Under 1s twin post-natal group? Should we have one? Who's in?!

[PeelingmyselfofftheCeiling]

The antenatal group is nearly full, any graduates fancy joining forces to compare

I'd have liked to do blw again but dts couldn't sit in highchairs when we started. Hopefully we can soon do a mixture of both.

Oh and pea soup was our supper and spinach was when I had nothing made. So you can improvise.

Silver angel- my DTs are on Aptamil too only because it's what they had in hospital. It seems to be the most expensive and never on offer!
Weaning seems a lifetime today. I hated it it the first time round. Can't imagine it with 2 and a fussy toddler at meal times!

Also big fan of Hipp jars in a previous life and Ella's pouches were synonymous with the term baby crack.

Life time away

Just wanted to jump in about weaning - my world was turned around when I was weaning DD when a community nurse told me that it was my responsibility to provide good, healthy food at regular intervals. It was my daughters responsibility to eat it. Whether she did or not is not my fault or something to feel guilty about.

Once I really took that on board it transformed meal times in our house, we're all much more relaxed and a whole area of stress has been removed...

Anyway, hth some people.

This thread is soaring away! I'm writing this at some ungodly hour again, as it seems to be the only time I can actually sit still and read all the posts! First time up tonight since 7pm, so some improvement (although will probably be back to normal tomorrow). I had quite a "boring" birth, due for elective CS at 38 wks because of placenta previa, brought forward to 35.5 wks because of small bleed, and then delayed by a week because no beds/neonatal cots! Felt in complete limbo for a week expecting to be rushed in for an emergency CS at any time! Both girls good sizes when born, DT1 6 lbs 6oz, and dt2 4 lbs 14 oz, and no special care needed which was a relief. Stayed in hospital 3 days, and definitely think elective CS is the way to go!! I started weaning last week, again started with baby rice, and now on Ella's pouches. There doesn't seem to be enough time in the day st the moment to think about pureeing, I'm sure i'll think differently in a few weeks as they start getting through more (and find the shopping bill increase!). Not too keen on the changes in the nappy department since they've had solids! I'm also finding it hard to get enough milk feeds in, especially as our "routine" (used in the loosest context!) had only just properly evolved a few weeks ago ! :o

Morning ladies

Hi Rets

Silver we use SMA gold only because that's what we used with ds and he loved it. All first stage milk is expensive as they are not allowed (under current restrictions) to reduce the price under any specific offers. it is said that this will encourage more people to ff rather than bf which I think is utter rubbish as you tend to decide early on which way you want to go or in many cases have the decision completely taken out of your hand. My sister uses aptimel with dn but again only because that's what she was started on in hospital.

Claire re mix - I bf all night and the morning feed, I alternate feeds during the day and ff before bed. Once they're on solids I'll reduce the day bf then eventually drop night bf once they sleep through (which has to happen soon doesn't it?!?!!!).

I'm loving the birth stories, sorry some of you had such difficult pg's, apart from being the size of a house mine wasn't too bad, but as people have said at least we all have two lovely healthy babies at the end of it!

So the girls were in their own room for the first time last night and it was officially one of the worst nights on record, Ayse woke up at 11 (normal), dh was coming back from the bathroom and went in and spoke to her so she was then awake and in bed with us, then Edie woke up at 1 with a nasty cough and proceeded to stay awake until 5am grizzling like she was massively uncomfortable but nothing I could do was helping! So dh took over at 5am so I could sleep only for Ayse-Rose to wake up at 5.30!!!! So we are all up, bar ds and all Knackered! It's going to be a long day!

Re weaning we just use simple foods at the beginning, mashed fruit and veg and rusks, then just whizz down extra off our main meal each day for when they're older xx

Bb3 what an awful night, hopefully tonight will be better. Against all the current advice we put our girls in their own room from day 1, I had a bed literally outside the door (which I still use for bad nights), but overall I think it has worked. Dd1 had to share a room with us until she was 18mths (we were renovating our house, and camping in a couple of rooms!), and she never slept well until she was in her own room. I had been thinking our DT's weren't sleeping well, but compared to some stories here I think they're doing ok!
Silver I use SMA gold too, my mum is a retired midwife, and that is what she recommended. I'm also mainly bfing at night, and a ffing in the day. In some ways I'm not looking forwards to stopping the bfing completely, as I love eating all the extra food (I've developed a sudden liking for baking cakes :o!!)

