Twin-Twin Transfusion Syndrome

[MrsStevo]

Hi!

I wanted to share my experience of the most horrendous week of my life and find out if there is anyone else out there in the same / a similar boat?

My MCDA (identical) twins were diagnosed as having Twin-Twin Transfusion Syndrome (TTTS) at my 20 week scan last Tuesday (5th April). The doctor established this because one twin was smaller than the other, had virtually no amniotic fluid around it and was stuck to the wall of my uterus, not moving. It had a heartbeat but no bladder could be seen (as no fluid for it to drink / urinate). The other baby was swimming around in waaaaay too much amniotic fluid. The doctor thought I was at stage III of the condition (Stage V being babies have already died) so very serious.

So, I was referred to Birmingham Women's Hospital (I live in Lincoln) and had an appointment there on Wednesday afternoon. The (amazing) consultant - Mr. Bill Martin - scanned me and confirmed TTTS. He said he thought I was actually only stage II but basically said the only chance babies had was for me to have Fetoscopic Laser Ablation Surgery - keyhole surgery where they go into the sac that the bigger baby is in and laser / cut off some of the blood vessels in the placenta that the babies share so both babies have their own half. Odds are 40% chance of both babies surviving and 80% of one surviving. Plus added risk of early labour / waters breaking, infection etc.

Long story short, I was admitted to Birmingham Hosp on Wed PM and had the surgery at about 9am on Thursday. I was terrified - had to have spinal anaesthetic, be catheterised, wear a surgical gown and it was done in a big operating theatre with literally 15-20 people in it. However, my consultant was just amazing - so re-assuring and acted as though it was something he did everyday. He and his colleague were even chatting away about holidays whilst they lasered away.

After the surgery we (DH and I) had to wait for 6 hours before they would scan me again to see if the babies had survived the surgery. At the time, that was the longest 6 hours of my life. We had the scan at about 5pm and both babies were alive - the doctor said they looked healthy and it was the best outcome they could hope for. However, they also said that the next week is a crucial time and, if babies survive the week, then that is really good and indicates they both have a good chance of making it.

So. Here I am 4 days post-surgery with 43 hours until my next scan (they're doing it a day earlier in Lincoln so I can see my consultant there). I feel completely lost and totally in limbo. I don't know what to do with myself (aside from rest, feet up etc etc) but am just trying to stay sane. I'm trying my hardest to keep myself away from Dr. Google so I don't freak myself out by the statistics.

The biggest things I worried about right now:
Will both babies survive? I can't imagine my life without having twins in it now -these will be our first babies, having had a miscarriage last year.
IF they do survive, will they have any neurological damage as a result of surgery - cerebral palsy is a risk. How will we cope if they do?
I'm vegetarian - should I be on protein suppliements to promote healing / good blood quality etc?
Is there ANYTHING I can do to make the odds better?!

Oh. It is just a horrible time. My DH went back to work today (although he wants to be at home with me as much as I want him to be) so I'm alone with just my overactive mind (and a pesky cat) for company.

I wanted to write about this experience on here in case anyone has any pearls of wisdom or wants to share their experience of this horrible condition. Or, if anyone on here happens to be an expert in this condition, perhaps they can pump me full of optimism with a bunch of statistics that everything will be ok?

Thanks for taking the time to read / listen.

How is everyone doing?! :)

short message - girls will be waking very shortly for food! Since the clocks went back the insist on now feeding an hour earlier than usual!

Cake hope the girls are settling well! how is the bfeeding going for you now?
I'm still at it, taking it day by day - i started tandem feeding a few times a day, it's def making things easier time wise although i need DH or someone to help me position them, not managed the knack on my own yet! Are you getting any sleep??!

Btw - my girls can take up to the same amount of time to finish a bottle feed too, a feed seems to always take about 1 and a half hours, on my own i can't seem to cut the time down!We are on four hour feeds and they will breast feed for up to 15 mins or longer at times and often then take 50-60mls of expressed milk or formula, they are always really hungry!!

girls are doing brilliantly - Clara is now 5lbs 7 and Esme 4lbs 9, we're back at the hospital tomorrow for a check up so hopefully that will go well. Unfortunately i had a fever for a couple of days, doc didn't really know why, no csection infection or breast - my mum was great and came up each day - on the mend now thankfully!

Anyway must run!

Mr.S and Silverangel hope you and all your girls are well!

xxx

Hi all!!
Sorry for being MIA - we've just come back from our first family holiday in France! Lovely, but totally hectic and not a bit like the holidays that I'm used to!

