Breastfeeding twins

[linz]

If you were able to breastfeed how did it go? Did you tandem feed? Pump? Etc.

I've had so many people ask if I'm going to BF. I always tell them "I plan to try" because these are my first and honestly I don't know how it will go. My thought was to BF for a month or so and then mainly pump, at least during the day. I do worry about trying to feed both at once, esp in the MOTN feedings.

[demandypants]

This is a worry of mine too! I have a friend who tandem fed her boys and didn't wean until they were around two I think. And she had two older boys at home too (like preschool/K age)and the twins started out in the NICU for a few weeks. So she had a lot of challenges, but it was really something that was important to do (her oldest two were adopted). So she is my multiple guru She gave me her twin nursing pillow, and some books that she had. The one is Mothering Multiples which goes into breastfeeding a lot, it is a LLL book. I just have not yet read all that much of it.

I BF'd DD for 18 months, and pumped while I was at work between 12 weeks and 12 months when we started to wean. And even still BFing two makes me nervous. I feel like if I can't figure out tandem nursing, it would be the biggest deterrent to BFing two. Only because with DD I felt like I was nursing her constantly for those first few months. With two eating at different times it would be constant!

[Deleted]

I am just shy of 6 months in with my girls. They have been ebf to this point. We will introduce solids in the next couple of weeks.

The first few weeks were really, really hard. They were born at 36w4d and very sleepy. It was so hard to get them to latch and then stay awake to eat. But it gets easier every day.

I do tandem feed but not all the time. It depends. I feed on demand so if they want to eat at the same time I tandem otherwise I do one at a time. I wasn't able to tandem well until they were about 5w though because it was still hard to keep them latched properly etc before that.

I know a lot of people really like their twins to be on a schedule. In my experience this doesn't work so well nursig. Nursing babies control their intake at the breast so sometimes they go longer between feeds, sometimes shorter. You really need to feed on demand when nursing. So this can be chaotic and a lot of work!!! Someone else may have a better experience with scheduling though. But this I just my experience from nursing them and my son.

Today I my first day back at work and I am pumping.

I nursed my son for 15 mo so this is my second go at it. I will admit I was glad that I had that experience because this was a lot harder!!

I am more than happy to answer any questions you may have!

[Deleted]

Paging kershnic because I know she nursed or still is nursing her girls as well.

[persa]

Sept 4, 2014 7:55:46 GMT -5 @awinter said:

Paging kershnic because I know she nursed or still is nursing her girls as well.

Good luck at your first day back at work!

[cayl]

I wasn't successful, but as someone who tried everything under the sun to be successful I just want to offer a bit of advice. First of all, don't be afraid to ask for help! From anyone and everyone. I had an LC come to us every day while we were in the hospital and asked every single nurse for advice. My girls were in the NICU for 9 days and the nurses there were all so supportive and amazing. I saw an LC outside of the hospital as well for a little while.

How we handled every feeding - regardless of the time of day or night - in the beginning was I would start with one baby, try to BF her, then pass her off to H or whoever to bottle feed while I started trying to BF baby #2. Then either I would feed baby #2 with a bottle or pass her off, and then I would pump. The girls were on a 3 hour schedule, but that was mostly due to the NICU and how they did things. Since my girls were so little and my milk wasn't coming in the doctors only let me leave them on the breast for about 10 minutes each because otherwise they would get too tired and wouldn't take anything from the bottle. Your experience will hopefully be completely different.

And finally, if for some reason you aren't successful at it or it's just too overwhelming and you decide not to BF, IT'S OKAY. I wish someone had said that to me. Having twins is hard, especially for the first few months. Each and every one of us is an amazing mother, whether they BF or FF their kids. I have unbelievable respect for the women who were able to BF multiples and I really wish it had worked for me, but I also wish that I didn't spend every single day of my maternity leave crying and frustrated over it and had thrown in the towel sooner. I'm not by any stretch saying that you shouldn't try - and I think that the little that my kids got for those 3 months helped them - but just know that no matter what you do in the end, it's all okay.

[lauren9317]

As was said above, definitely don't beat yourself up AT ALL if you end up mostly formula feeding. There is nothing wrong with that, especially with the added stress of 2 babies at once!

I planned to BF but my babies were given formula in the hospital from the beginning to make sure they were getting enough calories. I settled on a plan of BFing them and also supplementing with formula. I then felt that I wanted to know how many MLs they were getting, so I decided to pump instead of BF. I would pump, feed them what I made (split evenly between them) and then give them the rest of their ML requirement in formula. I rented the Medela Symphony from the hospital and I've heard it's the best pump out there.

I did things this way until they were 2 months old. And I'll be real with you-- it was a PITA. I finally decided I'd had enough of pumping and went back to BFing. So I would BF with my twins pillow (I had the San Diego bebe twins pillow or whatever it was called, it was ok but I've heard really good things about the My Breast Friend pillow so I would prob rec that one instead) and after BFing I would feed them formula.

By 5 months, I could tell my supply had dropped (it was never that plentiful to begin with) and I felt there was no point anymore in BFing because they were drinking so much formula anyway. So I gradually reduced the amount of BFing I did and stopped altogether by 5.5 months. I never had any engorgement problems since my supply was so bad at that point.

