How often should they feed in first few days?

[e3chick]

my twins seem too placid and don@t seem to be feeding enough, but i don@t know if i am over worrying. They probably don't ask for it more than once every 5/6 hours....
they are about 48 hours old now.

please excuse crap typing and abrupt message - don't have many hands free!

Normally I would say that as long as you're feeding to request then each baby is different. However, I would expect them to be feeding a wee bit more than that as newborns. For them and for stimulating your milk to come in in plentiful supply.

Looking back, however, dd was very, very sleepy at first, as well as jaundiced, so wasn't as vociferous in the first 2 days as she was in the 2nd.

What happens if you offer? When dd was sleepy at first I used to offer whenever she stirred and after a couple of days she woke up a bit, the jaundice cleared and there were no concerns at all about gaps between feeds. In that, there weren't any!

Congratulations btw. Boys, girls or one of each?

Well when I offer, when she stirs for instance, t2 falls asleep as soon as my nipple touches her lip. Even after I have taken her clothes off and she has been screaming. I have tried hand expressing onto her toungue and she still falls asleep. She has actually just had a small feed, but not big enough considering the gap since the previous one.
T2 demands more although still not often enough, but her latch is not good and she has made me sore...so that is another complication.

I wonder if they are jaundiced...the paed didn't mention it but then she only had time to do the newborn check on t1.

Both girls by the way!

Aah lovely, twin girls. I think as you are not happy with the amount they are feeding, there's a latch problem and you don't know if their sleeping is normal or not, then best just to ask somebody who knows. Are you in the UK? Can you see your midwife today? Do you have a local breastfeeding counsellor? It's very hard to know what's normal for your babies but if you have questions then there are people who can answer them.

Are they weeing? Has the meconium cleared/is it clearing?

Keep bumping this btw. There are some lovely, knowledgeable MNers out there.

www.kellymom.com/bf/normal/newborn-nursing.html

HTH. sounds like they should be feeding A LOT more. DS certainly did.

DC3 was very sleepy and reluctant to feed as a newborn. Turned out he had an infection and had to have AB, within 24 hours he was much more awake and able to feed more frequently.

That doesn't seem very often to me - are they still sleepy from the birth?

Has your milk come in yet? I would suggest you keep them both very close (skin, to skin if possible) and keep offering gently every time they stir.

Perhaps you could also hand express a little bit to help stimulate your supply & to have ready to give them if they need a little top up to get them going.

And if they still aren't feeding much in a few hours, give your midwife and one of the breastfeeding helplines a ring, especially if you think they might be getting dehydrated etc. In fact if it was me I'd probably be on the phone already but I am a real worrier!

Congratulations!

Thank you for replying, I am sorry to have gone awol. Just had milking on the brain so haven't had much time for the internet.

Well they are 5 days old now. Still have sleepy phases - like now - but they also seem to be going ok...I say cautiously.

I had a big session with the midwife after posting here, and then had a friend who is a peer supporter round the next day who have been checking the latch and boosting my confidence. I have also rung a supporterline and they weren't actually very worried at all. I think the twins thing is just freaking me out.

My milk came in on Sunday/Monday and the small one's poos have started to change yellow, and she is peeing well - she is more of the worry because she was only 6lb7 and still doesn't seem to be having big enough feeds or demand enough, she swallows beautifully but then seems to get knackered after 5 minutes and no amount of tickling/undressing can revive her then. The bigger one feeds for longer but her latch is not as good. She pees well, but her poos still haven't turned yellow.

I think I just have to keep on offering and then just trust in the process.