Feeding Twins - Urgent Help

[Sunspot]

What system worked best to feed your twins? My milk is not coming in great so have been supplementing with formula. Does anyone just pump or do a combination breast/pump or breast/pump/formula?

Thank you!!!

[veronica]

Congratulations and hugs to you hun! My twin boys are just three weeks old and we are still learning.

I'd say, at first, it sort of depends on your babies! DS1 has a great latch and decent suck, so he primarily is on the breast. DS2 has a worse latch and slow suck, so I pump and offer him more in the bottle. We were told to supplement last week , since the boys were not getting back to birth weight quickly. I posted about it here and got great responses (check out my posts and you can see the great advice I got there from twin mommas).

My milk came in on day 2. I pump what is left if they have a bad nursing session. I try to tandem feed, to save some time and sanity but prefer to start one twin about 10 minutes ahead of the other, to make sure at least one will nurse well. If I stagger them, I end up nursing for hours and then starting the next session right away. We offer either 1-2 ounces of breastmilk when they seem to still be hungry. Sometimes, I will do formula in the middle of the night so I can still have a stash of milk in the freezer. I find it a bit unreasonable to offer 1-2 oz of anything in a bottle after EVERY feeding, because my boys are dead asleep sometimes and have thrown it up at times.

Good luck to you and definitely dig up my post. You can do it!

So: to officially answer you, yes: I am doing a combo of breast, pump and formula. I try not to do formula but in the middle of the night, sometimes that one ounce after nursing does tide them over longer!

[twowhat?]

It really really varies, based on past threads here. For the first 2-3 months I would breastfeed (tandem), then pump, then supplement with the pumped milk. Eventually I could quit pumping/supplementing and just nurse them.

Either way you cut it, it's hard. Try your best, but don't discount choosing the method easiest for you to survive:)

[Uno-Mom]

That must be so stressful! I can't imagine. Have you looked through the Baby Food section? There were some long threads about this recently and maybe you'll find some more encouragement there. Or you might consider cross-posting your question in that forum for more replies.

Good luck!!!

[fivi2]

We had a hard time nursing. After a while of trying to nurse, pump, and supplement, I made the switch to just pumping. For us, it was great. It was such a relief for me to let go of trying to do it all and feel like I had to nurse or whatever. Once I made the decision, that part became much easier for us. (yes, there are difficult aspects, but it was a relief to not feel like I was trying and failing at something else).
I know a lot of twin moms who supplemented with formula or just formula fed from the beginning. I think you won't find a lot of judgment among twin moms whatever method you choose. Being a mom of multiples is HARD. You need to do whatever you can to keep yourself sane. IMO that is the most important thing.

Good luck!

[gatorsmom]

If you plan to breast feed, latch those twins on as often as you can! This will bring the milk flowing sooner, hopefully. In the meantime, supplementing is ok. As some of the other posters said, I also had to try to keep my twins awake enough to breast feed, then I gave them a dropper of formula bfing (because in the first few weeks, they wouldn't stay awake to suck), then after I was done feeding them, I'd pump. If you want to bf exclusively eventually, you really have to pump. It will stimulate your milk production.

It is an EXHAUSTING, frustrating process which is just added to the exhaustion you feel just keeping up with twins!!! Believe me, I remember those days. Here is a recent thread that talks about this same subject:

http://windsorpeak.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=400264

Come back and vent or ask for advice! There are lots of moms of twins here who will help if we can! :hug: