Preparing to BF twins

[Blending]

Right! I am in a positive frame of mind and I want to be prepared as possible to BF my twins who are due by c-section on the 29th May.

I'm a little fed up with all the real life nay-sayers who think it will be impossible. (Mind you the were all the same people who said I'd have my DD on the bottle within a month)

I fed DD until 9 months but realise this will be different, as I cant take any credit for her as she loved to BF, and there weren't too many issues.

So what do I need to be ready? Last time I had a hand pump to express, but I'm thinking a double electric one this time. If so, which one? Buy or hire?

I have a nursing chair, with foot rest which is comfortable, from last time.

Do I need a cushion of sorts if I want to tandam? or is feeding one then the other more manageable?

Nipple cream is probably a must?

Anything else?

[Blending]

Oh and if it doesnt work out I will not beat myself up, I just want to give it my best shot, as I really enjoyed it last time and was sad when DD started to refuse the breast.

[Avondale]

There's a special tandem twin bf pillow available if you google it. I think TAMBA hire out equipment too or you could post a message asking for any. Good luck x

[ReallyTired]

Congratualations on your inniment arrival. I imagine that your experience of breastfeeding your daughter will stand you in good stead.

I haven't got twins, but I have friend who breastfed her twins to eleven months.

I suggest you contact La Leche league to see if they can put you contact with someone who has actually breastfeed twins. Your local La Leche League will have a lending libary and you might be able to borrow this book.

mothering multiples

[Margetts]

Congratulations on having twins, they really are extra special.

My twins were my first children and I breast fed them for 16 months. However it became apparent after about 10 days that my milk supply was very low in the early evening and I could have either spend the whole evening feeding them which I didn't want to do or give them a bottle of formula. I opted for the second and gave it to the about 6pm, they always slept well after this and it gave me the evening to recover and for my milk supply to catch up before the night shift! They never confused the two and only expected a bottle once a day.

I never managed tandem feeding until they were over a year. Be prepared to spend the first fews months sitting on the sofa feeding. After I fed one I always woke the other to feed and quickly got them into a routine of feeding at the same time. Particularly in the night I found this essential.

One of the big plus I found of breast feeding twins, was the amount of food yo could eat.

The only equipment I had was a breast feeding pillow which was great for propping up babies, but could master using it to feed.

[Blending]

Thank you!

Its great to hear of other peoples experiences.

DH used to do a dream feed of expressed milk about 2 hours or so after I went to bed, so we've agreed that for the first few months I will do the early evening feed, say 7 or 8 and then try and grab a 4-5 hour block of sleep, and he will give them a bottle. If it works it should make me feel a little more human, as the sleep deprivation with just one nearly killed me until we tried that.

There doesnt appear to be a LLL in the Merseyside area, so I used the online form, basically with the same qusetions from my initial post.

I am looking forward to being able to eat lots! At the moment I can only fit in a few mouthfulls at a time before feeling over stuffed. I sat there drooling yesterday over my Dads fabulous roast, and gorgous desserts and could only manage a tiny tiny bit and I felt hard done by! I wanted more! On the up side I've got a huge bump but no weight elsewhere.

[RosinaCopper]

Hi Blending, congratulations, twins are very special! I bf my two (having bf their older brother) and they were almost ebf, but, like Margetts, they each had a bottle of formula (probably only 3 or 4 oz each) in the evening just to give me a break. I used a breast pump while they were in hospital but never found the time to use one once I was out. Lansinoh was my best friend at the beginning!

In the early days all I seemed to do was feed and change babies, and do laundry - the amount of laundry was a bit of a shock, tbh! Mine were delivered at 34 weeks and I had to express while they were in SCBU for a fortnight, but we got things established quite well. Once home, I took a slightly different approach to Margetts and decided that unless they were both awake and hungry at the same time, I'd feed each seperately on demand and not wake the sleeping twin - I realise that this extended the amount of time I was feeding in a 24hr period, but figured that it gave them some one to one time with me. At night I would have the feeding baby in with me and feed lying down until we both went to sleep. When twin 2 woke up, I'd put twin 1 back in his cot, asleep, get twin 2 in bed with me and then feed him to sleep. This was repeated over and over in the night, but I decided that this would give me the most amount of sleep. That said, it did feel like there were some nights when it was non stop, which was a bit of a shocker.

