1st week home w/twins...feeding?

jennyfur211

I just got home yesterday with my b/g twins.  They, Nicholas & Illeana, were both born vaginally at 36 weeks, 5 days weighing 6lbs, 4oz & 6lbs, 3oz.  What I was wondering is if you followed a 3 hour schedule or just waited for when they told you they were hungry?  did you follow the same schedule at night?  My first DS set his own schedule immediately and I would like to keep the twins  on the same schedule if possible.  Thanks for your help.

2006july15bride

Congrats! I don't have any advice but will be reading what everyone else says!

macchiatto

Congratulations!
I would follow their hunger cues but my personal recommendation is that when one baby gets hungry, go ahead and feed them both. We did that from the beginning with our twins and life was definitely easier when they were on the same schedule! (We tried to follow the EASY routine during the day right from the beginning. It took a little while before it really worked, but it was helpful.) For nighttime feedings, we did find it easier to feed them one at a time because they seemed to wake up more if they had to wait while we got the other baby out of the crib and situated, burped one, etc. We would feed one right after the other though so it wouldn't take as long. (And just remember to keep nighttime feedings as boring as possible--little to no lights, no talking, no eye contact--to help them with getting their days and nights straightened out.)

VaFirecracker

Congratulations! No advice from me yet, but good luck!

SoldiersGreenBean

I agree - we let them cue us, but we fed them both at the same time.  If one was hungry, they both ate.  Still do.

PMBridetobe

I am going to be the voice of dissention.  I feed one and then the other.  I like staggered schedules.  My DH only helps on the weekends so during the week, it is all me.  Having two babies screaming because they are hungery is not going to work in our household.  It would wake both DH and SS up.  Like this morning, L woke up at 7am to eat and DH took her, but C woke up at 5am and I took him.

Now, when I go back to work, we will likely have a little earlier schedule but for the most part, I like the staggered schedules.

macchiatto

PMBridetobe:

I am going to be the voice of dissention.  I feed one and then the other.  I like staggered schedules.  My DH only helps on the weekends so during the week, it is all me.  Having two babies screaming because they are hungry is not going to work in our household.  It would wake both DH and SS up.  Like this morning, L woke up at 7am to eat and DH took her, but C woke up at 5am and I took him.

Now, when I go back to work, we will likely have a little earlier schedule but for the most part, I like the staggered schedules.

Just curious; so you never have one baby get hungry "early"? When we tried to do staggered, sometimes we would be settled in feeding one baby when the other would get hungry and start to cry, and then we would have to put that baby down (while he cried away b/c his feeding was interrupted), go get the other one, get his bottle ready, and then start feeding them both. For us it was much easier to just start the feeding at the same time, and if you're prepared to feed them both at once, they don't have a chance to get too worked up. Might be worth a try to save you some time! (Staggered did work better for us at night, but not during the day.) Our boys also took 40-60 minutes to finish a bottle the first 2-3 months (and yes, I know it's strange, and I talked it through on here and with the pedi to see if we were doing something wrong but it was just how they were) so if I had fed them back to back, I would have spent up to 2 hrs in each 2.5-3 hr feeding cycle, feeding a baby!

Dec31stBride

We fed on demand, which is/was generally every 2-3 hrs. We do not keep them on the same schedule overnight - DH and I have been doing every other feeding (switching nights of who gets the 1st one who wakes up). We both were too stressed out trying to feed both at once alone early on, then DD started sleeping longer than DS. They usually get on track with one another during the day.

AliciaMomof4

I don't know if it would be the same with different babies but we also tandem breastfeed on demand. When one gets hungry we wake the other and feed them both. We've done this since day 1 and I think it's got to be easier than feeding each separately. Once we started this schedule they always wake withink 5 min. of each other anyway and tend to go about 2 hours between feedings now. Sometimes they will go about 3 hrs. in the morning and once at night when we first go to sleep. It's easier if you start out like this I would think too. We are really into a routine with it now and my babies are only 6 wks. Besides that if you're breastfeeding you will likely produce more milk if both breasts are filling and emptying at the same time I've read. My babies have latched and nursed well from birth though and both eat for about 20 min. so we are lucky in that way. I have our glider recliner chair in our bedroom up against the bed on one side so I can easily lie both babies down on the bed, get situated in the chair and then pick them both up to feed alone. I wouldn't wait to schedule them, they both will nurse when one is hungry most likely and they shouldn't be too far off the same schedule.