Long feedsand low milk supply - please help!!

[FioHicks]

i know that everyone says that supply ad demad is the way breastfeeding works and so of course it is perfectly possible to exclusvely reastfeed twins but my milk didnt come in til after a week in spite of feeding constntly and even then i barely got any. now my twin girls are 4 weeks old and I am trying to wean them off the formula supplement that we had to start due to excessive weight loss. my feeds take two hours at least, sometimes longer and even after that the girls are sometimes starving only to start the next feed hlf an hour to an hour later. i express after most feed as well to try and get my supply up and ne feed at night we do just bottles so i can get one strtech of sleep and wen i express for that feed still only producing 1oz per boob. i feel like i am doin everthing i possible cantoincrease suply but its not wrking and the long feeds without ffilling up the girls are super frutrating any help or advice?

What have you tried FioHicks? I'm not anywhere near as qualified as momma to advise you but I've found eating and drinking water excessively and relaxing helps my milk supply. Getting very stressed makes my milk less. Could you try having a nice warm bath before a feed or expressing in the bath? Agree with momma that pumping doesn't always show how much milk you have.

Not a mum of twins but had probs with low milk supply with DS, and was worried about same with DD. check out this site. I took fenugreek capsules and did breast compression. expressing is useless as a guide! DD now 15 weeks and still only get 4oz total if I express but she's obviously getting more than that! try and find a feeding advisor/BF counsellor - even if they tell you you're doing everything right! Confidence will do wonders for your supply!

agree with babymooning - constant feeds, cuddles and skin to skin - can work wonders

And please get yourself to a BF counsellor or group. They will be very eager to help you and may be able to suggest minor adjustments to your girls' latch, that will help them feed more effectively (i.e. faster!)

If you're happy to say what town you live in, I can have a look around for groups for you.

Congratulations on the birth of your daughters, and well done for persevering with the breastfeeding.

Definitely get a breastfeeding counsellor round, it might be a not quite perfect latch causing long feeds. A millimetre of adjustment can make all the difference.

The going to bed and skin-to-skin for a few days is great, lots of lovely prolacting floating round your body making loads of lovely milk!!

If you're having trouble dropping all the top-ups at once, then try doing mornings first. Give yourself a few hours where you just keep putting them back on the breast with no top=ups, then continue as usual the rest of the day. Do this for a few days in a row and you'll find your milk supply increasing and babis will be more efficient and take more milk in one go. Then extend the time period into lunchtime or early afternoon. Leave the evenings til last as babies always unsettled and need to cluster feed at that time. It has worked for a few twin Mums that I've seen. Takes a couple of weeks to drop the formula completely!

My DD used to take well over an hour for a feed, only to be hungry again within 30 mins. I gave up breastfeeding within the first few weeks because it was so frustrating and tiring.
Then when I had my twins 6 months ago, one fed perfectly and the other couldn't latch on and couldn't get full. Turns out that both of the poor feeders had weak chins and their jaw muscles were too weedy so they couldn't get a full mouthful and couldn't hang on properly! It's probably not the same thing with your twins, but just thought I'd mention it cos none of the 3 bf counsellors or midwives I saw with my DD noticed it. Anyway, there is a weird hold that supports their chins (called dancers hand or something) and they can feed normally until their jaw muscles strengthen after a few months or so.
I hope you find out what the problem is and manage to continue feeding. But if you don't and have to switch to bottles it really isn't the end of the world (although it definitely feels like it is) and your twins will be just as happy. Good luck!

Hello there, wondered here by mistake but wanted to say what an amazing job you're doing.

Didn;t have twins but did feel like you're feeling.

Maybe its taking a littl while to ge thte whole supply and emand thing going.

Agree with lots of looking after Mummy - resting and eating and drinking well. Also baby mooning is the way forward.

I foun he best thing for my breast feeding was good TV. She fed for like an hour at a time....
I;m sure it will get better - you're so amazing, wow, wonder if I;d have stuck at it so long with 2!! Glad I stuck with it though - very worth it in the end

Wow, thanks for all the advice everyone! HoochieMomma, thanks for the breast compression advice - does seem to help them take it a bit faster at least though they still cant get enough. Bt eh way, your kids are gorgeous! Did you manage to breastfeed your twins? any similar issues to me? I got them weighed the other day and they hadnt gained any weight sadly in a week so we have had to up their supplements again. i am intrigued by the baymooning idea thugh - is there any good websites about it? have had a breastfeeding counsellor coming regularly - seems ther is nothing wrong wit my latch.
babymooning would be possible for me since I am living with my mum nd sha does all housework anyway so I am lucky! I am taking fenugreek and have been on dom peridom which is also supposed to increase supply and am starting bf group this week. Deedar, one of my twins has a receeding ching - would that affect bf? thnks for all the encouragement!!

Fio, if it is possible for you to babymoon - do it! Just lie in bed, feed feed feed all day and night without giving them top-ups if possible.

My DTs used to cry all night, they never seemed satisfied but I just fed and fed and fed until eventually they slept. That lasted 7 weeks then they were just having one feed in the night.

For babymooning, the babies don't necessarily both have to be in bed with you at same time (I was never comfortable having them both in with me because it meant I had my back to one while feeding the other) so I used a bedside cot, or a moses basket would be fine.

I didn't feel like I had enough milk until about 12 weeks in - they just seemed to be on one constant growth spurt! But after 12 weeks it fell into place and I think BFing was so much easier than FFing in long run (twin-mum friends who FF'd seemed to have it much tougher).

My mum used to do one night a week for me where she would give ebm in the night so I could sleep - the sleep was great but I felt my supply was affected due to skipping feeds. I was willing to make that trade-off for one night a week but I just wonder if you are giving top-ups every night you're maybe not stimulating your supply enough - the babies can get more out than the pump so don't think 1 oz is all you have.

Good luck - you are doing a great job

Stick with it, let them suckle (they aren't feeding for 2 hours, although I'm sure they are happy to be soothed that way, mine were) and the milk will come. The more you can avoid formula, the sooner your milk supply will 'set in' and then there's just always enough. My twin boys are 11.5 months now and still breastfed, although I did wonder how I was going to manage in the early days. I didn't take any supplements or anything, just tried to snatch bits of sleep where I could, and fed them on demand for 8 months. It honestly does get easier after 12 weeks, and by 6 months you'll wonder why people bother with bottles :-)

Oh and do you have a twin feeding pillow? Mine revolutionised feeding them, and meant I could actually relax properly while feeding. Totally recommend seeing a breastfeeding counsellor too, I learnt loads about making sure the positions worked for them.

Yeah, definitely worth investing in an EZ-2-nurse. Loads of second hand ones available. Means you can feed two 'hands-free'. Much more comfortable and easier!!

Definitely go to bed and feed feed feed for a few days in a row and you'll find you have loads of milk. The most important thing is to get them on the breast as much as you physially can, the more you feed, the more milk you make. If you supplement, they will be getting milk from another source and the formula gets stuck in the tummy as it's hard to digest, so that prolongs the gaps between feeds too. The combination means that the breasts are stimulated a lot less, so less milk is made. If milk is left in the breast, it sends messages to the milk glands to stop making it until it is removed, either by baby (most efficient method) or pump.

Good luck and go for it. Breastcompression can definitely help if they're falling asleep too quickly, it increases the flow.