Oh BB3, you must be exhausted!

Ceevee - they were 5 months (3 corrected) and about 10lb. They stopped taking much at the dreamfeed and were fussing about with their breakfast bottle. GF said in her book that that was a sign they were ready so we went for it.

I wanted to do BLW but because of the prematurity they can't sit yet so we went down the puree route. I give them finger foods now as well - toast, veg, rice cakes etc. They gum away on them but not sure how much actually gets eaten. I think it would save time with regard to the pureeing and mashing everything but would prob tale longer for them to actually eat anything if they were feeding themselves. From how I understand it the main principle with BLW is to let them explore and develop tastes and the ability to chew etc, it actually doesn't matter if they don't anything because milk is still their main source of calories until they are one.

Apologies as well - I have no idea why my phone is deciding to post everything twice!

Oh BB3, you must be exhausted!

Ceevee - they were 5 months (3 corrected) and about 10lb. They stopped taking much at the dreamfeed and were fussing about with their breakfast bottle. GF said in her book that that was a sign they were ready so we went for it.

I wanted to do BLW but because of the prematurity they can't sit yet so we went down the puree route. I give them finger foods now as well - toast, veg, rice cakes etc. They gum away on them but not sure how much actually gets eaten. I think it would save time with regard to the pureeing and mashing everything but would prob tale longer for them to actually eat anything if they were feeding themselves. From how I understand it the main principle with BLW is to let them explore and develop tastes and the ability to chew etc, it actually doesn't matter if they don't anything because milk is still their main source of calories until they are one.

Apologies as well - I have no idea why my phone is deciding to post everything twice!

Thanks ladies - what makes it worse is today I'm leaving the kids to go to transitland (yes such a place exists), as dh wants to buy a new van for work and we are both signatories on purchases for the company so rather than being out enjoying the sunshine with the kids I'll be listening to him go on about engine sizes and load capacity! YAWN!

Peeling, I'm eagerly awaiting your birth story after that little teaser!!

Wedding you may be right in our old house it was a three story terraced town house thing with a bedroom on each floor so we had ds in with us for ages and then we lived with my parents while we built our new house (long story build delayed due to snow already rented out our old house, and we built on the side of my parents so seemed to make sense) but ds again slept in with us and he's a very bad sleeper.

I'll probably do a mix like you silver, predominately spoon fed mush to start with but with had held items that they can play with too!

morning ladies,

nice to see so many twin mummies around!!

ceeveebee I'm more than a bit at your lo's sleeping...I am desperate for some sleeeeep!

Having said that, I did get a 3 hours strecth last night (shoudl I say this morning? it was from 3to6am), but before that I'd only slept from 11 to midnight.. , we then got another couple of hours after 7am, but it does mean leaving our older dds (10 and 7) to their own devices! which makes me feel guilty, as especially dd2 needs some more attention.

MY birth story: planned cs because of breech t1 at 37+6. Was on bed rest from wk 27 to 35 due to a short cervix which really did my head in, so it was amazing that I got as far as I did! Also had bad pelvic pain throughout pregnancy and for 2-3 weeks after cs.
I absolutely hated everything about my cs, that just goes to show how different our experiences of the same thing can be, but after reading your experiences with premaature babies and NICUS I feel lucky that they held in there as long as they did!! I have a boy (Riccardo) and a girl (Emma), they were 5lb1 and 6lb3 respectively.

I can only feed from one breast due to previous health history, and doing top ups.I tend to breasfeed the one that wakes up first cries loudest and then offer breast again to other twin plus top up. Problem is it tends to be Riccardo who always get in there first and poor little Emma is getting more FF as she's much more placid and contented than her brother (other guilt trip for me here)! So when I remember I feed him FF and offer breast to her instead, but it's just all soo random and disorganised, I often wonder if there is a better way to do this, but haven't come up with one yet, so I just muddle through.
Also feeds are all over the place at the moment, they're 4 weeks and a half, I am not following any routine at the moment, and just feed on demand, hoping they will settle into one by themselves??

Sorry abouyt the me me post, I ahve read all your posts (mostly at night during feeds), but I cant remember who said what and I'm like 3 pages behind!!

It is howver very interesitng to read all your experiences, and to know we're all in good company re sleep deprivation!