Anyway, WOOOOHOOOOO!!! ALL our babies are home where they belong. How clever of them! And of us awesome mummies of course.

Twinnies - I have nosed at your facebook pic of the girls, GORGEOUS! They look so beautiful snuggled up together. Well done on the tandem feeding too - you're doing amazingly well. Sorry to hear about the fever but pleased you're better now. So horrible being poorly sick when you have tiny people depending on you.

cake - you made me laugh at your "background sense of duty" comment. That is EXACTLY how I felt about expressing as I hated every second of it. Bizarrely I sobbed when I packed the pump away for the final time and actually missed it for a few days. In answer to your Q about feeding - sounds very similar to the early days with my girls. To be honest, once we got home I demand-fed so didn't stick rigidly to the 3-4 hourly thing. The girls very gradually crept up with the amount they took at each feed. We were making up 90mls each and Madeleine would always guzzle hers but Soph wouldn't finish it and was often sick anyway. Mostly because of Sophia we took a long time to feed them as that seemed to help her keep it down, so every feeding session was about 1-1/2 hours. These days (15 WEEKS!!! OMG how quickly has that gone!!!!), they both take 160mls at each feed - Madeleine is still sometimes hungry after that so we make more. It takes about an hour to feed them by myself and about 30-40mins when DH is helping ... but it totally depends on how hungry they are and both will often still zonk out mid-feed so we let them have a nap and then jiggle them a bit to wake them back up for the second half. They feed at around 7:30am, 11am, 3pm, 6pm and 11pm - roughly! They are pretty good at working around our needs really and generally seem happy to wait 1/2 an hour if that suits us better. Little poppets!

I can't believe how quickly they are progressing though! Madeleine is 12lb and Sophia 10lb 3oz now!!! Both are now smiling little beaming smiles - just the BEST sight in the world. They were very late doing so (13 weeks, 8 corrected age) but it was worth the wait! They are also a lot more feisty now and love kicking around on their mat and in the bath. Madeleine is going through a bit of a clingy stage at the moment and wails if I leave the room for more than a minute, but I quite like that in a way - nice to know she notices that I'm around!

I love reading everyone's progress. I'm still quite emotional about it all, wondering whether I need to do something about that really. Thinking about writing my 'story' down in the hope that it will be therapeutic in some way. Our SCBU has a support group page with babies' stories on their so I wonder if I should put in on that. Of course, this relies on me having 5 minutes to actually write anything!

Anyway, hope you're all ok. Looking forward to more updates soon x x

Hi all,

Wow, everyone home, that is just so fantastic. At the risk of sounding soppy which isnt really my sort of thing I am so thrilled we have all made it through. You have all been a huge support to me, especially before the girls arrived safely.

Mrs S - holiday, you are brave!! My mum has a caravan in France and we've just booked to go next summer, can't wait, but pretty sure it's not going to involve as much wine as it normally does:). I know what you mean about being emotional about the whole thing. Looking back I think I was in denial during the pregnancy and since, well I haven't had time to really process it. My auntie was over yesterday and she said "what little miracles considering they both could have died", it shocked me a bit as that is exactly what the situation was.

Cake, re the feeding - my girls are GANETS, no other way to put it. They are on 110mls now, and finish it in less than five minutes. They can be fed and winded within half an hour which is great.

Twinnies, hope you're feeling better and check up went well?

Took Sophie and Alice to be weighed yesterday, they are now 8lb11 and 8lb7 and both following the 50th centile which is great. I was folding their washing yesterday and realised lots of their clothes dont fit them anymore which is great, but also a little sad! We have switched their times for feeding slightly to 7, 3 and 11 just seems to work a little better for us than the 10, 2, 6. They now go past 3 at night and wake between 4 and 5 so I feed them then and then they wake at 7 as normal. I am going to try giving them a bit more at the 11pm feed to see if they will think about dropping the night feed but dont want to push them to soon - I think if I up the feed too much they will just puke it up anyway! I have to keep remembering they are only 4 weeks adjusted and not to expect too much from such little babies. We have had some smiles which is great and we are just thrilled with how they are getting on. Mrs S, are yours still sharing a cot - I'm not sure how much longer these two are going to fit! They sleep on supports to help with the reflux and they are not far away from touching heads. When they don't fit they will have to go into their own room as we can't fit two cots in our room and I really don't want to do that.

