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Multiple births

When do you start showing with twins? What is life with twins like? Join the conversation on our Multiple Births forum.

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Original poster

Two week old twins - please help!

16 replies

TaraQ · 03/03/2009 11:28

My twin boys are two weeks old - born at 34 and a half weeks (so they are now officially nearly 37 weeks old). We have just come home from hospital but I am having a feeding nightmare. I am breastfeeding them - but also give the occasional bottle. One of them feeds really well for a good half an hour and then will sleep happily. The other however is a VERY sleepy feeder. He falls asleep within 5 mins (this applies to breast and bottle) and despite taking babygrow off, changing nappy etc, I struggle to get much food into him. But this means that he wakes after an hour and a half wanting more food.

I am trying to feed the boys together but this is becoming impossible due to their different feeding habits. Last night I was practically up all night trying ot satisfy their different needs.

Has anyone got any ideas? I am desperate! xx

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faeriefruitcake · 03/03/2009 11:44

Express and let partner share the burden of some of the night feeds.

My DT's born at 37 weeks. I expressed from the start to build up supplies as it were. One wont latch on at all so I give her the expressed milk in a bottle. At night DH and I take a twin each.

Mine are now 12 weeks and it has got lots easier. When one wants feeding I wake the other and feed them together.

Hope this helps

Original poster

TaraQ · 03/03/2009 11:49

Thank you! Did you struggle to get yours to take bottles? Mine would only take breast to begin with. Now they are starting to take bottles but gulp down such ridiculous amounts of air that they are really windy and sick. Does this get better?...I guess that as their weight increases, they are going to be able to stay awake for longer during feeds anyway. x

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Bmum1 · 03/03/2009 15:02

Mine were born at 37 weeks and are now three weeks old (yesterday was their due date), and we have always woken them to feed them together and regularly every four hours. They are pretty settled on this routine, but it can be a struggle to get feeds down them when they are particularly sleepy.

Hope this helps.

Original poster

TaraQ · 03/03/2009 16:07

Oh my gosh Bmum1 - if both of mine could last 4 hours I would be very happy! One of them will but the other is such a sleepy feeder that he cannot drink enough to sustain him for that long. Hopefully things will pick up as they get older x-

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kathryn2804 · 03/03/2009 16:09

I would try to latch the bad feeder on every feed, then after he has stopped sucking completely (they quite often feed in their sleep for a bit), wake him up and try him again, then wake him up and top him up with a bottle of expressed. It shouldn't take too long for him to grow stronger and more alert, then you'll be able to drop the bottle top-up and just breastfeed him.

Try to feed the good feeder yourself all the time so all the expressed milk can go to the bad feeder. Expressing is the most time consuming bit.

I've been peer supporting a Mum in exactly the same situation as you, one day the bad feeder just got it and she's been sailing ever since.

Good luck and well done.

Bmum1 · 03/03/2009 20:36

TaraQ mine are bottle fed, which I probably should have said all along! I think that makes it easier, plus they are a little bit older and probably bigger, which also means they tend to feed better.

Good luck with it, my first son (I have two older boys) was just like your poor feeder, I had a nightmare keeping him awake to feed and then he would wake up screaming starving an hour later (he was breast fed). In the end I did give up and bottle feed him too, but I have plenty of friends who succeeded where I failed, so I send lots of good vibes and hope things get better for you soon.

faeriefruitcake · 04/03/2009 10:04

Luckily no struggle to take bottles, I used to switch from one to other depending on how tired I was. I wind them half way through and that helps. But both were windy breast or bottle more so than eldest.

I got an electric pump cause the hand held one I used with eldest was too time consuming.

Original poster

TaraQ · 04/03/2009 12:05

Thank you all for your ideas and support. We actually tried giving both boys a bottle of formula at 10 o'clock last night - our neonatal midwife suggested trying it because it has a higher fat content than breast milk. I think we will try it tonight aswell and see how it goes. Trouble is, sleepy feeder struggles to stay awake through bottle aswell! x

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ChopsTheDuck · 04/03/2009 12:09

aww, sympathy!

I could never get mine sychronised, but evenutally they settled a bit more.

