BF question

krismott25

Were you ever able to EBF. I have twins and one can only be put to breast once a day bc she has to get neosure the rest of the time and my other twin has to get 4 neosure bottles a day. To be honest I haven't even been putting them to breast because our whole scheduale gets screwed up. I'd love to EBF not sure it's possible. When were you weaned off the neosure?

Mrs. Alice

We came pretty close to EBF, but did give 1-2 bottles a day of Neosure fortified BM for the extra calories, nutrients, and to add their poly-vi-sol.  Why are your girls  needing to get Neosure so often?  I agree that it would make it really hard EBF them if they have that schedule.  Is your pedi not on board with EBF?  I really had to make my life BFing them for the first few months.  Let them nurse on demand, make sure you have a twin nursing pillow, get your family involved or anyone that can help out to support you, eat and drink a ton too!

thishappyhouse

I only have one and by the time we were done fortifying at 8.5 months my daughters demands we exceeding my supply.   At almost 10 months I am still breastfeeding her twice a day and pumping twice a day.  She gets 1 bottle of formula a day and 1 bottle of pumped milk a day.  

It is possible though.  If EBFing or mostly EBFing is important to you put them to the breast as much as possible.. you may find that the schedule gets more manageable  once you get into the groove and eliminate some of your pumping.  

urbanflowerpot

Yes - it took me four months to get him to BF (and EBF at that). It was a long road, but even if you aren't feeding them they should go to breast as much as possible even to just hang out. The more opportunity you give them (and the sooner) the better chance you have of success. If you keep them away from breast except for scheduled non-neosure feeds then it will become harder.

We were on Neosure until he switched to EBF so four months - it just worked out that way/when his weight leveled and he was able to keep gaining on BM alone.

Good luck and please ask any questions! 

urbanflowerpot

PS it will be a lot of just BF'ing! so don't expect much of a schedule or you'll get frustrated. They can sometimes eat until their next feed so it will seem like that's all you do sometimes, but they grow out of that. We're still going here!

krismott25

Mrs. Alice:

We came pretty close to EBF, but did give 1-2 bottles a day of Neosure fortified BM for the extra calories, nutrients, and to add their poly-vi-sol.  Why are your girls  needing to get Neosure so often?  I agree that it would make it really hard EBF them if they have that schedule.  Is your pedi not on board with EBF?  I really had to make my life BFing them for the first few months.  Let them nurse on demand, make sure you have a twin nursing pillow, get your family involved or anyone that can help out to support you, eat and drink a ton too!

My b twin who can only bf once a day alk phos is high. We tried just giving her 4 bottles but it went back up. We are repeating labs in a couple weeks so hopefully I can restart bf more often. I have to admit though now that we are on a schedule with the bottles in freaked out to bf in demand . Especially bc they get pissed when they have to work for it. So stressful! 

thishappyhouse

urbanflowerpot:

Yes - it took me four months to get him to BF (and EBF at that). It was a long road, but even if you aren't feeding them they should go to breast as much as possible even to just hang out. The more opportunity you give them (and the sooner) the better chance you have of success. If you keep them away from breast except for scheduled non-neosure feeds then it will become harder.

We were on Neosure until he switched to EBF so four months - it just worked out that way/when his weight leveled and he was able to keep gaining on BM alone.

Good luck and please ask any questions! 

 

Did you still pump while you gave him neosure bottles?  Or did you EBF and offer the bottles as supplemental?

I wish I had sought out more advice earlier on because I feel like if I hadn't been so worried about getting her the fortified bottles and let her hang out at the breast more that my supply would have kept up and it would have been alot easier in the long run.   Virginia started evening cluster feeding (every hour from 6-10pm) early on and instead of regulating her at the breast I was alternating those hourly feeds with breast and bottle.  She quickly began to sleep through the night and then my supply plateaued as her demands increased. 

urbanflowerpot

krismott25:

My b twin who can only bf once a day alk phos is high. We tried just giving her 4 bottles but it went back up. We are repeating labs in a couple weeks so hopefully I can restart bf more often. I have to admit though now that we are on a schedule with the bottles in freaked out to bf in demand . Especially bc they get pissed when they have to work for it. So stressful! 

Only practice when their bellies are full - this will help with the frustration  

urbanflowerpot

thishappyhouse:

urbanflowerpot:

Yes - it took me four months to get him to BF (and EBF at that). It was a long road, but even if you aren't feeding them they should go to breast as much as possible even to just hang out. The more opportunity you give them (and the sooner) the better chance you have of success. If you keep them away from breast except for scheduled non-neosure feeds then it will become harder.

We were on Neosure until he switched to EBF so four months - it just worked out that way/when his weight leveled and he was able to keep gaining on BM alone.

Good luck and please ask any questions! 

 

Did you still pump while you gave him neosure bottles?  Or did you EBF and offer the bottles as supplemental?

I wish I had sought out more advice earlier on because I feel like if I hadn't been so worried about getting her the fortified bottles and let her hang out at the breast more that my supply would have kept up and it would have been alot easier in the long run.   Virginia started evening cluster feeding (every hour from 6-10pm) early on and instead of regulating her at the breast I was alternating those hourly feeds with breast and bottle.  She quickly began to sleep through the night and then my supply plateaued as her demands increased. 

I EP'ed for the first four months. I would practice BF'ing 1-3 times in NICU all depending on his strength/day/situation once he was big enough but he wound up not knowing how to suck because he'd used bottles (and different nipples) so much during his NICU time. We'd both wind up in tears from trying...frustrating for both of us and his suck would give me instant blisters. There were LC's in the hosp, of course, but his low intake was just blamed on his size so it wasn't until he came home and still wasn't getting milk that I had to search for a new LC who was great with our particular situation.

So he was on bottles for all his food - neo + everything else. Our BF'ing for those first 4 months was just for practice. I'd pump 6-8 times/day and tried to do it as close to when he ate as possible. If H was home, I'd pump while he fed him, if he wasn't I'd bottle feed then pump. It was really hard.

Having a preemie is stressful - maybe things could have been different in your case, but there are plenty of times where they aren't so try not to wonder too much, though I know that's hard. You did your best - we all do. There is so much blood, stress, and tears poured into those first few months