Hope you all have good weekends (although weeks and weekends are kind of the same for me now!). xx

I've just added some thoroughly self indulgent photos to my profile so you can have a look at my adorable children:) xx

Hi everyone,

It was brilliant to read eveyones updates. I am also still emotional about all of us getting here too. In a good way of course! I remember all too vividly the day of the scan which showed the TTTS and the consultant telling the odds of one or two surviving. I had gone on my own thinking it was just a routine scan and was in the room with about 5 other medical staff all watching me hearing his words and it very slowing sinking in and I just put my face in my hands trying to understand and not cry. And now I look at my two healthy girls sleeping nose to nose and I can't quite believe how close we were to having a tragedy!

MrsStevo I agree about the writing something down. The babies stories is really good. When we were first diagnosed with the TTTS I scoured the web for other peoples experiences and there were a few on a twin to twin transfusion UK support site. I think I may post mine up there. Its good to put positive experiences out there.

Anyway (wiping a tear from my eye)...

It sounds like all the girls are doing so well, what healthy weights. Mine are due for a weighing tomorrow, but last week they were 5lbs 11oz and 5lbs 3oz. Tomorrow is their due date! They take six feeds of about 70-80mls each, they are getting quicker which is great, although as time goes on also a bit feisty, last night, neither settled well after the 10.30pm feed even though they both had tanked a good 90mls each! Then one was also wakeful and unsettled after the 3am feed too, I was very tired this morning! In a way, they are less trouble than my older two were who were demand breastfed and i would be feeding them sometimes every 2 hours through the night, these just wake once between 10pm and 7am but because there are two of them, at least one of them will have an unsettled period and keep me up too.

I am loving the updates, keep them coming!

Hey!

Silver - I can't see you photos!!! Are you sure your profile is public? And well done Sophie and Alice on the weights - little chubster babies!! I know what you mean about the clothes - I cried when I packed away the girls' early baby clothes... even though it is obviously a very good thing that they are growing! Vis a vis sleeping, the girls are still both sleeping in the Arms Reach co-sleeper that attaches to the side of our bed. That said, they are both getting towards being too big for it although we have put them in grobags now and semi-swaddle them with a blanket over the top so their arms aren't free to flail about and hit each other! Madeleine is such a wriggler and the grobag is brilliant for containing her - otherwise she kicks covers off.

cake - Happy due date for tomorrow! They are good weights for due-date twins!! Like you, I will never forget the day we were diagnosed. The look on the consultant's face when she broke the news will stay with me forever. I really do want to write it all down and I've been saying it for weeks but just haven't found the time. SUPER busy and I think i will need to have a fair bit of time to do it as it is likely to make me very emotional so I don't want to dip in and out writing it.

Sophia is being very sick again at the mo, it is so exhausting ... never mind keeping up with the laundry it creates! But we're trying various things to try and sort it out. Poor little love gets herself so upset. Madeleine is just guzzling today, she normally has 160mls 5 times a day but has just snaffled 240mls without batting an eyelid! I fear a growth spurt coming on....

Anyway, the girlies are sleeping and food has been consumed so I'd best get on with my plans to lounge on the sofa in front of xfactor!!

Hi ladies!

Oh everyone sounds in such good form!! It's really great! :) I've been meaning to come and post for days but sometimes i don't know where the time passes at the moment!

All the girls are doing so well! - they're all turning into little guzzlers eh?and everyone's weights are doing so well! :)

We're all doing fine in this house! I admit it's totally full on but it is worth every minute of the hard work! Just love the girls so much :) My mum and sister have also been fantastic and usually pop by every other day for an hour or two to help out :) Poor DH is working really long hours at the moment, being self employed he just has to go with it if the work is there - especially in Ireland where the economy has collapsed and sometimes work is quiet! He has moved out of our bedroom in order to get more sleep at the moment, I miss him!

We're starting to find our feet and get a routine going - myself and the girls are getting to know what works for us all now. I took the plunge and started tandem bfeeding with DH's help and then went for it on my own - on the bed with lots of pillows- and have not looked back! Cuts about 15/20mins from a feed and the girls seem happy enough squashed half ontop of each other! Am still giving tops ups and sometimes they guzzle another 40-50mls!!

Clara is now 5lbs 13 and Esme 5lbs 3, it seems since they arrived they've been finally on a mission to grow! I think the formula topups they sometimes have has put on some extra weight.

