help me learn how to feed 2 babies at one time! :)

sara1014

We just got home from the hospital on Sunday and so far DH and I both get up for feedings at night.  As imagined, this is exhausting both of us and we're like 2 zombies walking around all day - you should have seen us trying to do simple math earlier!!

My babies are not great eaters...they LOVE to fall asleep during feedings and require very frequent position changes and burps - and it's still a struggle to get enough in them to help them start gaining weight.  I imagine this is the norm for a while, but we need to come up with some sort of solution as DH needs to prepare to go back to work.  

We've set them in their bouncers to try them out, though they're below the weight limit, and they are totally swallowed up in them, so I'm not comfortable with that solution - plus, I don't think they'd really be able to eat well in them anyway.  It seems the same when we prop them in the Boppy seats as well...their little bodies are just swallowed!

Can a more experienced MoM help me out here?  Luckily when DH goes back to work, my mom is kind of moving in...but she wants to be sure I can get some sleep as well, so she'll want to know if we can feed them alone and how that's accomplished!

 

 

Thanks! 

macchiatto

Sorry, hon; I remember that stage well!

I assume you're talking about bottle-feeding? Bouncy seats didn't work for us when the boys were super-little either. At that point we usually fed them in Boppys. (You may need to use a couple towels or receiving blankets for extra support until they get a little bigger.) Another option I just learned about from Cands but haven't tried yet is to have them both on your lap, leaning against your chest (so they are side by side and all 3 of you are facing the same direction, and you hold a bottle in each hand. Can you picture it?

(((HUGS))) and hang in there! Glad to hear you'll have more help coming.

sara1014

macchiatto:

I assume you're talking about bottle-feeding? Bouncy seats didn't work for us when the boys were super-little either. At that point we usually fed them in Boppys. (You may need to use a couple towels or receiving blankets for extra support until they get a little bigger.) Another option I just learned about from Cands but haven't tried yet is to have them both on your lap, leaning against your chest (so they are side by side and all 3 of you are facing the same direction, and you hold a bottle in each hand. Can you picture it?

Yes, this is bottle feeding.  You know, it seems like such common sense now that you say to put towels or whatever UNDER the Boppys.  DH's and my combined brain function is so low right now!!  

I can kind of picture what you're saying as well with them on each side, but I love to face them when we eat...but I also love to feel like I'm getting SOME sleep!

 

Thanks!! 

macchiatto

I totally understand; it took months for my brain function to start returning to normal! (It helped when the boys started STTN at 4 months!) And yeah, being able to face them is nice. Hopefully adding padding to the Boppys will work out for your LOs!

macchiatto

Oh and I also recommend that you and your H start sleeping in shifts! Getting a 4 to 6-hr (whatever you can manage) shift of uninterrupted sleep makes such a big difference! The first few months I would go to bed at 7 and sleep until 1 or 2, then DH would go to bed until 7 or 8, whenever he needed to get up for work that day. It REALLY helped!

ardilla

Propping them in the Boppy pillows worked (and still works!) for us. Although now they tend to wiggle down and out of them!  Good luck and hope you find a little bit of sleep!

jenn_darrin1515

we also used the boppies and still do - good luck!

Shanseur*

macchiatto:

Oh and I also recommend that you and your H start sleeping in shifts! Getting a 4 to 6-hr (whatever you can manage) shift of uninterrupted sleep makes such a big difference! The first few months I would go to bed at 7 and sleep until 1 or 2, then DH would go to bed until 7 or 8, whenever he needed to get up for work that day. It REALLY helped!

This is what DH and I do.....we take shifts....my day usually starts at 1:00.  I'm going to bed right now actually.  Here's how I feed my babies....and when I can tell one needs to be burped but the other is still eating....I can lean them up from where they are (I'm just very bent to the side) and burp while the other is still eating.  I'll have to get a pick of that sometime, too.  I hope this helps.

tnkrbl21

I vote for the boppies too.  I take the cushio off of the back of the couch and sit one next to me and one in front (I need to bring the ottoman / coffee table in front of the couch so that the baby in front of me has a little extra room). 

lisa&andy

Honestly, I feed them at night in our bed propped up on a pillow. I haven't dug out the boppies yet, although I keep meaning to, but I put them side by side on a king size pillow with their butts on the bed and feed them that way. I have to stop feeding both of them to burp one, but they at least eat at the same rate or close to it. Good luck!

ktsbella

lisa&andy:

Honestly, I feed them at night in our bed propped up on a pillow. I haven't dug out the boppies yet, although I keep meaning to, but I put them side by side on a king size pillow with their butts on the bed and feed them that way. I have to stop feeding both of them to burp one, but they at least eat at the same rate or close to it. Good luck!

 This is exactly what we do too.  I also sit kind of like Indian style, but with my legs not crossing and the bottoms of my feet touching (it looks somewhat like a diamond shape) and put one baby in the crook of one leg and the other baby in the crook of the other leg and hold the bottles in my hands.  This works for now, but is getting a little more difficult now that they are getting bigger.

groovygrl

these are good ideas! I have not mastered feeding at the same time but will agree about shifts- we do 9-2 and 2-7 and the 'on' parent is in our family room/kitchen w/ babies so the sleeping parent gets 5 full uninterrupted hours (until tonight when both were screaming so much MH woke up & came to help. fun stuff.).

GL! 

DEP

Such great tips!  Such sassy mamas!

boshi799

This is the most helpful post I have ever read. King sized pillow - genius....

Thank you!!!

ncsubride

We had the Boppy Newborn Loungers (amazing) and I would lay them down on those and sit between them and feed them that way very easy and they loungers are super comfy.

BitterOldHag

I feed them in their boppy cradle/bouncy chairs.  I sit on the floor between them with a bottle in each hand and my back against the couch.

 

 

omalley

I agree with all pp about the boppies.  I had to stuff receiving blankets in the center too and I would sit up in my bed and have the boppies on either side of me, with my legs down the middle. 

Once they were big enough to use their bouncy chairs I switched to them and they were much easier for me.  I still feed them in there.  Here is what it looks like fore me, my back is leaning against the end of the couch.

Hang in there - it was hard to believe people when they said it but it does get easier! 

gumiberg

It takes some practice but once you figure it out, it's cake walk.  I now feed both babies while pumping!  My favorite is to place my girl on my lap with my knees up so she is at an incline (she has reflex so cannot be flat) and then just place my son right next to me.

My DH likes to use our twin nursing pillow. 

MsGirl1

We also used the boppys at the beginning. We just kinda pushed the ends close together and it formed more of a flat surface, but still with a slight incline. This worked without having the entire pillow swallow them up!

We also took shifts and it is the only way we survived! I would sleep from about 7pm until 1am, then DH would wake me up and he would sleep from 1am-7am and then go to work. Whoever was on baby duty was in our bedroom, and the other person would sleep in the guest bedroom.

This is the only way we could get blocks of solid sleep and we were able to function. We missed hanging out with each other so a few times we would try to do it together just to spend some time together and each take a baby....it was horrible! We always regretted it because we were miserable the next day, neither of us would get any sleep at all.

It was so difficult those first few months, but it eventually does get back to normal...or as normal as it can with twins!

MsGirl1

Oh, I just wanted to add that we would have to stop feeding both and burp one then the other. Usually the one waiting would be patient and wait, so it worked out okay.