1. clean her house for her. (or cover the cost of a cleaning person you know and trust.)

2. cook tasty meals you know she will enjoy (not just sweets or casseroles).

3. diapers. lots of diapers.

i'd make the same suggestions no matter the number of babies or experience of the parents. babies don't need much stuff. the best gift for a new mama is comfort, rest, and nourishment so she can get to know her new babe/babes.

Two of everything takes up a ton of space that she might not have. I agree with the ideas of the previous poster. I also know someone who gave the gift of a photography session package. The mom says now that those photos are the only reason they remember such a hectic time in their life!

My sister has twins - one of each. They're almost 3 now and it's been a crazy ride. First suggestion is a boppie pillow - the larger one. You can prop one if not both of them up while breastfeeding or just for a minute of space. I'd also suggest a warmer for wipes. When you are using many, it helps everyone if they're warm.

I am a mom of 8 week old twin boys. Being in the thick of it right now I would have to say that a twin nursing pillow is KEY. I nursed my daughter using a singleton pillow and thought that in conjunction with other regular pillows it would work fine, I was wrong. 2.5 weeks into their lives I purchased a twin nursing pillow and it really has made a big difference in alleviating the stress of nursing two babies at the same time, especially if your friend is a first time mom, she'll need everything she can that will make nursing easier to ensure she sticks with it. All of the above suggestions are also good but if you want to buy a specific item, a twin nursing pillow would be very helpful. Oh, and yes, lots of diapers! :) We use gdiapers, and they have been great.

I have twins who are now four. My sling was indispensable. It allowed me to carry both of them at the same time more comfortably (I would have one in the sling and the other in my arms).

I have twins too. Two boys, one year old.
I'd also suggest a good nursing pillow, and also a good thing was the baby hammock.
Frankly, a friend brought loads of pampers and they were veeeerrryyy welcome!

I have 2.5 year old b/g twins. I agree with the nursing pillow. Make sure its a TWIN nursing pillow, a simple boppie pillow will not do. Diapers are also a huge blessing. Other things I found key:

-Boppie bouncer, or anything else similar. Something comfortable where they can sit safely and comfortably when you can't hold them.

-A good glider with padded arm support is helpful too for cuddle time. :) I always wished my glider reclined so we could all relax/nap comfortably together.

-Bebe pod chairs were also helpful once you start them on solids. They were portable and didn't take up a ton of room. We used them until they were a year and half.

I have twins and I agree that a twin nursing pillow is the best investment if she is going to BF.

As a mom of twins, I wholeheartedly agree with the first post. There is no gift sweeter than an offer to help -- bring a meal or two over, offer to make a grocery store run, mow their lawn, etc. I am forever grateful for those friends and family who generously gave me their time and help in those first few months.

Twin mom here, too (b/g 3.5y), and I third or fourth the idea of a twin nursing pillow, but I can't stress enough how incredible an extra pair of hands can be. I have no idea how people with 3 or more babies handle them. I felt I had to juggle the two with doing just basic tasks.....thank god for family (and a bouncy chair)

So, my suggestions would just echo everything said above: a twin nursing pillow, diapers, offer to help.....

and if you are looking for a big-ticket item, I loved my mountain buggy stroller with a twin bassinet (they slept in the stroller from about month 2 through 5)....btw, I also had two separate bassinets, which looked lovely, but they ended up using only one (they liked the close-ness they were used to in the womb) for about a month. (definitely not a recommended item)

nycgrrl

Bravado nursing bras are also awesome. They are stretchy, so she can get fitted a couple weeks before she is due.

Here is the twin nursing pillow I am still using for my 7 month-olds... http://www.doubleblessings.com/servlet/Detail?no=271. A regular pillow will not do.
If she has a big freezer, stock it with meals for her now...you can even throw a casserole shower for her if she has the storage. Or get a bunch of people together to get her a big freezer if she has space, and then throw her the casserole shower.
The photography idea is a great one. It's important for parents of twins to step back and breathe and live in the moment once in a while...it's easy to get into assembly line mode (especially for us since we have a 2 year-old, too).
A cleaning service is NECESSARY for me now.
Also, if you're a really good friend, try to keep in mind that she'll need help for a long time, especially if she's going to be alone. Coming over to help hold babies so that she can shower, bringing a bag of groceries over, stopping at Target for necessities, etc. would all be amazing for her.
One of our best gifts was 6 months of cloth diaper service! When you have more than one kid, you save a lot of money using the service!

Ditto on the twin nursing pillow and just helping.

If you can't be there to help (like, if you're far away) then look for meal delivery services, cleaning services or find out if she's getting a postpartum doula and offer to pay for a day of service (huge!) or, better yet, spring for a home visit with a lactation consultant (breastfeeding twins is hard as heck).

Oh, oh, if you're going to bring food...take it easy on the cheesy, heavy casserole bombs. They might be simple to put in the freezer, but there are only so many a postpartum woman can eat before her body stops 'moving' completely.

I always make my friends a meal - ziti is easy and can be frozen - when they have kids. I recently bought a friend who had triplets a case of diapers and she said it was one of the best gifts she's gotten.