So that's what I did, and they have now been FF since then, I use the Dr. Browns formula pitcher to make their bottles up in advance every night.

Regarding tandem BFing them, I kept our futon in their nursery because it helps to have a large thing to sit on, like a couch or futon. I had a boppy pillow set up at each end of the futon. I would put a baby in each boppy. Then I would strap the BFing pillow on myself, pick up one baby from the boppy and put him on my twin pillow, then pick up his sister and put her on the other side. After BFing, I would put each one back in their boppy while I got myself situated. I did it this way until they were about 4 months. With this method, I could do all this on my own without anyone having to help hand me a baby. But by 4 month,they were getting too big for this (IMO) so I started nursing them one at a time.

All in all, you just kinda have to go through it yourself to see what works best for you. The whole thing can be stressful, which I didn't know going into it! BUT.. that being said, just enjoy the rest of your pregnancy and it will all work out, you'll figure out what works best

[linz]

I am definetly not against formula, its just cost that worries me. If it was dirt cheap I would pry skip BF all together to be honest.

I also have read a couple twin books and everything talks about schedule and feeding together. So I'm glad to here some of you made it work by feeding on demand. I know a lot of it will depend on what type of babies they are, if they're in the NICU and everything else. I'm glad there is plenty of support out there!

[kershnic]

LoTs to say on this but walking into a meeting. Back later.

[demandypants]

Nursing in public seems pretty much impossible too. Not that I did it often before, but it was nice to not pack bottles

[kershnic]

Like @awinter, my girls are EBF and we're about to start solids.  They turned 6 months old last week. 

They were born at 34w3d and spent about 2 weeks in the NICU.  Breastfeeding was very important to me, and was one of my biggest fears about prematurity and the NICU.  I started pumping the day they were born and my milk was fed to the babies in the NICU via syringe, then nipple, then bottle.  The nursing staff wanted to start them on formula because they were nervous my milk would take a while to come in, but the neonatologist told the nurses to give me a chance, and I was able to start producing enough for them before supplementation was needed.  Once the babies were up to what the NICU defined as "full feeds" (which is a number of mL determined based on the baby's weight) I was allowed to attempt putting a baby to my breast.  An LC helped me with some basic breastfeeding technique.  Theoretically the NICU would have allowed weighed feeds, but there was a lot of stress in that time.  Discharge criteria included them gaining sufficient weight and eating well, so it felt like there was a lot of pressure to get them to take as much as possible from a bottle. 

Once the babies were home I did the nurse 1/hand off for bottle feeding/nurse 2/bottle feed/pump routine that another poster mentioned above.  I did this for most feeds, though skipped nursing at some when I was too exhausted.  I nursed each until either I gave up or the baby gave up, so sometimes this was 45 minutes and sometimes it was 5 minutes.  Baby A got the hang of things pretty quickly and I was able to drop bottle feeding her by around 3-4 weeks old.  Baby B was a bigger struggle.  She was small, liked her milk fast, and her latch was bad.  I was honestly close to giving up, had stopped even attempting to nurse overnight (just cut straight to the bottle), and was very frustrated.   I had tried a nipple shield with no luck.  We hired an LC for a consult when she was about 7 weeks old (just past their due date), which was totally the turning point.  The LC helped me with getting her latched better, better positioning, and recommended a different sized nipple shield which made all the difference. 

Between 7-12 weeks I gradually stopped giving Baby B bottles, starting with daytime bottles.  It took her like 45 minutes of nursing to even think about skipping a bottle.  Somewhere around 12-13 weeks we dropped the nipple shield and switched to exclusively nursing when we are together.  I went back to work (4 days/week), so I pump at work and they get bottles while at daycare.  But outside of work, plus 3 days/week and vacation we are exclusively nursing.

I did some tandem feeding around months 3 and 4, after Baby B caught up but was still taking a long time.  None of us liked it very much, but it was better than letting Baby A scream for 45 minutes while her sister finished.  I haven't tried tandeming in the last month or two because they're getting bigger so it seems hard, and they've both become quick nursers who finish in 5-10 minutes. 

My girls came home from the NICU on a 3hr schedule and have gravitated naturally towards staying on it.  I will feed on demand if they show clearly hunger cues, but mostly it's every 3 hours.  Some days they get on the same schedule (based mostly on morning wake up) and somedays they're on different schedules. 

I have and love the my twin breast friend nursing pillow.  An absolute must have in my opinion. 

I've already written a novel here, but I'm always happy to share more if you have questions.  It's absolutely fine to not want to breast feed, and it's certainly a challenge with twins.  We had a particularly rough beginning because of prematurity.  But for me it was really important and my success is something I'm very proud of. 

[linz]

If you fed separate did you feel like in that first month or so all you did was nurse? I guess that is what worries me. I KNOW I will be exhausted and it takes time to get a routine, but I feel like you'd feed A, feed B, change them, get them to sleep and bam you are at it all over again. Especially since it seems common that those early nursing sessions can take a long time.  I think that is why I lean toward mainly pumping, but I know it can take time to build supply and I still have to pump and prepare bottles.

