Those who nursed or pumped...

Nmschultz · August 2012

My twins are due Nov 30, and at that time my daughter will be 14 months old. The only thing stressing me at this point is how I will manage to feed them. I like the bond that is formed with nursing, but will EP if that is easier. My husband will only be able to take off work for a max of 2 weeks, so I'm trying to figure out how other MoM make this work! Do I hands free pump while bottle feeding twins in a bouncer? Tandem nurse? And what about at night? I don't want to be up for 2 hours for one feeding just to turn around and wake up an hour later for another feeding...so I've thought about possibly formula feeding just at night so hubby can help, and pump during those feedings? Help!! What worked for you?? And how can I keep my daughter entertained long enough while I feed the twins?

KDR1979 · August 2012

My babies came at 36 wks and would not latch. My son seriously didn't latch until he was10wks and 2 days old and my daughter at 14 weeks. I pumped 8x/day for the first 7 weeks and was sooooo exhausted. I had to pump 25-45 minutes each time though. I would feed 1 baby a bottle a bottle of breast milk, then formula, repeat with baby # 2, then pump...so I barely slept for the first 7 weeks.

If you can keep up a supply and pump enough in just 15 minutes, it might be easy to EP, but I feel like tandem nursing from day 1 would be easiest. It would take some learning in the beginning, but once they're good at nursing, that is what would be the quickest. I didn't have another child though... I still think nursing will be easiest- getting bottles ready for 2 babies is a pain when they're hungry!!

Good luck!

GypsyEsq · August 2012

I'm not even two weeks in but what's working for us right now is that I nurse on demand, occasionally that means I tandem nurse but that is not my preference at the moment. I don't have enough hands to get good solid latches when tandem nursing with newborns (and frankly this happens more often at night when we're all bleary eyed). My main goal right now, and the reason I'm continuing to nurse on demand, is to make sure my supply is adequate. I'll work on scheduling and convenience later. DS lost 10% of his weight in the hospital and was on jaundice watch, he regained all his lost weight in our first week home so I know we're on the right track. Of note, my two were born at 38 weeks on the dot. DD had a bit of trouble adjusting and spent her first day in the transitional nursery because she aspirated some fluid so I missed that first hour opportunity to nurse but since then we've only dealt with occasional normal newborn latch issues (lazy latch, shallow latch, and newborn sleepiness). So far so good.

Older DD is less than enthused with how much time I spend with "too many babies on my lap." To compensate I try to make sure we spend some time together just she and I every day. Some days it's very minimal and admittedly I've had my parents take her more than I would normally but she's happier when she's not being ignored.

I haven't even considered pumping yet. I'm not prepared to add that to our routine (LOL routine...). I have off until Dec. 3 so I will eventually start pumping for DH to give bottles and get the twins used to bottle feeding but probably not until September sometime unless I end up with a supply problem (which seems unlikely at this point - with older DD I donated several hundred ounces and I seem to be on the same track here). HTH.

BuckeyeNut05 · August 2012

I am not going to lie, its not easy. I EP and it works well for us. I pump 30-60 minutes before their bottle for 20 min or so and then feed them in their boppies. My husband was only off for a week, so I had to jump in there pretty quickly alone, too.

I tried feeding and hands-free pumping at the same time but it was a logiatical nightmare. I would, however, recommend pumping in the nursery if you're going to be alone. This way you can get to the babies while pumping if its necessary.

One nice thing about just pumping is if you have someone who is available to help, even if its just temporarily, it makes feeding much easier!

Good luck, you can do it!!!

CER+MEL · August 2012

I found it easiest to tandem breastfeed most of the time and pump and deal with bottles and formula as rarely as possible. Pumping always felt like one more thing to do whereas feeding them was the one way I could attend to both babies at the same moment and kind of relax. Getting up in the middle of the night multiple times is certainly exhausting, but you get through it. Do what is workable for you and your family, of course, but that was my preference.

ETA: As far as your older daughter, maybe you could tandem feed on the floor and have some toys or books that you play with during only that time so it feels special? You won't be able to do much while feeding, of course, but you could read to her or set up some special toys as you get set up to feed. Again, I think pumping and bottles would actually be harder to juggle than tandem feeding if it works out for you.

Puppins · August 2012

there is nothing easy about pumping and certainly not any easier with a todller. i wouldnt have been able to pump at all if my husband wasnt home. i never put babies to breast so i cant comment on that. but i honestly wouldve quit pumping after day one if i didnt have help. my toddler is into everything....

LottaLattes · August 2012

If you can manage tandem nursing I can imagine that would be the easiest solution. My older two are three years apart and honestly the only thing that made it easy to keep the older kid occupied was tv, especially the first few weeks. 1.5 might be a little young though. My son was super wild and he would have hurt himself or something I think, ugh.

I am EPing because the twins weren't getting any milk after feeding for 15-20 minutes and I didn't spend the effort getting them back to breastfeeding as they grew stronger. I sometimes still regret it but it is what it is. I am lucky to have an amazing supply once I started pumping and got it kick started with reglan. I have found without someone else there I need to pump whenever they eat or I can't depend on them not being really happen the whole time. I sometimes feed them in two bouncers but prefer two boppies as I can roll them over on it to burp. I think one guy has reflux so he is needing a lot more burping and resting as he eats.

Good luck! If you are able to get family or hire someone to help part of the day, that can really help if you are needing additional help getting breastfeeding working.

Oh and my guys are 9 weeks old now

Nmschultz · August 2012

Thanks for the feedback! I know I will have to wait and see what works for us, but I feel like I want to have some sort of "plan" in mind

ColleenS629 · August 2012

I tandem nurse- such a time saver, especially for night feedings. I HATED pumping but some don't mind it. I just think it's a lot of extra steps if you don't need to do it especially at night (set up, washing pump parts, making bottles, heating bottles, washing bottles, etc). I think formula feeding at night would really hurt your supply, especially in the beginning, so it depends on how dedicated you are to nursing.

Breezy8407 · August 2012

My husband was home for 2 weeks, then my mom was here for 2 weeks. In that time, the babies never really got latched great, but I had help to work on it with them. Once I was on my own, I just couldn't manage one or both screaming in hunger to have the patience to work on latching. My DD would not latch if she was crying and would go into meltdown mode very quickly.

I pumped from the beginning at the hospital, so I was already doing it knowing I would need to eventually. It just became easier for me to EP. But...it was hard to do so when I was on my own with them. I would do it after feeding them bottles and most of the time they were content or were sleeping.

What is easy for some isn't for others. My "plan" going in was to give nursing an honest effort, but if it didn't work out I was fine with just pumping.

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