LGBT Parenting
Breastfeeding help - if you have twins or even a singleton ?
I have 13 day old twins who have been home with us only a week. While in the NICU they were given my pumped milk and 2 oz of formula and were on a tight 3 hr feed schedule. i am trying to BF but it seems to only last them 1-2 hours and they are always hungry. Since i pump I know I get atleast 2oz a boob so they are getting milk.
any thoughts? do i go back to feeding them formula & bm?
thx!
M
2moms2twins
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Re: Breastfeeding help - if you have twins or even a singleton ?
I'm not a mom of twins (or even a singleton yet), but I work with lots professionally around breastfeeding. What are your goals around breastfeeding and/or pumping? If you want them to exclusively nurse or receive breastmilk, does the frequency seems manageable both for their intake needs and schedule? If not, work on increasing supply, efficiency of nursing and frequent high quality nursing/pumping sessions. If you're okay with the frequency to reduce use of formula, that may be what they need right now. If on the other hand, the formula is necessary to ensure proper growth, breaks between feedings, etc. then that's what many families do, either until things change or indefinitely, depending on all the factors involved.
I always encourage my twin families to get professional and community support. Do you have a lactation consultant (preferably an IBCLC), a postpartum doula and/or breastfeeding support group (such as LLL) that you can access regularly to support you with your breastfeeding goals and challenges? If not, try to tap into them.
Twins, especially feeding, can be very challenging in the early days. It will get easier. I'm sure there are others on here that will chime in too. And overall, best wishes!
A couple more things related to your post:
Here's some info about milk production/intake volumes that I got from a breastfeeding conference:
"Feeding amounts will vary by your baby's age. During the first week, a feeding is about 1-2 ounces (30-60 ml). In weeks two to three, a feeding is about 2-3 ounces (60-90 ml). After week four, a feeding is about 3-4 ounces (90-120 ml)."
"Full milk production is 25-35 ounces (750-1050 mL) per baby per day"
"Exclusively breastfed babies take in an average of 25 oz (750 mL) per day between the ages of 1 month and 6 months. Different babies take in different amounts of milk; a typical range of milk intakes is 19-30 oz per day (570-900 mL per day)."
And she mentions that "Babies often take more milk from the bottle than you pump in one pumping session. This does NOT mean your milk supply is low."
There's also a pretty neat calculator on this page at KellyMom developed by Kelly Bonyata, BS, IBCLC.
Oh, and you can also Maximize Milk Production with Hands On Pumping (here's a video about breast massage/hand expression during pumping)
https://newborns.stanford.edu/Breastfeeding/MaxProduction.html
In the video, she mentions that this method works best if you can free-up hands using a Hands Free Pumping Bra, like Simple Wishes available on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Simple-Wishes-Hands-Free-Breastpump-XS/dp/B00295MQLU
And I'm not sure if you're already doing this, but the IBCLC giving this talk also recommends pumping longer - "two minutes after the last drop of milk or 20-30 minutes, whichever comes first."
What the babies are doing is totally normal. Some babies stay on a 2-3 hour feeding schedule naturally. Others prefer to cluster their feedings. Our little one is a clusterer too. As far as the babies are concerned it is just fine--the bigger question is if it is ok for you. It is a huge time commitment to be nursing that often (especially with twins!)--if you are up for it, that's great. If not, you have other options.
You may find that their feeding patterns change a lot over the next couple weeks. There is usually a growth spurt somewhere around 3 weeks, where the babies will eat constantly. Then you may find that they space out their feedings again. Lex went from basically nursing 15 hours a day for the first 2 months to having a long cluster (20 minutes on, 30 minutes off, etc for a couple hours) in the morning and evening and then more spaced feedings throughout the day and a 6-7 hour stretch of sleep at night.
Remember that the babies are better at getting your milk out than the pump is, so what you pump is a low-end estimate of what they may be eating. As long as they are having enough wet diapers and seem to be gaining weight, then they are doing what works for them (again, whether it works for you is another question). If you have concerns, you could visit a lactation consultant and do a weighed feeding (they weigh the girls before and right after the feeding to see how much they are eating).
Ok this is getting long and rambling, but also are you paying attention to how efficient they are when they are nursing? Are you hearing them swallow? How often? Lex was born at 37w and our lactation consultant told us that sometimes 36-37 weekers are lazy on the boob until about their due dates, when they seem to get it a little better. Nursing is more work for the baby than the bottle, so they may be sucking hard enough to get just enough milk to get by and then switching to comfort sucking. If they are sucking a lot without swallowing, try doing things to keep them alert--play with their hands and feet, feed them in just a diaper, etc.--so they will eat more at one sitting and then be able to go longer.