Silver i also can't see your pictures anywhere! :(

Oh - the girls are squirming for their 11 feed - better be fast! - I am the same about the whole experience - i think i spent the past few months with a huge emotional guard up and now it's all pouring out! I also finally watched the documentary - was horrified that the little boy died after the whole journey - so glad i didn't watch it beforehand. I sobbed on and off for a week when we finally had both girls home! Everytime i saw them nose to nose peacefully asleep in the cot the waterworks would come on! Everyday i feel blessed that our girls arrived safely.

Oh - got to cut this short. So delighted everyone is doing well!
Keep the updates coming.... oh btw how soon did you take the girls out for a walk?or out and about - shopping/supermarkets? We've been told no walks for about another two weeks and then no shops until xmas or after....... what have/were you told?? bbbyyyee xxx

Hello!

Goodness, the updates are so interesting, its great to hear how all the girls are doing.

MrsStevo How is it going with the sickiness? What formula are they on now? The topups my two had in the hospital was Cow and Gate and they were sick on it, but now they are on SMA Gold and keep it all down. I can imagine the laundry, I am also washing washing washing.

Silver I cant believe yours are on the 50th centile! Where they always there or have they been climbing up the charts? Let us know when they do successfully drop that nighttime feed - so we can learn how too!! Do yours settle well after the nighttime feeds?

Twinnies Your girls weights are going great guns aren't they! Well done on the tandem feeding, I am suitably humbled and impressed. I still put mine to the breast but its just for comfort and the odd topup, and I HATE expressing so I am forging forward with the formula, which they guzzle with more gusto than the Breastmilk. I am trying not to take it personally!

With regards to the midwife advice, I was advised stay in a week or two from the point of coming home from the hospital, and when we do go out put the rain cover on the pram to avoid peoples breath/coughs going to them. I could only stay in for a week, then slowly went out for short periods, now, 3 weeks on we are out quite a bit, once or twice a day, going to the farmers market or the school run or whatever, but still always with the raincover on and they dont come out of it. Im too worried to take them to baby group either especially as I know they will generate a lot of interest and it is cough and cold season. perhaps after Christmas.

last night I got a sleep portion of 4 unbroken hours, but they tease me these girls, sometimes they go for my routine and I think 'great' they're settling into it, then they change completely! Erina is now 6lbs 3 and Imani is 5lb 11oz, but suddenly in the last 24 hours both have started guzzling about 100mls a feed, I think growth spurt time.

My eyelids have started dropping, its only 8pm!

Cake you're inspiring me to get out of the house!! starting to climb the walls! Just decided Sat will be our first walk out with DH (i'm quite excited about taking them out in the buggy!!- and good idea about the rain cover - i will also do that!

The nurse was here again today, the girls are turning into little brusers (i can't believe it!) Clara is 6lbs 6 and Esme 5lbs 11. Great to know yours are guzzling about 100mls a feed, we are the same! I had been thinking that maybe i was overfeeding them - but they seem to be constantly starving!

Still persevering with the breast - although they're still having topup of EBM in day and formula at night - as the formula takes longer to digest i feel they sleep better!

Know what you mean about the pump - i'm using it less and less.

I'm sure you have your hands full with the girls and the rest of your gang - you are super woman!! I find it tough going sometimes just having the two girls!

Must run - Clara is giving out through the monitor!

Btw re 'routine' sometimes it works for us and yes then the girls just decided on something else!

Chat soon

Hi all

Mrs S, how's Sophia doing - have you got the sickiness under comntrol?

Cake - they were on the third - so definitley jumping up!! Since Monday one or other or both have dropped the night time feed, last night both slept from 11pm to 7am. I'm not getting too excited yet, but am playing around with giving them the same volume over five feeds instead of six to see if we can make it a permanent thing.

Twinnes - re taking them out - we were told we could take them for a walk as soon as we were home but not to take them to shops / shopping centres etc until they were at least 7.5lb. I still havent taken them to baby group or twins club, I want them to be a bit bigger just in case they do get any colds, I'm aiming for after christmas. We get out every day for a walk though and they seem to love it. I was really anxious the first few times I took them out by myself - cant fit the buggy through the front door so have to get them ready to go and then load them in on the front step - but I have a routine now and know what I'm doing and we can get out relativley easily now.

We're off to a wedding this weekend, my mum is coming to get the girls after the ceremony and we're staying out for the night, going to be very strange. Its my sister in law's wedding and she really wanted them to be there for part of it, but I wasn't comfortable keeping them there for the whole time with all the prodding and poking going on and way to much germ potential for my liking!

