two new babies will fit, when your home is already filled to the brim! That's exactly what Jackie G.* of Framingham, Mass., experienced when she learned her twins – on top of her 3 1/2-year-old son – would be living in her modest, three-bedroom house.

Jackie planned ahead for the creative use of her home's space and for what extra items the growing family would need – and those it wouldn't – to accommodate her identical twins, whose gender she didn't know ahead of time.

Jackie did all the right things, according to Christine K. Walker of Winnetka, Ill., author of The Smart Mom's Guide to Staying at Home: 65 Simple Ways to Thrive, Not Deprive, on One Income (Trafford Publishing, 2004). "Hearing news of twins usually comes as a surprise," says Walker. "Take time to let it sink in and evaluate carefully your game plan. The first impulse might be to run out right away and buy two of everything – don't do it."

Jackie had a head start on that advice. For example, she didn't buy a second changing table; she used her son's old one upstairs. Luckily, the family had a "spare" changing table, and this she kept downstairs to avoid "schlepping both babies upstairs every time someone needs a diaper change during the day," Jackie says.

"Rather than getting, say, two Exersaucers, get one saucer and another activity set," Walker says. "So often parents of twins try to make everything the same for both babies at all times. That simply can't happen."

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