For the diapers they need a-changin’

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Come twin mothers and fathers
Who blog with a Mac
You’ll be up all the night
Freedom’s not coming back
And the one sleeping now
Will be later to wake
Their binkies will fall
For the puppy to take
So you better bring bottles
And milk by the jug
And pray that the dog
doesn’t go on the rug
For the diapers they need a-changin’

baby boys, twin brothers, sam and max, sit on a Boppy Newborn Lounger with pacifiers. Sam is swaddled, max is wearing a sweat-pea suit
Apologies to Bob Dylan

Product Review: Boppy Newborn Lounger

The Boppy Newborn Loungers have become a fixture on our daybed and a mainstay in our newborns’ feeding / sleeping routine. The Boppy Lounger is like a broad, pocketed pillow that the babies can sit in comfortably without rolling around.
baby boy sam sits in a Boppy Newborn Lounger wearing a monkey-themed outfit
Sam enjoys his Boppy Newborn Lounger

Most of the photos we have of the two babies together are taken with them both on the same Boppy. We don’t usually do this for long, since they’re both essentially falling into the center indent, and if you remove one baby, the other rolls into the center. But for short periods, it’s fun to put them together there.

We place the Boppys on our bed in such a way that if the babies ever did roll out of them (hasn’t happened yet) they would simply land on the mattress around them.

Our babies tend to spit up quite frequently after feeding. The anti-spit-up strategy we’re following is to have them sit slightly upright in the minutes after they’re done eating, before we put them back in their bassinets. The Boppy is ideal for that.

You can place it flat on the bed, or put a rolled up towel or the edge of a pillow under one side to give them a little more angle–and the boys seem to like it. Even before they can hold their heads up on their own, being slightly upright lets them look around and settle down.

We feed them, burp them, change them, burp them, swaddle them, burp them, and place them on the Boppy under a warm blanket. Soon they chill-out, settle down, start to yawn, and drift off, and then we gently move them to their bassinets. The Boppys have a printed warning saying they’re not for sleeping. I’m sure that’s because they’re soft and people worry about babies and pillows.

Here’s a bonus strategy tip from our postpartum doula. She sometimes feeds the twins two-at-once, by putting them side-by-side in two boppies and propping their bottles on crumpled blankets. Then it’s like a self-serve milk bar, and everyone’s happy. If you do that yourself, of course you have to watch them closely to see that everyone’s happy and not choking.
baby twin boys sam and max together on a Boppy Newborn Lounger
Twin brothers Sam and Max share a Boppy Newborn Lounger

One more thing. They’re not just for babies.
Bichon Frise in a Boppy Newborn Lounger
Bichon brother curls up in a warm, recently-vacated Boppy Newborn Lounger