Need ideas- how do you do MOTN feedings?

EmJ628

our boys are 3wks old and I am exclusively pumping. They were in NICU for 11 days so thankfully very well established on a three hour schedule. So far, DH has been getting up with me for each feeding and we tag team, but he travels for work so eventually I know there will be a time where I have to manage them myself at night. How do you all do it? It will take me forever if I do one at a time and I am scared I won't be able to get one back to sleep and I'll have a frantically screaming child at 2am and I will want to lose it! Lol. Boppy? Swing? They are still so small I think they might get too slumped down to eat that way. (Breastfeeding/tandem breastfeeding is not an option right now)

blairdavis99

Congrats on your LOs! I have 16 week twins that were NICU babies too. For most of our feedings, I have a small quilt that I put on my bed and put each LO on a burp cloth on top of the quilt, facing each other. I then sit in the middle with the bottles and feed them both at the same time. It will take a bit to coordinate how far apart they each need to be and at what angles work best for holding the bottles. I can actually hold both bottles in one hand now and have the other hand free! For MOTN feedings, I usually change the diaper at the beginning or middle of the feeding so I don't wake them up at the end. I do it right on the bed/quilt for quick & easy access to both babies. And for burping, I dont usually practice an exact science - when it looks like one drank enough or needs to burp, I just do both back-to-back. It requires a little patience on your LOs' part as it takes a bit longer to get back to them but mine are fairly patient luckily. Usually for MOTN feedings, since they are laying down on a comfy bed while eating, they are asleep by the end of the bottle. So I just leave them be while I finish up with the other/slower one. And then I move them each back to their cribs. It's fairly assembly-line-ish but cuts down the time for feeding them individually and works for us! Note this method can take a toll on your back so I usually do back stretches most nights to help ease the soreness. Good luck to you!

EmJ628

Thank you @blairdavis99! Do you find they eat ok lying flat? No choking or spit ups? I have one who will need to get more patient hehe but we will just have to learn!

blairdavis99

@EmJ628 Mine actually eat better lying flat than elevated. They were born 6 weeks early and still aren't great at separately eating & breathing so they choke a lot when elevated or allowed to drink with their head straight up (ie not angled to the side). The pediatrician actually recommended we feed them flat with their head tilted to the side. It's what we did in the NICU, too, but had them laying flat on our arm instead of a bed. I have one with reflux, too, and it works well for her. I plan to transition them to the chairs that fit in our swings in a few months, once I feel more confident about their ability to breathe and eat simultaneously & also when they have better neck control. The other bonus I forgot to mention about the quilt is that I keep everything I need on it - diapers, wipes, pacifiers, burp cloths, bibs, etc. When I'm done, I just fold up the quilt with everything in it & put it aside. And then unfold when needed again. Instant feeding/diapering station - great for MOTN!

DrD30

I would look into the Twin-Z pillow.  It has made it so that i can feed both (breast or bottle) alone since they came home from the NICU.  It is amazing

EmJ628

Thanks!!

WillyBean

We propped ours up on boppies during motn bottles. I would:
-make bottles
-change diapers
-feed babies
-burp babies
-put babies back to bed

Very much an assembly line! How is @blairdavis99 are you changing diapers with one hand while feeding two babies with the other?! That's serious business!

Andr1Kar

I have 11 week old twin girls and I put them in their rock n plays and sit on the floor in between to feed. Most motn feelings they are asleep by the end so there is no fussing . I then pump or sometimes pump while feeding and leave what I pumped in the bottles for the next feeding.

blairdavis99

@WillyBean - I wish I was that good! I definitely have to put down both bottles to diaper change. I've gotten pretty quick about it but still need both hands for sure!

EmJ628

@blairdavis99 and @willybean, what do you do if you have one fussy one who won't go back down ? I haven't had a night yet without guests in our house, so I have been trying to avoid screaming babies but if it's just me, I can only soothe one at a time. My guys have gotten spoiled to being held/rocked by the parade of grandparents and I am semi terrified about how /if I will be able to get them both back to sleep. It's making feeding them simultaneously look like the easy part.

blairdavis99

My DS is luckily a good night sleeper so he usually falls asleep during his nighttime bottles. So I just move him to his crib whenever I can. Then I just rock or hold or whatever I need to do with DD to get her to doze off. If they are both still awake my strategy is to deal with the one who is easier to get to bed first and then deal with the harder one. If I have to put DD in her bouncer or swing while I deal with DS, I do. I tried not to do that too much as they got older as I didn't want to associate swings and stuff with bedtime. But you are still at the point where every 3ish hours is "bedtime" I assume. Now that they are older (4 mo), I'm able to just get them each to a drowsy state and put them in their cribs still awake but drowsy. I'm sure you will have a few "fun" nights but be able to work out a somewhat of a routine pretty quick. Good luck!

WillyBean

Agree with above. We had that happen a lot with our son, because he had some reflux for the first couple of months. Our daughter was pretty good about filling up on her bottle then going back to bed. Sure, I would rock one or both of them a little before bed, but both my husband and I decided early on not to really rock them to sleep. Laying down babies when they are sleepy but not yet asleep has been helpful for us. If they weren't drowsy but they were comfortable letting me hold them, I would still lay them down and give them a pacifier. Sometimes I would have to go back in a few times to soothe them but they usually fell back to sleep on their own.

Side note, my husband swears by gripe water. Idk why but sometimes it was like their stomachs just couldn't settle after their motn feedings. (We went through a lot of formula changes.) So, my husband would give them a little gripe water and that always seemed to do the trick. Works wonders on the hiccups too! I think 3 weeks may be a little young to use it yet though. Good luck!

DolphinLover2002

I second the twin z pillow! I have one for my 11 week old twins and I love it! It's like 2 boppy pillows in one. It props them up a little bit, but not to much. It also holds them securely, so you can get bottles ready while they're in there. My girls were small at first and falling through the holes, so we just put a blanket over the top. It let them sink in to a good level but kept them from falling through. My dh uses it for all feedings while I'm at work. They can grow with it too. It can be used for tummy time and learning to sit. Worth the money!