I think I have made my profile public now - click on my name in a post and there should be a link to my photos.

xx

Silver I just saw your photos! How gorgeous are your girls!!!!! Absolutely lovely! You can definitely see that they are identical.

Twinnies I'm pretty impressed at your girls weights, I don't think you can overfeed early babies at this stage, they may be just wanting to fulfill their potential, my girls were born on the 25th centile, and dropped to 2nd, tracked that one and now seem to want to climb again (hopefully). Obviously your breast feeding is working with such good weight gain.

Right, gotta go, is ds's 2nd birthday today

Silver congrats on the girls sleeping from 11-7!! That sounds like a little piece of heaven to me at the moment!!

I finally gave in to exhaustion last night - Dh and my little sister (see lives with us for past few years for school/uni) did the night feed together and i moved to the couch and slept from 12 - 6.30! First time in weeks that i got a few hours at night in a row, i'm hoping i'll feel like a new person today!

Thanks for the info re going out.We were told the same re shopping centres etc.. Def going to start putting a walk into the routine no matter how short, I'm missing fresh air at the moment!

Your girls are absolutely GORGEOUS!! fab dresses and they are little beauties!

Can you believe i (very quickly) mixed up my girls the other day!! Esme is really catching up on Clara!! Couldn't believe it!

Can i ask all of you how exactly do you feed your girls?? Do you stagger feeds by half an hour?feed one a bottle, then the other?or both at once?and if so how?do you feed in bouncers?or propped on your legs??and if so how soon did you do things like that?I know my girls and i presume Cake girls are still too young and small for things like that.How do you pacify one when feeding the other if alone?? Just interested to know what you all do!!

So far when i'm alone, i give them breast together and then topup, because they get breast they get that 'drunk on milk' look and then are happy to wait turns for a wee topup - but i often dread the day when there's only two bottles to give and they're both going mad at the same time for food!!

Anyway - must head off - we're on our first outing today! MY dad's birthday so we are taking a trip to see my folks - my mind has been whirling since yesterday evening about getting everything ready for our first big car trip and day out!

Chat soon xxx

Silver I hope you enjoy the wedding, I'm sure it will feel a bit weird being away from the girls, although very healthy I must say. Perhaps after a couple of glasses of champagne you will love it!

Twinnies My experience re: feeding is a bit different as I bottle feed, but usually it is at the same time. One on my lap, one on a towel next to me and a bottle in each hand, I even have mastered the art of winding one with one hand whilst the other is still sucking on the bottle. When I was in the hospital establishing breast feeding, I wasn't tandem feeding so the feeds were staggered by 30mins - sometimes went to 45, but they were a lot sleepier then, now they wake on their own for feeding and I've kept them in sync so staggering them now wouldn't even work!

In fact, I have a bit of a problem. The girls sleep together and have done so for so long now that they can't settle if they are apart! If I take one out of the cot, the other wakes up and cries!

Really quick log in - Cake our girls do that too - we just realised this over the weekend, if one cries and is picked up the other is surely to wake within a few minutes. Do yours also syncronise their movements when lying in cot? Ours always lie in a mirror image position, it's amazing! We just love watching them sleeping in the cots!

Have you had a 6week growth spurt? Our girls have turned into little savages in the past few days - we were feeding at random times all through the night last night so a long night!

Well done with the bottle feeding - that sounds amazing!Winding and feeding at once - I REALLY need to work on that - think would really cut our times for feeding down as although i'm bfeeding i always offer them an EBM top up or formula afterwards. Because i do the two it obviously makes my feeding times longer!

Must run! xx

Hi all,

Just a quickie, Imani has decided to NOT settle at bedtimes anymore so I'm pretty much working to settle her from 7 to the 10pm feed! I'm hoping the good influence of her twin sister who settles beautifully might get through in time but I've been warned they will probably just swap behaviours!

Oh the monster 6 week growth spurt, twinnies savages is a good way to describe them. Mine are just coming out of it now, it started mid last week, as soon as I clocked it I upped the daytime feed quantities and gave extra little topups before nap times (a la Gina Ford), but my god they were raving, acting like they hadn't eaten in days every time and yes, wanting extra night feeds too. They are creeping up the centiles, they seem to put on a solid 1lb every two weeks. They are now 6lbs 4 and 6lbs 11.

How is the breast feeding going? Are you getting more confident with the tandem feeding? How long do you let them go on the breast before offering the topups? You sound like you are doing a fab job, are you getting any sleep??!?