I had a major wobble at 3 weeks, deciding that I just couldn't continue, but this was when we introduced the evening top up and we continued just fine. I was given a feeding pillow by my friend and it was really useful for the times when I fed them both together, but the rest of the time I had either of them in the usual crook of the elbow hold.

I was advised by my hospital to stick to one breast per baby per day and then swap to the other one the following day, which meant that each got a go on the more productive breast every other day. This worked really well for us, and I continued it through the night so would lie on one side for t1 and on the other for t2 when they needed feeding.

And the eating !! I returned to WW after their 6 week check and lost weight really easily, because I got almost double the daily allowance of WW points, as they gave me extra points for each bf baby! Lots of chocolate was eaten but the weight fell off. (Unfortunately it's all back on now, adjusting to eating less onvce they were weaned was really tough!)

Good Luck, ignore the naysayers and ultimately, as long as your babies get fed and everyone's happy, it's irrelevant whether it's bm or formula (although I have to admit, the thought of sterilising two sets of bottles didn't appeal to me!!)

[FreeButtonBee]

I am (literally!) bf my 11 wk twins as I type.

It is entirely possible - I don't even bother with an expressed or formula bottle in the evening - just rode through the cluster feeding. Which finally looking like it's coming to an end, thak god.

I tandem feed during the day as much as possible. If one twin is asleep and the other needs a bit of a boost, then they get a sneaky extra feed. At night, I feed separately unless they wake at the same time in which case I crack out the tandem pillow again. My twins were very slow feeders to start with so feeding singly wasn't really an option tbh as the other would have been roaring with hunger.

I did lose all my baby weight within 6 weeks which was awesome and a very nice set of collar bones are now starting to appear as we'll - excellent side benefit.

We did have a rocky start - both had a tongue tie and hospital assistance was pretty fucking pathetic. But given that you have bf before, you know what you're doing and what to watch out for. Most of my issues were around understanding how to bf and not about bfing teins IYKWIM.

Do recommend that you join your local teins club. I am only getting around to it now and wish I'd done it pre birth. My NCT girls are really nice but support of people who actually know about twins is really invaluable.

Good luck!!!

[AprilFoolishness]

Congratulations, first of all on going so far to term, that is a massive achievement.

My twins were early birds so in NICU and then came home mixed feeding on a four-hourly schedule. There were times when the schedule saved my sanity, but I did have supply issues (from day one, not related to the schedule in the beginning) and wished I could have just ebf'd them.

The one thing I would say with twins is not to set yourself any strict goals, just be flexible and see how it goes. My two stopped bf at different times too.

I used a twin feeding pillow from Twins-UK (it's blue and white, can't remmber the name) on the rare occasions I tandem fed. I would also reccommend a good upright bouncy chair for the one that isn't feeding (Baby Bjorn) as feeding two is much easier than winding two if you have pukers!

The Mothering Multiples book is great, I just bought my copy far too late.

Good luck!

[AprilFoolishness]

(oh, and I did NOT lose my baby weight, but I suspect mainlining flapjacks whilst mixed ffeeding is to do with that!)

[IllegalYoniFarm]

Hi OP, congratulations!
I bf my twins exclusively until they were 18mths.
It was hard at first, because you cant feed and walk like i did with DS1.
I found it easier to always tandem feed, if one wanted feeding i would wake the other, consequently they have always done everything in tandem! Sleep poo, whinge!!
I had a ez2nurse feeding pillow but any horseshoe shaped pillow will do. I found the easiest way was to sit down, surround myself with cushions and sit the bf pillow on top so it was just at boob height, then i could latch both on and mn handsfree!

There is a good youtube vid explaining logistically how to get into position, ill link to it in a min.

Make sure you have a drink, snack, tv remote, phone, laptop ipad or whatever (i demanded an i pad as essential bf twins equipment!) to hand before you sit down, i once sat feeding for three hours in the very early days!

It is definitely possible, congratulations again, even with my terrible two's fuelled bundles of gorgeousness, i still miss those snuggles