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Eight week old twins.....advice please....cmp intolerance.. Naps...feeds

4 replies

Starfish1980 · 05/07/2013 18:00

Hello

My identical girls are just over eight weeks now, five weeks corrected. They are gaining weight but we have had horrible feeding issues with them finally being put on aptamil pepti for suspected cow's milk protein intolerance...we have already tried gaviscon and are still on zantac. However the girls are racked with horrible wind which makes them cry practically all the time.

I just can't soothe them particularly as i can't cuddle them together. They seem to spend most of their time in their widgey feeding cushions when we are in the house as their bouncy chairs and playmat cause even more tears!

I feel they are such sad little things, we have had no smiles yet and they don't seem ready to respond to toys.

The doctor says stick with the pepti for another six weeks but with feeds every three hours, day and night, there are just so many opportunities for them to get upset and fractious it is driving me spare. My worries make matters worse as they are bound to be picking up on my tension and the seem much more settled with my DH or grandparents, particularly my mum who is round a lot to help.

I just don't know how to move forward...I am not even sure what is causing their distress? sometimes i doubt it is cmpi as the pepti doesn't seem to be helping.

I'm not sure how best to comfort them or engage them with play, encourage those smiles.

I'm not sure when they should be napping or how to encourage four hourly feeds, particularly at night, as my attempts seem to have led to more upset days.

I generally feel out of my depth and would appreciate any advice. I have lovely supportive family and friends but nothing seems to help. They are presently fitfully dozing on their feeding cushions after a feed, screaming out every so often as the tummy pain hits and all i can do is cry.

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minesapintofwine · 05/07/2013 20:28

Sending hugs and Wine. I remember feeling exactly the same. My dts (now 17mo) cried CONSTANTLY in the first few months. One in particular had very bad colic and just did not sleep. It was bloody awful, the very very worst experience I have ever had. So I do know exactly how you feel. I tried different milk, bottles gripe water etc. In the end what worked for us was the Dr prescribed Gaviscon as they though it could be silent reflux and things settled. I did feel very out of my depth and remember crying (well I cried a lot) one night trying to get them to take a feed without being cranky. First of all op it gets better. I was told the same thing and just didn't believe it all...but it did! For us we started a bedtime routine at about 9 weeks and gradually they got happier (my dt1 smiled at 10 weeks and dt2 about 12 I THINK) and they grew and they reached milestones! We never truly had a napping routine until about 5 months old and then it was just 3 catnaps a day. I suggest that you lean on all the support you can get and keep saying..this two shall pass.Because it will! and you'll be here this time next year passing on your advice having weathered the storm

minesapintofwine · 05/07/2013 20:30

Oh and just to add I tried to encourage 4 hourly feeds but gave up they were happiest on 3 hourly and naturally fell into longer sleeps at night. In fact they first slept all the way through a 12 weeks (but not consistently after I must say) when just a few weeks prior we had been up ALL night (think watching the sun go down and rise with no shut eye was the worst)

CreatureRetorts · 05/07/2013 20:34

Ditch the idea of four hourly feeds (why are you doing that, it's quite an outdated idea) and try feeding them on demand or at least every 2-3 hours. They'll stretch out the feeding times as they get older.

Starfish1980 · 05/07/2013 21:13

Thank you so much, in bloody tears again now that there could be light at the end of the tunnel...the advice of my lovely friends all derives from them raising singletons and not very grumpy ones at that...i have done the sun down/ rise thing only once and that was bad enough. We have something of a bedtime/ get up routine and it gives me something to hang the rest of the day around. One foot in front of the other i suppose x

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