Bf twins

[butterflyexperience]

I'm feeling a but down about how my bf is going

Twins are 4 weeks old and mix fed to originally get their weights up

Now they are up I want to bf via boob and express

But I don't think I have enough

Twin 1 us a good feeder and you can hear her gulp it down

Twin 2 is a lazy feeder and falls asleep at breast and doesn't take much

I am eating and drinking well and trying to fit in expressing

My dh does the ff and thinks they need a top up after my bf to film them and settle them which is true

I am very sad and hurt that I'm not satisfying my babies

I feel like giving up

I bf my elder dc past age 1 so I know I can do it as I have done before

I feel like a failure

Oh butterfly I was in the exact same situation as you a few months ago and I got some really great advice in this section.

My twins are ten months now and I just stopped bfing a couple of weeks ago. At four weeks I totally felt like I didn't have enough milk, they were constantly feeding seemed unsettled etc. but I reals used now that this constant feeding is just them stimulating your supply. I also had one good feeder and one sleepy, less effective feeder but she got much better as the weeks went on. I would say,If you really do want to bf, avoid the top ups after every feed as this will affect your supply. Just put them on the Brest more frequently. I know this is hard because you feel like they're just sucking and sucking and getting nothing but they will be! Also fwiw, I could never really hear my boy swallowing but he obviously did.

I did however give a bottle of ff or ebm in the evenings. Dtg started rejecting this around three months so was then ebf but dtb always had it. I must say this really helped me keep going as it meant dp could give them this and you get a little breather because bfing twins in the first months is hard! It does get much much easier though I promise you.

I didn't get the hang of tandem feeding til at least a month I don't think.

Please don't feel like a failure! What you are experiencing is totally normal and you will ave enough milk for them, it just don't feel like it when they're draining you and seeming unsettled!

Feel free to pm me if you want to Ali about it. Not that I am an expert by any stretch of the imagination, we've just had similar experiences.

Good luck and you're doing great by the sound of it!

Thanks Nancy for your kind words

It makes a difference to know the empty sucking is normal!

Untill I wrote the post I'd forgotten that they are still tiny and its all still early days!

Am currently sitting here pumping!

It's dt2 who worries me as he is a slow feeder and falls asleep and breast and is a small weight

We also have two other dc who need us and I just can't get my head around cluster feeding dts through the night and being sleep deprived I just won't be able to cope with life at all and this scares me

I've done a bit of tandem feeding but feel that each baby needs to drink from both breasts to fill up so not sure how that works.
Do your breasts adjust to producing enough for both babies through one breast?

I never managed to feed my twins because they wouldn't latch, but I did express. It is tough finding the time to encourage good breast feeding with twins when you have other kids to cope with - I didn't manage it.

Tandem feeding should be better, because it stimulates your body to produce more (just like double pumping does). Also when the milk first starts to flow it is watery and thirst quenching, then it slows down and becomes richer - so it is still very worth while letting them suck even when they don't seem to be getting much (although you can't tell how much they are getting).

You may find one feeds more quickly than the other - doesn't necessarily mean they are getting more - just more efficient at sucking.

Topping up after a feed will counteract increasing your supply - so maybe try a day (one day at a time !) without top ups.

And at the end of the day, if it doesn't all come together, well you tried - they will be fine if you end up moving to formula feeding - a sane mother is more important than the rest.

Meant to say - generally supply will increase to meet demand - they don't both need to have both breasts each time. But maybe alternate sides so they each get a chance on each side (not sure if there is such a thing a dominant breast - thinking of handedness ).

Yes your breasts do just adjust. I had a boob per twin and swapped every 24 hours. Didn't start doing that before they were at least a few weeks though, before that it was just random.

With regards to the twin who is sleepy, just feed him as often as poss but maybe do top him up on an evening with a bottle of ebm or formula to give you a break and put your mind at rest.

If you get the hang of tandem feeding that will save you a lot of time as well. Have you got a twin breast feeding pillow? I had my Brest friend twin pillow and it was a life saver.

Anyway, you sound like you're doing amazingly, must be so hard with two other dcs too, I seriously don't know how you're doing it! I would feed at all guilty about mix feeding if that makes it easier, you've got to do what you can to get through and baby twin is f##king hard!!!

My twins are almost 6 months and I am ebf them after a rocky first month. I echo nancy in saying that the cluster feeding is normal normal normal - and goes on for longer than for a singleton. I found that it was better to replace one feed entirely for one baby per day rather than piecemeal top ups after each feed, that way it was easier for my boobs to adjust and keep up. I only started tandem feeding at about 5-6 weeks but it was a lifesaver and I still do a lot of feeds tandem (they hold hands now - awwww!).

My top tips

• better for your DH to take the fractious baby and jiggle them for 20 mins and then put them back on the boob than to always top up. This gives you a little break and allows your to mentally feel like it's a new feed rather than one continuous never ending feed!

• breastfeeding pillow - get one!

• feed feed feed. The more you feed the more milk you have. Feed directly in preference to pumping (I rarely pump I just can't be bothered. It means I don't get a break but actually once I accepted that, it was a lot easier and i became much more relaxed. Breaks are now a sleep in if they wake early, a bath, popping out to the corner shop without a baby - small things but theybare getting more and more as they get older).