Silver How was the wedding?

MrsStevo how are you all doing? Would love to hear what you are all up to (and of course, pinch all your routines and twins tips!)

How do you all settle your babies when they are antsy or not settling for a nap? Do you put your babies down for sleeps awake? I am, but finding that one settles no problem and the other not.

Goodness me, that wasn't as short as I planned!

Hello everyone

Well, the wedding was great (although the hangover the next day not so, I am clearly out of practice!) - the girls were like little celebrities and i was fine with my mum taking them home too.

We had the growth spurt too - it was awful, screaming and screaming and not normally like that at all, they temporarily turned into devil children!!

I have a feeling Alice and Sophie are starting to teeth - lots of dribble, some green poos (nice!) and being a bit grizzly. They are 16 weeks now but only 7 corrected so could they be teething already?

They are still sleeping from the 11pm feed to 7am which is a joy and fingers crossed it lasts. They do mostly settle themselves to sleep for the night time sleep but I havent started putting them in their cot during the day, I think I need to start doing that, at the moment they sleep in their carry cots on the dining room table during the day and again they will settle themselves off to sleep most of the time but if they wake up and dont want to be asleep I get them out, my theory is that the more awake they are during the day the more they are likely to sleep at night! I cannot keep them awake if they want to be asleep or vice versa so we have reverted to being led by them (apart from the bottles, I'm rigid with that), they generally follow a pattern of waking at 7am and manage to stay awake until 830/9am, then they wake up until they get fed at 11, sleep from 1130-230pm, bottle at 3pm, sleep from 5-6.30pm and bottle at 7pm. After 7pm anything can happen, sometimes they crash out and sometimes they just want to be awake. If I feel they are over tired and really want to be asleep, I stick them in the bouncy chair and they are generally asleep within a couple of minutes.

Re feeding, I feed one and then the other - with the reflux can't lay one down and feed them and they are not quite at the right angle in the bouncy chairs. I put the one I'm not feeding in the chair and rock it with my foot and so far its kept them relatively happy while they wait. Then I swap them over and hte pne that has been fed is at the right angle in her chair to help with the reflux while I feed the other one.

Mine always sleep the same way, it's so sute.

I think I am going to go to twins club next week - have been holding back because I was worried about them getting sick (neurotic, me?!).

xx

Hi all :)

Silver great you enjoyed the wedding! I'm sure the girls were little superstars at it. Love their dresses in your pic! - I admit i am looking forward to finally bringing our girls out and showing them off!! ;)

I'm so envious of you sleeping through the night! I'm dreaming of that day right now! We are lucky and so far the girls don't seem to have any problem settling and sleeping, only in the early days home from ICU were they uneasy. I admit it's my choice of feeding that gives me less sleep for now!

Cake I'm persevering with the bfeeding and with the tandem feeding! Just using lots of cushions on the bed and throwing Clara in the rubgy position as she's biggest! I'm finding it much better to tandem feed as i was finding it really time consuming doing it one at a time! Still stuck on the top ups unfortunately (i also def think because i am trying to stick to bfeeding it's making feed times longer)they have ebm topups all day and then 3formula top ups for the nightfeeds. Can't get rid of the top up as i still don't have enough milk to exclusively bfeed them and sometimes Esme is a little lazy at the breast! sometimes at 3am i just give them formula and express as too tired to tandem feed! Not sure how long i'll do it for but it seems to be working for us for now and the girls seem to be thriving, Clara is now 7lbs and Esme 6lbs 6. They're turning into little tubby barrels!

Cake how alert are your girls? When you say 'daytime nap' i wonder how much 'awake time you get inbetween feeds - so far mine seem to still feed,stay awake for about 15-20mins and then sleep until the next feed! Not much action happening, although i can tell they're stronger (necks lifting,legs kicking, eyes looking around more etc..)

Mr.Shope all is well in your twin household!

Must get going for 7pm bedtime and feed!

Chat soon! xx

Silver How brilliant they are sleeping from the last night feed to 7am! In fact, your nap schedule sounds just like the Gina Ford recommended routine, thats very impressive.

Twinnies your babies weights are doing great, I think they have caught up with mine who are steadily climbing the centiles, your feeding must be doing them the world of good, how long does it take to feed them now, topups included?

My girls seem to be steadily settling into a repetitive routine, well, what I mean is, I am less of a headless chicken regarding the families routine and the babies are fitting in well, the tricky part is the older children's dinner time when they both need me and then both babies are awake and hungry! They too are trying to hold their head and looking around a lot, its quite funny watching their eyes go in and out of focus, sometimes cross eyed.

