How to balance twins, nursing, pumping, and bottle feeding

RayRay007 · December 2014

My twins are 3 weeks old. Baby A has a tongue tie and is not an effective nurser. Because of weigh loss and jaundice we put him on the bottle at 4 days old. I still try to nurse him at least once a day to practice but with two I don't have a lot of time to work with him right now. We have a second appt with an ENT today to see about getting his tie snipped. It is posterior and may not be worth the risk of bleeding etc to snip it. If not, I will be making an appt with a LC to start to work with him to get him to use his tongue properly and hopefully be able to nurse.

So right now I mostly nurse Baby B, and give baby A EBM, and supplement both with formula. I am having a hard time with time management though. I nurse baby B, and try to pump half way between that feed and the next to give baby A. But too often I end up pumping too close to the next feed and don't have much milk left for baby B when he nurses. Pumping right after the first feed isn't really an option because I won't get much and I often have to bottle feed baby A at that time or change diapers or something (a hands free bra might help here). I have tried giving baby B just one breast and pumping the other.

Does anyone have any ideas how I can balance nursing and pumping when I have two babies to feed and take care of? I am really hoping we can get baby A nursing so I don't have to pump all the time. After our ENT appt today I will be calling the LC. I feel badly for not doing that sooner, but I just wanted to get his weight loss and jaundice under control, and I was (am) trying to recover from a c/s and have a hard time taking twins to umpteen appts, and I was waiting for the ENT appt.

Sorry for the novel, I just wanted to give context. Thanks for any ideas you can offer.

DecafGrandeMocha · December 2014

No advice unfortunately but good for you for not giving up BF! It's a rough start for everyone, but you have so much more on your plate. The LC (or any mom w/ multiples on here) will hopefully be able to walk you through a plan. Hang in there!

jenn43 · December 2014

You do have a lot on your plate! I think the hands free nursing bra is an excellent idea. I'm actually typing this right now while I'm wearing mine

Also, you can pump right after you nurse the first baby. You may not get much milk initially, but your body will figure it out. After all, if you were nursing both babies one after another, your body would make more milk. Maybe try to figure out what times work best to pump in terms of feedings/diaper changes etc., and try to always pump around that time.

And you are a rockstar for taking care of twins!

RayRay007 · December 2014

Thanks everyone! I got baby A clipped yesterday and he seems to be nursing better already. I will make an appointment with the LC and see how much he's actually eating actually eating. Hopefully this will be the end of being tied to the pump.

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How to balance twins, nursing, pumping, and bottle feeding

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