I'd be tempted to try different teats if they are taking in that much aiur with bottles. Wind halfway through, which will help keep them awake too.

can your partner help more? If you are giving the odd bottle, can he do the first night feed so you get a bit of uninterrupted sleep?

If they are feeding seperately, it might be worth feeding them in bed lying down so at least you can doze a bit during feeds.

fishie · 04/03/2009 12:09

tara it might be worth re-posting on the breast and bottle feeding topic.

it isn't true that formula has more fat than breast milk, so your mw is clearly not very well informed on bfing

tryingtosleep · 04/03/2009 12:24

hi taraQ

sounds like you're doing really well - is the sleepy feeder the smaller twin? if so they may just not be able to hold as much milk? (i'm guessing)

mine were born at 36.5 wks and it took a little while to sort out the breastfeeding
i fed them separately and didn't get much sleep
they didn't do routines and i just fed on demand - when and where!

at the beginning i just slept in the bed with both of them - then when one wanted feeding i could just roll over and feed them lying down - and it wasn't nearly so tiring

don't worry too much - it will all sort itself out - as long as they're putting on weight - that's the main thing

i found that things got a bit easier at 3 months - although they didnt really settle into a routine til 5 months

good luck!

Original poster

TaraQ · 05/03/2009 10:20

Thats really useful tryingtosleep. Yes - the sleepy feeder is the smaller one. At some feeds he literally only feeds for 2-3 mins. At a good feed he will feed for 7-8 mins which still isn't brilliant. My husband and I have given them bottles at 10ish for the past 2 nights but (probably a coincidence) the twin that he has fed hasn't settled. Wonderig whether to top up after some feeds. Or whether to try giving sleepy feeder alternate breast and bottle.

OP posts:

tryingtosleep · 05/03/2009 14:29

do you have any breast-feeding cafe/group in your area? i had a great one - and a breast-feeding advisor who actually came to my house! i would try and find one if i was you - i found it so helpful
(i found just saying i had twins brought in a lot of extra help!)

maybe when the little one's just feeding for 2 mins - he's not really hungry? 7-8 mins sounds reasonable to me - at the beginning anyway -
do you keep a note of your feeds? - i found it helpful to for the first few weeks...

it's entirely up to you whether you want to mix breast and bottle - but i just worried that the more bottle i gave the less my breasts would get used to producing - don't know if that makes any sense or not

anyway good luck - sounds like you're doing great!

TeaSleepFood · 06/03/2009 12:15

Hi there,
just thought I'd add me two penn'th!
My DTs were born at 38 weeks but DS was really quite pants at feeding. WE tried all the tricks that you are doing and he still didn't feed for long before sleeping. He also felt diffently on the boob. I used to put DD on first to get the let down happening on both boobs and then pop him on so it wasn't sucha struggle for him. It turns out he had a tongue -tie which they snipped when he was two weeks old. It made a huge difference. I think feeding was such an effort for him before the snip that he used to exhaust his little self.

Don't know if any of that's useful.
You're doing great by the way!

anjlix · 07/03/2009 21:06

Hi mine were also born at 34 weeks and it was a nightmare to feed them. They were so sleepy that it often took 45 mins to feed them any decent amount. They only lasted 2-2.5hrs or 3 hrs if we were lucky. But this goes away by around week 10 or so. We had to keep waking the babies by wiping face with a wet towel, pulling ears, tickling feet etc. I dont think there is a way around this. Prem babies are usually very sleepy. Mine still are at 3.5 months. Even when I breast fed (4 weeks), I always did a top up just to be sure. And I only breast fed one baby and the other was bottle fed by mum/hubby. I was only able to synchronize them consistently after week 10. Before that it was a hit or miss.

Just remember that you cant compare your babies to some who are born past 37 weeks until at least 6 mos. There is a huge difference in sleeping/feeding. But it does get better.

It might be worth it to you to get some night help (even if it is alternate nights) for 5-6 weeks. This is the roughest patch. Once they go 3-4 hrs between feeds you will manage much more easily.

MerryMarigold · 08/03/2009 17:54

For quite a few weeks i used to go to bed at 8 and dh had them downstairs till 12am with bottles, either expressed or formula, whatever was available. Just gave me 4 hours sleep, enabled me to last rest of the night...i've always fed them separately and still do, just find it easier.

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