I was wondering how this works if you are not breastfeeding. I am assuming this also means, one parent up, both parents up? How would you feed two at once in the newborn phase? You know, you have to have two hands to feed and support their head, etc.
Re: "One up, both up"?
I am assuming you have to do this once they have more head control? When does that usually happen?
It depends how important it is to you to have them both on the same schedule. For us...it was the best thing ever. Once they get on the same eat/sleep schedule you actually have time to do something without a baby attached to you. But I know some MoM's say it wasn't so important to have them on a schedule.
If we were doing a feeding with one parent, the babies were in boppies and it worked just fine. I would get one baby up and do a diaper change, set that baby in the boppy and repeat with the other baby. Then I would sit and feed (I was an EP'er so usually I was hooked up to a pump while feeding them). Then burp one baby, burp the other and move on.
But as much as possible we were both up in the middle of the night, I know some families have a different agreement that works just fine for them, but but ours was that they are OUR babies...we shared the misery of the middle of the night feedings.
It took us till they were 12 weeks old to get them on a schedule but that was just the best thing ever. I had time to take a nap, do laundry, make dinner, exercise, etc.
No it means one kid up, both kids up. For us this meant both parents, lol. You can also space it out 30 minutes -- so right after 1 kid eats, the other does.
Boppies are great for feeding together before head control. I used it a few times (before I could tandem nurse, which is very very recent).
For us it meant me up and both babies up... Since I have been primarily the stay home parent, I let my DH sleep at night when they were newborns. I was also BFing so there wasn't much for him to do any way. After a couple weeks I got too exhausted because they were eating like every 3 hours and it took me over and hour to feed and change both so I was never getting more than 1.5 hours of continuous sleep. At that point my DH took the 2 am feeding so I could get about 4-5 hours of rest. You will just find what works best for your family.
Peanut Butter and Jelly!
<a href="http://s568.photobucket.com/albums/ss122/AliceNP/?action=view
For us it meant both babies up. I was only formula feeding, but, in the beginning I fed them one after the other. What I take "one up, both up" to mean is that if one wakes to eat, you feed the other one at the same time, or right afterward, to avoid going back to bed and then being awakened 45 minutes later by the other baby wanting to eat.
That being said, we do kind of ascribe to "one up, both up" in terms of getting stuff done, especially once ours were a little older and we were out of the newborn days. If we're both doing something around the house - laundry, dishes, something, it gets done faster and then we can both rest at the same time
When we do feedings alone at night, we try to feed the one awake first, put them back to sleep, then wake the other. During the day we use boppies simultaneously. I pump after they eat, if they are sleeping/content.
Lately we have both getting up for their night feeding. It's goes so much faster and they have been harder to get back to sleep recently.
Boy/girl twins born at 37w1d and 37w2d
This exactly. If one woke up in the night the other usually did too so we just kept them on the same feeding schedule. It worked out well.
Etta Jane and Claire Elaine are here! Born March 28, 2012.
my blog
What it's like to cloth diaper twins, Part I.
Cloth diapering twins, Part II.
We didn't do it at night, but once they were about 3 months I got them on the same schedule.
If one needed a bottle, they both got feed.
If one needed a nap, they both went down.
If one got a diaper change, they both got changed (they poop in tandem anyway!)
Now we're waiting on our miracle baby ... a little GIRL!!!