Hello mommies,
Last Friday I gave birth to my boy/girl twins via planned c-sec. I've been breast feeding and supplementing (formula) them because my girl was in the NICU for 4 hours because of her weight and size. Later the lactation consultants found out that my boy was tongue tied and that's why he wasn't latching on well. I had to wait till we got his tongue However, this journey hasn't been an easy one.
After the twins were born they let me breast feed them, but they never told me to pump every 2-3 hours after every feed. When the twins were 3 days old, a lactation consultant met us and told to start pumping. Now I'm having a hard time as the consultant said to breast feed the twins every 2-3 hours, then feed them the formula and pump for another 10-15 minutes. I get drained out by just breast feeding them and then pumping. DH and in laws bottle feed them with formula. My incision starts to hurt more when I do all this and in the end I end up being exhausted and dead sleepy.
Would it be good if I put them on formula, or would I be doing something terribly wrong? I know breast milk is the best, but pumping after every breast feed is really taking a toll on my health and healing process. Please advice what should I do.
Please do not post anything negative or something that would offend me. I'm also a mother and like any mother I want to do what's best for my kids, but I'm helpless and its taking a toll on my health. Thanks!
Re: Breast feeding advice...
don't let people make you feel like crap about feeding your child.
as for suggestions,try your local la leche league. they might have some awesome suggestions. but in the end, remember it's not breast is best... making sure the kid is fed, that's what is truly the best.
If you want to BF I agree with pp; focus on that. I didn't want to use formula either but at 6 weeks pp my girls still drink more of it than BM. Formula is totally fine and I've realized how grateful I am for it; it's keeping my LOs alive and well.
With that, I present you with this article for your viewing pleasure... its good to know that my daughter still has a chance. Haha. ;-)
https://www.babble.com/baby/formula-fed-baby-enters-medical-school-satire/
Hang in there, mama....the beginning is so rough but you're doing a great job!
My milk took a very long time to come in and I had to supplement for the first ten days or so until my production caught up with them by doing the bf and pump thing.
The NICU nurses were really big into measuring quantity so that they could ensure my boys were gaining so it took me being firm with them that I wanted to just BF them while I was with them and not supplement and see what happened. Even when we were discharged, we were supposed to do half fortified BM bottles, which means lots of pumping.
Well, I knew that they were getting enough just from me. My boobs would get soft, lots of wet and dirty diapers, etc so I just BFed them. No supplementing with bottles. And we went for a weight check 2 days post discharge. And they gained. So I got the blessing from the pedi to dial back on the pumping and supplementing.
Moral of the story for me is that I wanting BFing to work and so I focused on that and advocated for nursing over bottle feeding to get away from the cycle of nurse/pump/supplement. We still bottle feed once every few days but we mostly tandem.
Good luck!
I was on the nurse/pump/supplement plan with DS (because he was severely jaundiced) and the girls (because of weight gain issues). It is exhausting. I would say that your job should be to nurse and pump and that is it. When I was recovering dh changed all the diapers (I was literally in too much pain to stand and change them), burped, put them to sleep, took care of DS, cooked, cleaned... everything but nursing and pumping. We were lucky that he had four weeks of family leave so I always had someone home with me and the kids. (I physically could not take care of DS at that point either.)
One thing I also did that helped was refuse to pump in the middle of the night. I had a difficult c section recovery (blocked bowel) and needed my rest. For me there was a huge improvement in my overall health between three and four weeks pp. Once I got to four weeks everything just felt easier. If you think that you will regret not BFing then I would encourage you to wait a few weeks before making a final decision.
The benefit of pumping is that it will help build your supply. Did the LC also recommend other things to help with supply?
I have been there and know how difficult it is. Taking care of twin newborns is tough. BFing twins is tough. Doing those things while trying to recover from a c section is tough. But it does get easier. Sending you (((((hugehugs))))).
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