They have started to stay awake a bit longer now, its pretty consistent that they will be sleepy one and a half hours after they last woke up, some of that is taken with feeding, then they lie on their playmat and are usually entertained by their older bro and sis until nap time.

Hi Cake - a quick log in!

If i feed the girls alone it takes me about 1hour 15/30 max - that includes nappy changes and clothes if necessary,bfeeding and topups. It has at times been longer though.I've not managed to give them bottles together so i swap from one baby to the other!

I usually bfeed them for about 20mins but have let them be there for about 30 at times when they seem to be sucking and latching really well. I know i make feeding times much longer doing both breast and topup but i feel i have the time for now. I'm just taking it day by day, although i'm starting to feel the longer i'm doing it the more determined i am to continue until at least Christmas. I have to go back to do a little bit of work from January (am self employed freelance musician) so i don't think it will really be possible to keep it up from then onwards

The girls are also awake for about 1 and half hours from start of feed and we get a short time before they doze off - that being said - they are awake and grunting to each other in the cot upstairs as i type!

They are still constantly starving - been feeding them around the clock for past 24hours and given them much more formula in hope to fill them up - even then they still want more and more!!

My little sister is going to help DH with the late night feed and i am going to sleep for 6hours in a row tonight - can't wait!!

xx

Hello,

Twinnies Only 1hr 15/30, hey thats fast considering you are breastfeeding, topping up and changing! My girls start off well, taking 3/4 of their bottle in about 10-15mins, then they get sleepy and slow down so the whole thing can take anywhere from 20mins to 45mins, thats without changing.

We are all done now with our neonatal midwife care, the girls are 42 weeks and 7lbs 4oz and 6lb 13oz.

eek, ds fell over, gotta run

Hi Cake remind me how you feed the two girls at once again? - one propped up on your lap?where do you put the other twin?? The crying got to me today when giving top ups (poor mites were so hungry they just wouldn't wait!!)

Do you still have a 3am or thereabouts feed? Have the girls started sleeping for more than 3hours yet? I'm DYING to encourage the girls to try to sleep for longer stretches - but i guess they need to be more awake during the day first!

Great you are finished midwife care - and what super weights! the girls are thriving! Nurse was here the other day - Clara is 7lbs 9 and Esme 7lbs! I found one of there premi baby grows this evening - it's hard to believe they were that small only a few weeks ago!

we're all doing fine - getting out for a walk everyday now :) - our buggy is fantastic i love it, it's so light and easy to manouvre up and down the lane!

Hope all is well with you and your gang! xx

Hi all,

I love how this thread has evolved from all us being terrified about the outcome of our pregnancies to the ins and outs of caring for twins!

Silver and MrsStevo how are you all doing?

Twinnies Your girls are seriously growing well, definitely caught up with mine.

When bottle feeding the twins, I have one lengthways on my lap, and the other on a pillow next to me, at an angle, that way I can lock and load each of them with a bottle to feed together, I just lay muslins underneath them to catch the dribbles. The one on my lap may have to move to the pillow also as she is getting too long for my lap!

The girls still have 6 feeds in 24 hours, 4 of them are in the daytime, so about 3-4 hours apart, then 2 feeds between 7pm and 7am the next morning, during the nighttime, I feed them at about 10.30/11pm and they will go until about 4/4.30am before wanting to feed again. The tricky part is, I will ALWAYS feed them together, so if it was one baby they could sometimes go longer than that and perhaps only want one nighttime feed, but with the 2 of them one will always wake up so I have to wake the other too!

They are very good at feeding and then settling straight back to sleep at night now. I always start the feed with the lamp on and unswaddled so they drink well, then for the last bit, after a big burp, reswaddle and turn the lamp off allowing only a bit of light from the hallway so I can see, this seems to really help them get all dozy and they finish their feed getting sleepy again.

During the day, I am finding of them is usually fitful during their naptimes, they usually alternate, I think it is because they have slightly different daytime sleepy patterns, so I am experimenting with keeping them awake for one and 3/4 hours or a bit more between naps. I try not to let them nap for more than 5 hours total in the day so they are sleepier at night.

2 nights ago, neither woke me for their usual first nighttime feed, but my body clock awoke me, I could have had so many more hours sleep, but was fretting and had to go and check they were both ok! Bah, they haven't repeated that lovely long stretch since!

