share your breastfeeding twins experiences!

Even if it was for a day or a year, what was your experience?
TIA

Re: share your breastfeeding twins experiences!

Im still struggling with it. They were born early, and I was always afraid they weren't getting enough and my priority was for them to gain weight. Every now and then I try for 20 mins and then give a bottle of pumped milk. In the next couple of weeks, Im so determined to be able to tandem breast feed.. DH is going back to work and I'd really like to be able to feed them at the same time and avoid the situation where they're both crying to eat and I can only feed one.
Ill let you know how it goes :) In the mean time, Im still exclusively pumping.

Re: share your breastfeeding twins experiences!

Mine will be 8 months old and I'm EBF. They had about 4 bottles of formula while in the NICU (I wasn't producing enough and they no longer qualified for donor BM) and then also had some "fortified" BM in the NICU as well. Besides that, they have only had BM.

I pretty much NEVER tandem nurse. It's overwhelming and never seems to work out right for me. I nurse them separately. Each baby gets one side. They used to nurse for about 20 minutes each. After a month or so, it went down to 15 minutes. At this point, it's around 9 or 10 minutes so it's really not bad at all! My older son used to nurse 15 minutes/side, so the babies actually take less time even though they are nursing separately!

In the beginning it was REALLY HARD!!!! It's hard to just stick to it when it seems so easy to get formula, but I BF'd my older son for a year and I want to do the same for the babies. I also went back to work FT and so I have been pumping. I only make enough milk for the next day pretty much. Pumping SUCKS!

They BF every 4 hours now. When they first came home from the hospital it was every 3.

If you have any specific questions, I'm happy to help!

Re: share your breastfeeding twins experiences!

By the time my twins were born I had already EBFd DS for 15 months.

Initially my girls were Bfing champs. I would let the nursery keep them in the middle of the night for a feeding of formula so I could get a little extra rest. Plus, I was in a bit of pain from the incision and had a really hard time getting up and out of bed to get them in and out of their bassinets.

When we came home I moved to EBF. Both girls were born tiny but Katelyn was the smaller one at just 4lbs8oz when discharged. Her mouth was so little she was having a very hard time latching. For the middle of the night feedings I gave her bottles of pumped BM.

My biggest advice to new BFing moms is always try to stay ahead of their hunger. In the beginning nurse them every hour and a half instead of waiting for them to show hunger signs. If you get to them ahead of the hunger pains they are more likely to have patience while trying to latch.

By 8 weeks in both girls were nursing champs. I would tandem nurse whenever we were home and while we were out and about I'd nurse them individually.

By 4 months old we were on a solid nursing schedule (including the girls STTN).

I may not have answered all of your questions, but feel free to FM me any concerns or questions you may have.

eta - I wound up nursing the girls a little past their 1st birthday. I would have done 15 months like I did with DS only DH and I were going away and I wanted to wean them before we left so my parents would have an easier time.

Message edited 10/14/2012 1:28:33 PM.

Re: share your breastfeeding twins experiences!

I tried BF, however I felt more comfortable pumping- which I did for about 3 months.

Re: share your breastfeeding twins experiences!

These are great thanks for sharing! I'm sure I'll have more questions after they come.

Re: share your breastfeeding twins experiences!

I bf my twins for 6 months. I am not going to lie it is a big sacrifice and time consuming.

I did a whole host of things...tandem bf, bf alone, gave one a bottle of pumped milk and bf the other, gave both pumped milk while pumping.

They were in the NICU for 10 days so I initially started with pumping. Then I would bf them and give them a bottle of pumped milk to make sure they were getting enough (rule of the NICU).

I was borderline obsessed with being afraid I wouldn't have enough milik and I always pumped after I fed them because in my mind I needed to know I had at least one bottle of frozen milk for each of them in case I needed to escape for a little.

In the beginning the process was long it took 1.5 hours to change them, feed them, pump and get everyone back to bed so I was only getting 1.5 hours a sleep at a time. But somehow I managed. I literally would sometimes go up to bed and at 6 or 7 pm.

Once they got bigger and older it was easier to tandem feed them and they were much quicker.

When they were 6 months old I woke up one day and said I couldn't do it anymore. I was so upset with myself but after a little bit I realized happy mommy=happy babies.

Good luck!

Re: share your breastfeeding twins experiences!

My girls were in the nicu for weeks, so I started out just pumping. As they got closer to coming home, I would nurse them in the nicu and then they would get a bottle of pumped milk. They were both discharged a month before their due date at under 5 and under 4 lbs.
We BF, bottle fed, and pumped for 3 months. I wanted those babies to nurse so badly!!!!!! In the end they were never effective or consistent. We worked with a few LC's. I went back to work when they were 4 months old. After that, I tried to find time to put at least one of them to breast a day, but it was hard!
I did nurse them both together and it was a huge time saver.

Now at 13 months im still pumping.

Re: share your breastfeeding twins experiences!

I immediately started pumping when they were born since they were in the nicu. I had inverted nipples so I wore a nipple shield and could get one to barely nurse. The other was so small and had a intestine infection after a week old so getting him to latch never happened. I wound yip pumping for 10 months. I never got enough of a supply to even feed one child let alone two. For some reason my body was not capable of producing any more no matter what I tried or what supplement I took. So I pumped what I could and mixed it with formula. Not what I had hoped and planned for but my kids were fine. It made it so that I didn't have to do every feeding and I got some alone time to pump each day which was great. If you do wind up pumping rent a hospital grade pump for the first few months. I tried to tandem feed them but it never really worked out since they didn't latch great and I knew after feeding them from the breast that I would still have to pump and supplement with the bottle too so I just eliminated a step.

Good luck!