I have boy / girl twins who are now 3 -- the best thing I got was the gift of a professional photographer who came to the house -- set up -- stayed pretty much all afternoon and took loads of pictures -- I have the most beautiful pictures and we booked him every 3 months for the first two years of their life --- it was the greatest.

I have 3 month old twin girls, and I must say that the offer to help--clean, cook, whatever--is amazingly wonderful. Two of my best friends come over every once in awhile, and they bring groceries, food from restaurants, or just offer to watch the girls for a bit so I can take a nap.

And diapers. Diapers are more than welcome. Just make sure you know what kind of diapers they're thinking about buying beforehand.

I have a Baby K'Tan sling, and even though I don't have twins it's one of the few slings I've seen that can be used to carry two babies at once. See instructions here: http://www.babyktan.com/

And yay for twins! (I am one.)

Diapers, diapers, diapers, in all different sizes!

A couple books I enjoyed:
Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Twins by Dr. Marc Weissbluth
Ready or Not... Here We Come! By Elizabeth Lyons
(and the sequel, Ready or Not... There We Go!)

A pack n play with a twin bassinet is a lifesaver for downstairs napping and chilling while Mom does... anything.
http://www.amazon.com/Graco-Playard-Twins-Bassinet-Kensington/dp/B002AMVX8Y/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=baby-products&qid=1273874182&sr=8-1

HELP. An offer to come and help out for a couple hours, or hire a cleaning from a maid or cleaning service for her. My mom sent her cleaning lady to my house once before the girls were born, and then again after they were about a month old and things had gotten... messy is putting it nicely. Best. Gift. Ever.

I've also seen ads for chefs that come cook a meal and make a couple more than are freezable. I'm not sure how much they are- but that would have been awesome too!

The EZ2Nurse twin nursing pillow is the best thing I ever purchased for my twins. I had to find out about it by myself--I would have loved to have recieved one as a gift before my twins were born. I thought I could just pile pillows around me. uh... no. that didn't work.

Also, I loved having 2 bumbo chairs to use when my twins started eating solids.

As a new-ish mom of twin boys (6 months old) I can attest to the ez2nurse pillow. At least for the early days. Eventually my boys got too big and wiggly to get situated on it, but that was at about 5 months.
The two of everything isn't entirely needed but I can safely say we would have a really hard time without our bouncy seats. They were amazing for bouncing the boys to sleep and quieting them when they were fussy newborns. Now we use them for feeding bottles - one on each side.
We had a lot of people who didn't want to get us the boring stuff like bouncy seats but we needed and use them.
We survived without a housekeeper, a chef, etc. But it cannot be over stated that having a safe, comfortable place to stow one baby while tending to another is essential.

Itzbeen Baby Timers! My friends & sister who all have singletons swear by this timer (in fact to quote one friend "it's really nice to have, but it would be a must have if you had twins")... so I can imagine parents of twins would be forever grateful.

Ditto on the pillow! You really can't go wrong. Same with nappies.

But I think the best presents are home help presents. My sister-in-law did our grocery shopping for the first 6 weeks... in between my husband going to work and taking our then 3 year old daughter and 5 year old son to kindy, me getting adjusted to twins and trying to manage the general chaos that the house had become, sending off the shopping list each week was marvelous. She'd pick it all up, bring it back, unpack it and cook a meal for Heidi and Nash and a meal for us. My mum came over twice a week and did our laundry for the first two months, and she and dad would take the older two out for the day every sunday for a treat (trips to the beach etc).

We were given two Baby Bjorn bouncers - wonderful! Also bought ourselves a hanging Leander cradle that stayed in the kitchen/living area, it was a gorgeous cradle (we used it for our youngest), and saved me heading up stairs for every nap time.

Gifts of cleaning and cooking are the most helpful for parents of any number.

I agree that cheezy frozen casseroles are not the best option.

I found any kind of frozen food that needed to be baked difficult. It can sometimes be too much to think ahead to preheat the oven, and a new parent doesnt always have hands free to take food out of the oven when the timer goes off. I can remember many very stressful moments, stuck nursing on the couch, hearing the oven timer and knowing that I was either going to have to latch off a screaming baby, or let my dinner burn.

I really appreciated food that could be enjoyed cold: salads (green, bean, pasta, etc), quiche (nice if you have the time to heat it, but still good cold), bagels and creamcheese, humus, etc.

Obviously you can't give these way ahead of time, but these things can last in a fridge 3-5 days and can be easily dropped off on a front porch.

As a mom of twins one of the best gifts was a huge box of diapers and wipes from costco!
Any help with meals is always appreciated. I recently set up a google calender for a new twin moms. I posted on it my multiples group and arranged meals from other twin moms for the first month

Diapers and food.

love, a mama of triplets.

Those Serena and Lilly slings are pretty but very similiar in design to the models recently recalled. I don't think that is a safe shape for a young infant without and insert and a knowledgeable wearer.

It'd be good to have a book specifically on breastfeeding multiples to go with a twin breastfeeding pillow. This one is well-regarded:

Mothering Multiples: Breastfeeding & Caring for Twins or More!! by Karen Kerkhoff Gromada

Wow, thanks for all the great ideas everyone. I have to say kettunainen, that book sounds like the perfect gift, I ordered two already!