Breastfeeding older infant and toddler multiples
Please comment here to add any perspectives you have about breastfeeding multiples beyond 6 months. Comments will be kept open indefinitely so that moms of multiples can continue to learn from each other. Please keep your comments respectful and encouraging.
My hardest time was the first couple of times, when it was quite painful and they didn’t always latch properly. Going the past 6 month mark was a breeze. They just hopped on themselves. It did get a little harder to make room when they got older, though. My twins don’t really like to touch each other ever, so it was awkward sometimes making sure they didn’t overlap each other. The football hold was definately the best for me.
I can say the the jealousy phase(s) are really annoying. The ‘nursing gymnastics’ thing that toddlers do is bad enough with one, it is … well, it gets to be just plain hilarious with two. Enforcing ‘nursing manners’ has been my main tool for this age – sanity for me, anyway. State rule, unlatch, put down, pick up, relatch, repeat. Repeat. Repeat. But it does work.
They’re 21 months and still going strong. It is more tiring than with just one, but I’m still going. And not upset about doing so, either.
I breast fed AND bottle fed my twins. I would say that if you can make it through the first six weeks it get so much easier.
Just hang in there. It can be tiring, but it was worth it.
I only nursed them at the same time once, it made me uncomfortable and I enjoyed having the one on one time with each baby. That being said, I think if you are able to nurse them together, you will have a lot more free time (if you can call it that with infant multiples).
My boys are 6 months old now and I am still nursing them. It really was hard the first 6 weeks, but mostly because one of mine wouldn’t latch on so I was nursing and pumping then feeding the younger. It was like magic the day he turned 6 weeks he latched on and has been doing extremely well ever since. Given the opportunity I do nurse them at the same time, the football hold is great for that. But they have gotten so big that unless I’m in a large chair or my bed their legs are cramped and they are uncomfortable. The boppy is a GREAT asset for me, but as they got longer they started kind of sliding off the back, I have a “Big V” pillow that wraps around me from behind and under the back of the boppy and keeps the boys level. It was also great for pregnancy when I needed support behind me, between my knees, and in front of me. It was the best 60 bucks I have ever spent. Although my husband seems a little jealous because I cuddle with it still. There are days that I think about switching to bottles, but I hate to do dishes and they are only this little for such a short time. My boys are starting to get teeth (according to their Dr.) and I need to know how thats going to change things, how do you teach a baby not to bite? I also feel, I guess guilty, that I may be making people uncomfortable when I nurse my boys in public, I sit in my car at Wal-Mart instead of in the McDonalds or on a bench, and I would like to know if anyone has advice about that. Thanks.