Supplementing while waiting for milk

meechellebelle · February 2013

XP from BF board.

So first off, i had my twins on Tuesday at 38w4d... Nolan Matthew was 6 lbs 13 oz and Luke Robert was 6 lbs 4 oz. Theyre healthy and perfect but their feedings are a struggle. Theyre still a little too small after losing some weight so the nurses wanted to give formula which I'm ok with. The nurses set us up with an SNS and it works good to get them to learn how to latch and suck while feeding them but it takes forever to get them to eat only half an ounce. Their suck is really slow so we will finish with a bottle and then I will pump. I'm a FTM and can't understand why my milk isn't in yet. My boobs are definitely full as they are giant and much harder now but pumping does nothing except get a small amount of colostrum in left breast only and feedings are terrible. How long did it take for your milk to come in and what did you do in the meantime? Feedings are easier with the bottle formula but I don't want them to have this permanently plus they eat so quickly with the bottle I'm nervous they're going to get gas or stomach troubles.
Any advice would be great. Sorry my post is all over the place, it's my first full day home with the boys and man are we tired! Just really need some insight or tips because at day 6 I am starting to get frustrated. Thanks!

pixiem38 · February 2013

My twins were born.on.a Sunday morning and my milk.didn't come in.until thursday night. My initial pump i.got 2 oz of.colostrum.and then nothing until thursday. I think.i have read that the colostrum.is hard to.pump. just keep putting those babies.to.breast and it will happen.

pixiem38 · February 2013

Oh..and congratulations on your babies!

April+ · February 2013

congrats on your babies! my milk didn't come in until day 5 but i had to pump every 3 hours for it to start coming in. I am still not making enough milk 2.5 weeks later so I still have to supplement with formula. Don't worry if you have to incorporate some formula at first. Also try to breastfeed your babies as much as possible.

tirsabel · February 2013

we delivered on a sunday and initially i got great colostrum - i think like 10-15cc at a time for a couple days and then by postop day 3 my colostrum disappeared (less than 5cc). i did pump every 3 hours no matter what and put the kiddos to the breast (though they were so sleepy it felt like such a waste of time becasue we'd have to wake them up for 20 minutes and then see if they'd latch for 20 minutes only for them to fall asleep at the breast after a few sucks.

I would say milk came in somewhere between day 5-7 after delivery. i think around day 5-6.

we used curved tip syringes for our supplemental feedings. basically we'd wash our hands, put a pinkie or forefinger in their mouth and rub the roof of their mouth to stimulate the rooting reflex. we'd have the curved tip of the syringe laying on our finger (being careful not to let the tip go past the tip of our finger so we wouldn't accidentally poke them in the mouth with the syringe!). then, once they would start rooting/sucking we would inject in a little formula.

this is the syringe we used:

https://www.staples.com/office/supplies/StaplesProductDisplay?storeId=10001&catalogIdentifier=2&partNumber=115338&langid=-1&cid=PS:GooglePLAs:115338&KPID=115338

this was suggested to us by our lactation consultant as a way to avoid nipples in the beginning.

i never had the boys on exclusive breastmilk, though i now make 35-40oz per day, they each get 1-2 bottles of formula to fulfill them. because of latch, poor growth, jaundice issues we always "topped them off" with pumped BM when I breastfed.

congratulations and hang in there, breastfeeding and pumping was a whole other journey in this process that had its own ups and downs separate from just having the babies (though clearly related

raraavis28 · February 2013

Congratulations on your LOs! I have a Luke too!

Don't worry about the BFing; it took me a little while or my milk to come in and for pumping to be effective...and by awhile I mean I feel like we got our bfing mojo down by about 6 weeks. So ditto PP: hang in there and keep up the good work!

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