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Nursing twins.

salovedsaloved member
in Breastfeeding
My twins girls are 1 week old today! And they are just the most precious and adorable things in the world! Ha.
Anyway, I have been tandem nursing since they were born and have been pretty blessed bc they are pretty consistent and on the same schedule. I feed them every 2 hours and pump the hour in between(suppose to build my milk supply) my question is, my family has been begging to feed them. I have opted for no bottles so far and kind of want to keep it exclusive nursing as long as I can. I will end up having to go back to work and my sister is worried that if I exclusively nurse for the first 8 weeks they won't take bottles. Any thoughts or opinions and am I being selfish for not letting them feed my babies once in a while. Sure it would help to give one a bottle here or there but I like the connection. (Ps I am a single mommy to my twins and so my sister is my big supporter)
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Re: Nursing twins.

  • etayisloveetayislove member
    The best advice I can give is let the girls have the benefits of nursing from mom right now, and at least for the first six weeks. Nursing them is only going to help boost your milk supply, taking away a feeding and just using a pump is just not as efficient. Nipple confusion is a serious issue for babies at this age, trust me, if you guys are doing great now keep doing what you have been.

    As far as family wanting to help, could they Gave the girls a bath, or help you with some household chores so that they feel involved? It's great your sister wants to be there for you and there are probably huge piles of laundry that could get folded right about now, yes?

    Also, LLL I.org has a great article on bottle feeding the breastfed baby, it will be a great info sheet for you and your caregivers when you go back to work. La Leche League is a great resource for breastfeeding mothers and I bet there is a local chapter you could look into if your interested.
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  • MeganG216MeganG216 member
    edited May 2015
    All of the lactation specialists, nurses, and Drs we saw while in the nicu said 3-4 weeks is a good time to introduce an occasional bottle, as long as bf'ing is going well. If you wait too long, they may refuse to take one at all, as was the case with the little girl I nannied. Just make sure you pump around the same time so you don't lose your supply, and have someone else (aunt, grandma, etc) with whom baby is comfortable give the bottle. I'm glad we did that, because at two months her weight gain has slowed and we now have to supplement with a few ounces of pumped milk per day. I originally wasn't planning on doing bottles at all since I'm at SAHM, but everyone highly recommended at least a couple a week. Good luck!
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  • jmathi0149jmathi0149 member
    I agree with pp. My son developed really bad jaundice and we ended up in the hospital for 3 days. I was having supply issues so they had me nurse, supplement, then pump. We had to continue to supplement for several weeks. We never had an issue with nipple confusion And it was great that he would take a bottle when I ended up having surgery at I weeks for retained placenta. My ob said they have cases all of the time where a child won't take a bottle. I went on to nurse my son until 9 months unail we wanted to start trying for number 2 so I weaned. Do what works best for your family But don't wait too long.
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