Have a lovely Sunday

Silver I asked the paed if there were any differences btwn formulas and she said they were all much of a much

It's so nice that so many of us are at a similar stage!

silver - my girl is formula fed, boy breast (long story, for another time maybe!). I've also used SMA and then when I saw the HV she turned her nose up and "oh the cheap stuff! That's know for giving them constipation". So of course, I hit the panic button & switched to a combo of hipp and aptamil.Have to say, her poos are better which has confused me, thought the HV was spouting nonsense.
Also, have I got this correct - are premmie's given free formula? That's good if so and if not well that's how it should be!

bb3 - sending you some virtual sleep for tonight, fingers crossed. We're on night 4 of separate rooms, going well so far although on night 2 little fella started chatting loudly at 1am for 40 mins?!

Carrot slop has been consumed by boy, think he's going to eat me out of house and home. Girl another story. I've been in tears but got to go now, basically got downstairs and FIL had "done it for me". So i missed my own daughter having her first spoonfuls. Here come tears again, bugger it.

rets so sorry you missed your dds first tastes of solids, I'd be furious and in tears too, mind you, I am such a control freak when it comes to my dc. I can just about share them with dh!

I completely sympathise.

Rets, dt1 is ff and for dt2 has been mix fed from start with more bf than ff. Dt1 refused bf from wk 2-4 and then completely from wk 12. I gave up expressing at wk
16. That's a shame about the solids. I hope she spat it back at him.

Many scbus put premmies on special fat and vitamin added milk which can be got on prescriptions.

Our two were on SMA gold prem milk on prescription for the first few months, then we moved one onto anti-reflux milk and the other Cow & Gate on the advice of the paed. Certianly adds up with 2!
Round 2 of Pear Challenge went slightly better altho they're blatantly not really ready, but we'll persevere on doctors orders!
That is rubbish of your FIL tho - is he usually like this? Console yourself with the fact it will not have really worked without mummy there, so basically your daughter got carrot on him while waiting for you to feed her

rets I would have been absolutely fuming!!! Yeah, she'll just have spat it on him. PIL are sent to try us...

Really interested in the formula chat. So maybe not standard SMA. What are people doing bottle wise? I have bought a few Dr Browns as I heard somewhere they are good?? And breast pumps? Have you bought them?

Your night sounded awful BB3, I barely cope if dd does a 1-5 stint... Hope all in bed and you can relax now.

DD will not settle tonight, think she's got overtired but 3.5 weeks to sort her sleeping before twins arrive may as well give in now, its been so long

Rets I can sympathise, PIL definitely sent to try us! Dreaming we were having loads of sleep issues with our DD1 before the twins arrived, then when they were about 3 weeks she just started sleeping well again, whether it was because she was knew something was happening but not sure what, I don't know. When they arrive all the excitement will probably knock her sleep around for a bit aswell!
I used a tommy tippee electric breast pump, I was only expressing about once a day, and it was ok for that but think it would have struggled to do much more, and the tommy tippee wide neck bottles, which I'd also used for Dd1. We didn't have any real issues with colic or reflux so they were great!

Hey, can I join in too?! What a great idea for a thread!
I'll keep it short cos like bb3 I lost the lovely long post I wrote originally- grrrr! Also my twinnies are thrashing about at the boob - not easy! (11weeks old)

Thanks all, you've made me feel a bit better. As PIL go they aren't the worst I'm sure, just incredibly excitable with no patience. These people open their presents christmas eve as they can't wait. First year I thought they'd had one too many but no, they do it every year. I should have guessed they couldn't wait 5 minutes for me to finish breastfeeding ds upstairs.

janberry you're tandem feeding AND mning?! Respect!

Yes, rets, am feeding and mning! Am prepared to do any measure of multitasking to get more time for sleeping! Sometimes I use my phone (this is when my long message wouldn't post) or dp's PlayBook. The wonders of modern technology! Also babies are on an ez2nurse feeding cushion so quite secure. But it makes my arms ache cos have to type whilst holding device up high to avoid flailing arms! Will probably end up with frozen shoulder or something!
Can't believe what yr FIL did- you have my sympathy too- that was not on at all. I can really imagine my inlaws doing the same if they had half a chance. on you behalf.

I am in awe! I occasionally got tandem feeds working with the EZ cushion but then was basically beached and completely useless! Couldn't even really get them on/off myself, wish I'd been able to do what you're doing, would have made life sooo much quicker at times

Sorry, peeling, first half of my message was meant for you- put it down to sleep deprivation!