Feeding twins.....

[Rebecca1608]

Any tips? I'm bottle feeding. They spent over a week in scbu as they were delivered at 35 weeks and have been home since Tuesday. They are now 2 weeks old and feed every 3-4 hours in the day and every 2 in the night. They also take longer to settle at night. I am feeding on demand as i am struggling to bring their feeding times closer together. I'm really tired and still recovering from my section. Any tips or help?

Do you have a twin feeding cushion?
I found mine great for both breast and bottle feeding.
One or either side. Always on the same side. Both at the same time. Admittedly burping them was a knack but I got there in the end.

Only other tips, it gets better! It really does. Mine turned a corner at 6 weeks and another at 12.

Routine is your friend. I fed them together so if one woke up I woke the other and fed them. I know it kinda goes agai st the grain to wake a sleeping baby but with twins to feed I found it was the only way. Both up together, fed at same time, changed and then back to bef. Got it down to under an hour after a bit.

And do you have anyone to help you out with the feeding?

I also fed mine together at the same time on a strict routine every 3 hours during the day but only after they got to 6 weeks ish. Before that demand fed. It was really hard but it does get better. Congratulations, twins are lovely and so worth it. Mine are 5 now and just such a joy.

Thankyou for your replies. Yes i have my lovely OH to help with feeds but we take it in turns to feed and obviously he will be going back to work in 2 weeks so just after some tips.

Routine is my biggest tip. Mine spent 2 weeks in Scbu and I kept them in the strict feeding routine they had them on in Scbu.

I fed them 3 hourly during the day without fail until they were 6 months. At night I fed on demand which after 2 weeks was at 2am and 5am. Keep them topped up during the day, they will feed less at night this way. At 8 weeks they were only waking once, at 3am.

I did the same as neversleepagain. Fed them every three hours during the day until 6 month (bf).

I'm four weeks ahead of you and yet to manage tandem feeding although this is my aim. It is exhausting and I rermember feeling like I was forever feeding, winding, changing, sterilising with no time to sleep. It will get easier in that you'll get better and quicker at ding things like winding them and sterilising. They will also get mor efficient at feeding and gradually you'll notice feeding one takes a few minutes less than it did the week before and those few minutes start to add up in the night. On occasion, my two will wake at similar times or one wil wake whilst the other is being fed and I've become adept at juggling feeding one with popping the other one in a bouncy chair to allow them to sit upright for a bit before winding them when the other one has finished being fed (who then goes in the chair).

As for them being mrie unsettled in the night, I remember mine would cry more at night than during the day often because they were havung it wait for me to get to them whereas during the day I had an extra pair of hands around. It was hard in my stress leveks which probably didn't help but again with time, experience and practise, I became calmer about their crying which seemed to help them (or at least it seems that way).
Not sure whether that helps but it honestly does get easier and suddenly you'll find they have slept a bit longer. Trying to get more into them during the day does make a difference. My husband does a shift 21.30-0030 so I can sleep and often they cluster feed at this time which is a bit tough on him but often means they are then much more settled for me overnight because they've had a good chunk of food.
Good luck and congratulations. Those early days are tough but now at six weeks we are starting to see smiles and it makes even the lightest night seem that bit better
X

I did the night feeds on my own as DH never woke up. I put a big heavy pillow between my legs and put them on there. We had a feeding pillow but I never got on with it. When DH not waking up pushed me over the edge I moved into the spare room with them and slept with one either side of me with them in sleepyheads. That worked a treat as I could feed the one that woke and then essentially do a dream feed with the other and because they had dummies I could roll over and put a dummy in without waking up myself too much. It came as a bit of a shock when they went into their own room that they weren't sleeping through (I didn't realise how often I was waking up with them in the night!!).