Learning from other parents of twins
Q. I am the grandmother of a girl who's almost 3. Her mommy, my daughter, is pregnant with twins, and her pregnancy is considered high risk. I would like some advice to give my daughter to prepare for the blessed event.
A. "The one thing I would say about twins or triplets is that it's a whole new ballgame," says Karen Ricciardi, chair of membership for the Suffolk County chapter of the Mothers of Twins Club.
Your daughter can find plenty of advice books, but, Ricciardi says, "You really do need to talk to other moms of multiples."
She suggests this gift right away: For $32, buy your daughter membership in the club's Suffolk chapter, if that's where she lives. She'll receive the group's monthly newsletter; meetings are at 7 p.m. the second Tuesday of every month at the Bohemia Recreation Center and cover such topics as "Surviving the First Year" (scheduled for March 24). Join Nassau's chapter if your daughter lives there. The groups' respective Web sites are suffolktwins.org and ncmotc.org; if you call, you may get voice mail and members will call you back.
Ricciardi is the mom of 4-year-old twins, a boy and a girl, and an 8-year-old son.
"When twins come, and there's already a child there, that child's world is completely rocked, even more so than when any second sibling comes along," Ricciardi says. If you can, pay special attention to your granddaughter and also try to be available to give her mom some free time to focus one-on-one with offspring No. 1.

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