Please share your feeding routine with me..

[JuliaGulia]

Hi,

I'm the proud mother of 12 week old b/g twins.

They have recently started sleeping through the night which is great but it means that I'm struggling to get enough feeds in during the time that they are awake.

We currently feed them at 7pm and put them to bed. Our son (who is smaller) wakes around 4am and resettles til around 5am when our daughter wakes aswell.

So we feed them between 5-6am, around 9am, midday, 3pm and 7pm.

For each feed we offer 6oz and they usually have about 5oz.

The trouble is I don't think less than 5 feeds a day is recommended but in order to achieve this we're feeding every 3 hours. Obviously with twins it can take over an hour to feed them both so they never seem hungry for their next meal. I beginning to feel like I'm force feeding them because they never have time to get properly hungry before I shoving another bottle in their mouths.

It also means that I find it difficult to get out and about because their next feed is due so soon.

They were weighed yesterday (12lbs and 10lb 13oz) and are putting on the right amount of weight.

Can anyone give me some advice on how your babies consume the right amount of food within 24 hours?

Many thanks in advance.

Hi,
my 14week b/g twins are alot like yours, they currently sleep after last feed about 7 till 7am so 11hrs approx sleep, then they feed 7am, 10.30 am and about 2.30pm.
they take 8 oz bottles and are about 14lb in weight maybe slightly heavier.

The guidelines are just that if your babies are growing and happy it sounds like they are having enough to meet their needs

Thanks for sharing your experience.

I didn't know whether just 4 feeds a day was OK as their tummies are so small and I wonder if they'll be able to take enough food each time.

I may try this routine out as we're just constantly feeding and I'm sure the babies are thinking - What? More food?!

Any other advice welcome!

Hi Julia

Congratulations on your twins.

Thought i would give your thread a bump as it was the same thing i was going to ask too.

I've got 4 week old b/g twins, so i'm still trying to get the whole feeding two thing sussed. They are 7lb 4oz and 7lb 14oz. At the moment we feed them every 3-4 hours and they take between 3 & 4 oz feeds. DS takes a good 4 oz each feed and DD takes around 3 oz. They are sleeping around 4-5 hours at night before another feed. Can't wait till they start going longer!!

Do you both feed your twins at the same time or one after the other? DH goes back to work in just over a week so will be doing the feeds on my own. At the moment its takes about 45 mins to feed and wind each baby, plus i have a 21 month old to entertain during the day too. No idea how i am going to cope on my own.

Hi Sophie,
I feed them one after the other when on my own but I am lucky that dh works shifts and I have other willing hands to feed babiesat times. I have to juggle the feeds with the pre school run, nursery run and junior school run as Have a son of 2 a daughter who was 4 yesterday, a son who is 8 and one who is 10 today, so I sympathise with entertaining a toddler, you will survive my twins are 16wks tomorrow and it is getting easier.

Julia,
hope all is going well with the feeding

Hi

I'm so encouraged to hear all your stories about sleeping through the night! I have 12 week old twins who don't sleep more than about 3.5hrs at a time, but they were very premature at 30 weeks so technically they are only about 2 weeks now. They weigh around 8lbs now and take between 3-4oz per feed and feed every 3.5/ 4 hours.

When I'm feeding them on my own I try and do them both at the same time with one in the bouncy chair and the other propped up against my knees. Generally it has to be DS on my knees as he has bad reflux and needs a lot more encouraging and burping. I've also got an 18mth old but I'm fortunate enough to be keeping him in nursery at the moment so I do as few feeds when he is around as I can!

all the best, xxx

Thank you all for your advice. Sorry it's taken a while to respond - it's hard to find time to turn the computer on!

The twins are wonderful and have grown well. We now feed them at 6am, 9:30am, 1pm, 4pm and 7pm (all approx.)

I've just bought a book which says it's important to move 3 month olds onto a 4 hourly routine by including a dream feed. however I'm reluctant to start waking the babies for food if they've gone without night feedings.

Would cluster feedings be better and how would that work over their 12/13 hour routine?

DH and I have a good routine ourselves - we feed one each at 6am then I use 2 chairs for the three daytime feeds then hubby is home from work and we do the bedtime feed together (I tried it on my own once when he had to work late and it was a disaster!) DS has reflux so being in a chair is better as he needs to be sat up during/afterwards.

DH is definitely not keen on introducing night time feeding but I've read that by not going 4 hourly, they wont be able to get long enough naps and therefore will be overtired and hunrgy at night.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

Congrats and well done to you all with muliples - hard work now but always worth it!

Hello,

I am not a fan of books generally, one thing I know from having six children is that they are all different and right from early babyhood have different needs.

I have never done a dream feed with any of my six,But each one whilst breastfeeding has cluster fed, cluster feeding works far more naturally when breastfeeding as babies do it automatically to stimulate your milk supply I am not sure it would work when bottle feeding.

My two now feed at 7.30am then 11.30am, 3pm then 6,30pm both in bed by 8pm, very ocassionally one may wake about 5am and feed but this appears to be because they are teething and the feed settles them(they like to gnaw the teat)

They continue to take 8 oz bottles, I have offered more but thats all they want and are thriving.

By the sounds of it yours are thriving too, they are sleeping through the night so are obviously not hungry, I would be more tempted to see if they want a little more feed and drop a daytime feed if 5 feeds are too much during the day.

I also expect mine to start waking for a nighttime feed again soon as they creep closer to six months and they approach weaning as thats what happenned with my first son who was formula fed from three months like these guys.

Hi, i just read this thread as my b/g twins have just turned 8 weeks and i'm really fed up of feeding on demand. (not so much the babies but my dh demanding i feed them every time they cry a bit).

Do you do anything to make these routines happen or are these timings what your babies have naturally chosen?

I've just been feeding them this morning from about 8am til 9.15am and have said to dh i will not feed them again til 11am earliest no matter what - he looks sceptical but i really need a routine now. I have no idea how much food they're getting as they are breastfed. Am i being realistic in making them wait til 11am do you think? I can hear them crying now so dh will surely be up with them in a minute to tell me to feed. Help!