Hi Cake

I know isn't it so nice! :) such lovely happy endings for us all!

We seem to be on similar feeding schedules and like you i always feed them together so i often end up waking one girl as i'm to feed the other!

The girls seem quite happy with our little routine now - we take a walk every morning when not wet before 11 feed and that usually helps them have a good afternoon nap!

I'm curious to know how to you keep your two awake?! Mine def. sleep for more than 5hours a day at the moment and i find it hard to keep them awake for longer! That being said we don't have many issues trying to get them to sleep. After the night feeds we always put them in cot awake and they settle themselves, so can't complain. Hope it stays that way.Most nights i get 6hours sleep and that's with going to bed at midnight, sometimes i go earlier though. I've yet to get them to sleep through 3am feed though! I guess in time we'll manage that.

I must try your bottle feeding method - i must ask though do they ever swallow the wrong way being propped on pillow?Or become more windy? I'm slightly frigthened at the thought of trying it with Esme as she often gets over excited when feeding with bottle and then swallows the wrong way and frightens the life out of me! That being siad i think i'll try it when DH is home some evening!

My nursing pillow arrived today! :) - the tandem feeding whilst propping the girls on bed pillows or sofa pillows was starting to make my neck and shoulder muscles ache....hopefully this will help! The nurse arrived unexpectedly today and weighed the girls - now 8lbs 3 and 7lbs 9 - they're turning into little barrels!!

Must head off now, chat soon xx

Hi everyone,

You all sound like you're doing so well - great news!

Alice and Sophie now weigh in at 10lb3 and 10lb1 and following the 50th centile line which is great.

They had a VERY grizzly week last week - totally out of character for them and Sophie in particular was waking a lot at night. From reading it seemed to be the 16 week sleep regression. This week however, they have been a delight, sleeping like logs and staying awake longer during the day adn they are full of 'chat' now, its super cute. Have put their carry cots up into the loft as with our buggy the frames of the cots are the frames of the buggy seats and it was getting really annoying dragging the cots in and out every time we went out - seems like they are growing up sooo quickly! So now, we are working on getting htem to sleep in their cots at nap time during the day and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesnt, when it doesn't I let them sleep in their bouncy chairs downstairs. I have really found the key to them sleeping well at night is sleeping well during the day. Twinnies - I think its impossible to keep them awake, if they're tired they'll sleep regardless of what I do!

We also moved them in to their own room last Friday in their own cots - they were getting too big to share and we can't fit two in our room. They seem to love it - lots of room to stretch out. We keep their door and our door open - its not as if we live in a mansion so they are still not far awy from us.

I still haven't fed both together, being relativley flat would be disastrous for the reflux. So now, to think about weaning! Have had lots of conflicting advice as to when to start but from 20 weeks seems to be consistent for reflux prem babies. I don't know if they will be ready then, that's only two weeks ago and they just seem very little for that. We are back for a check up with the paeds in early Jan so think will wait until then and see what he says. Mrs S - what are you doing / planning on doing?

We're putting our christmas tree up this weeked - way way too early but they both love looking at flashing lights so think they will love it (at least, that's the excuse I am going with!).

xx

Hi everyone,

Twinnies The way I keep my girls awake - or indeed wake one up when I need to feed them both, is a nappy change, or getting their legs out of their babygrows and then giving them a few minutes on a flat surface (playmat), if they want to wake, they will, but sometimes, there is nothing i can do and they will carry on snoozing no matter what and I just go with it, giving them another 15mins before giving them a little jiggle again.

The pillow propping works well as it elevates her head a little, - I only put her head and shoulders on the pillow so she is at a slight slant, which apparently is good for them and makes swallowing easier, the one on my lap is a bit more flat, she might benefit from a pillow too.

Imani had a procedure to correct her tongue tie a few days ago, she seems fine but dropped how much milk she was taking, I think her new mouth felt weird, shes getting a bit better now, she used to have to work a bit too hard with her latch and end up gulping big swallows and needing a burp, shes not doing that anymore, but both girls have their first jabs tomorrow, so I imagine they will be upset about that!

Silver Can I ask, what did you do during the 4 month regression? Did you have to settle/feed them more often? It sounds horrible, I don't remember it with my older 2 as they were breastfed and I would just bring them next to me in the bed and let them latch on and off all night if they wanted. I love that yours are chatting now, mine are smiling, its really great!

MrsSilver I hope you and yours are doing well, we would love an update!