[Deleted]

Sept 4, 2014 11:52:01 GMT -5 linz said:

If you fed separate did you feel like in that first month or so all you did was nurse? I guess that is what worries me. I KNOW I will be exhausted and it takes time to get a routine, but I feel like you'd feed A, feed B, change them, get them to sleep and bam you are at it all over again. Especially since it seems common that those early nursing sessions can take a long time.  I think that is why I lean toward mainly pumping, but I know it can take time to build supply and I still have to pump and prepare bottles.

Yes, I did feel like all I did was nurse. And my son was only 21 months when they were born. I used to read him books while I nursed. I still feel like I spend a lot of time nursing. But again, I feed on demand and one of my girls likes to nurse often.now that I am back at work though they will end up more scheduled since they are a bit more scheduled with bottles while I'm gone. This was the same with my son.

I think if you can make a schedule work it is a lot easier. For me, I was used to feeding on demand and the girls never spent time in the NICU so it was a little different. Also, on demand with a sleepy newborn often means watch the clock and don't let them go longer than x hours. So i wasn't until we got out of that super sleepy stage that I really started on demand feeding.

In the beginning I nursed one baby, passed off to my h to supplement with a bottle, nursed baby 2, passed off for bottle top off, pumped. This cycle took about 2/2.5 hours and we did it every 3 except for one 4 to 5 hr stretch at night. So yeah, all I did was nurse or pump for a few weeks. But once we stopped supplementing and they woke up we went to on demand feeding and it was easier.

I do want to caution about pumping. In the beginning it will seem like it would be the easier way to feed them breastmilk but anyone who has exclusively pumped will tell you it is so so much harder than nursing. You still have all the bottles and once your babies are good at nursing, Pumping will take much longer. Supply can also be an issue with pumping because it doesn't create the same hormonal response as feeding at the breast.

Bottom line, any breastmilk you give your babies is awesome and having twins is hard! Do what works for you and find a balance thst fits with your family. So if that is pumping, nursing, formula feeding, or a combination, you will find what works for you. Nursing my twins has definitely been one of the most difficult things I have ever done. It is also extremely rewarding.

[kershnic]

Sept 4, 2014 11:52:01 GMT -5 linz said:

If you fed separate did you feel like in that first month or so all you did was nurse? I guess that is what worries me. I KNOW I will be exhausted and it takes time to get a routine, but I feel like you'd feed A, feed B, change them, get them to sleep and bam you are at it all over again. Especially since it seems common that those early nursing sessions can take a long time.  I think that is why I lean toward mainly pumping, but I know it can take time to build supply and I still have to pump and prepare bottles.

In the early days the whole routine usually took 1.5-2 hours.  So in every 3 hour cycle there was 60-90 minutes to do everything else - sleep, feed myself, bathe, whatever.  Giving up pumping overnight was one of the best things that ever happened to me.  The daytimes were not too stressful, the overnights sucked.  But I rode the adrenaline and just kept going and here I am at 6 months old. 

My sister has twins and she exclusively pumped.  It worked for her, but I'm glad I'm not doing it.  Now that we're established pumping is such a pain and breastfeeding is so much faster and nicer.  I think the only way pumping takes less time than nursing is if you have a good supply, good response to the pump, and have someone else do a lot of the bottle feeding.  The idea of sitting around pumping while someone else bottle feeds my baby sounds miserable. 

[linz]

Thanx ladies! It helps hearing what other twin moms have done and what worked for them

[UnderProtest]

These are awesome stories of success, so don't beat yourself up if it ends up not working for you. I attempted to breastfeed but had to start supplementing in the hospital because they were both jaundiced. We continued a cycle of tandem feeding, formula feeding and pumping to get my supply up for over 5 weeks. I saw lactation consultants in the hospital and a private LC that is the best in the region for several weeks after. I even took prescription drugs to increase my supply, but they didn't work. At about 5.5 weeks, I gave up. They weren't getting much breastmilk and I was going insane trying to keep up that schedule and failing miserably. Maybe if my body had actually made enough milk for both of them, I would have continued. But I wasn't. It was barely 25% of their intake. It was the best decision for my family. I was a happier mom and my kids are quite healthy. Good luck and I really hope you can do it, but please don't beat yourself up if it doesn't.

[cinnamoncox]

One had a better latch so she fed at the breast as much as possible. My other one was teeny tiny and my boob was like twice the size of her head and it was harder for her, so she nursed when she could, but I also pumped.

I would nurse both, pump both sides. Rinse and repeat every two houses for the first few months then I went to three hours and then at 7/8 months I went to formula and 11.5 months cows milk.

I couldn't nurse at the same time. Too awkward for me. The nurse in hospital set up like a million pillows around me and placed the babies on them and was all walla!! And I was like yeah are you going to be at my house to set me up like this? I don't have literally a half dozen pillows to arrange on my own then somehow get the babies on the pillows once they're set up?! Nope.

It was exhausting but do able.
Overnights we gave pumped milk, dh fed one I fed the other then I would pump for their next wake up. I just didn't want to deal with actual nursing overnight.