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Infant feeding

twins now 5 months old and back to waking 3 times a night - help!

7 replies

thenapper · 04/05/2008 12:39

Hello everyone, I wonder if I can tap your collective wisdom? My twins are now 5 months old and in the last week they have returned to feeding at 10.30 pm ish (which they haven't done for 3 months) 2am ish and 5am ish. I am knackered. I have been exclusively BF and wondered if I now didn't have enough. However, they stop feeding and fall back to sleep contented. Is there any tip to try to get them to take more so that they go longer? DD licking baby rice but not really feeding on it and DS not showing any interest at all. Please help!

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evenhope · 04/05/2008 14:35

No advice. Just to say my DD did exactly the same at the same sort of age after a couple of months of sleeping through. Think it's "normal"

(don't think it's possible to not have enough milk BTW. Suckling = milk production)

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superloopy · 04/05/2008 14:47

My DS is 5 months old and I am having the exact same problems as you. I've not started him on baby rice yet. I too am BFing and feel like I am up half the night getting cold!

I will keep and eye on this thread to see if anyone knows the magic answer.....

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mears · 04/05/2008 14:48

They are boosting your supply and it will settle again. The more you feed the more milk you make.
Well done for breastfeeding twins BTW

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dairymoo · 04/05/2008 21:16

Hi TheNapper - well done on BF your twins! I have twins too (8 mo, also exclusively BF) and we went through exactly the same thing around the 5 mo mark, although they didn't drop the 10:30pm feed as early as yours . TBH, I just went with it and suffered the fatigue whilst it lasted. The good news is that once they reached 6.5 months or so (and I started weaning them) they did go back to their one night waking, but I don't think it was because of the actual food, more that they had got through the growth spurt. It's a killer but it does pass - just hang in there and trust your body as it will def make enough milk, especially as evenhope says, with all the extra suckling.

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thenapper · 05/05/2008 08:34

Thanks guys, I guess it's just keep going. Although the thought of a whole month 1/2 of this sounds exhausting dairymoo - and that's how I feel too 'muumy-cow'!
I did try DS after he'd finished feeding with some expressed milk and he took an ounce extra and slept longer. Am I wrong to supplement like this? Will this little top up interfere with stimulating my udders?

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dairymoo · 05/05/2008 13:36

I'm no expert at all, but I'd think that by now your supply is pretty well established and wouldn't be too badly affected by an EBM top-up here and then. However, if your babies are going through a growth spurt (and it sounds like they are, classic time for it too) then you'd probably be better off trying to offer another BF during the day in the hope that it might make them go longer at night, at the same time upping your supply. I think at this point I was feeding every 2 hours or so during the day and about every 3 hours at night. Really tough but we got through it in the end and you will too.

To give you some hope though...my DTs are now getting BF at 7am, 10:30am, 2pm and 7pm - with one night feed usually between 3-4am which lasts no more than 10 mins. I know that some feed less than this but to me this is a wonderful change of events and means that I'm not constantly stuck on the sofa or getting my norks out in public!!

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thenapper · 09/05/2008 09:04

OK, so it is settling a bit now, they tend to only take an ounce or so at 10pm and then 2.30 ish for 10 mins and now through to 6.30 (yippee!). Who knows whether this is a new pattern or just a false sence of security! DD now wolfing down anything in site and surprising amounts of it too. Now on to weaning which is a whole 'nother ball game...