1 Comment

  1. Amy on August 3, 2007 at 8:29 pm

    I just stumbled across this by a link on another page. WOnderful idea to help breastfeeding moms of multiples!

    My story: We had b/g twins at 35w3d. She went to the NICU for 10 days and he was in the regular nursery for 8days.

    Him: BF him at about 1 hour of age due to c section. He took awhile to get the latch thing but finally figured it out without problems by 2 weeks or so. I had all kinds of issues with the nursery giving him formula via the bottle. THe pedi (not my doctor – covering) was really pushing me to supplement with formula as he was losing more weight than she was comfortable with . She left orders for them to supplement him despite my telling them not to without checking with me first. After 2-3 blow ups by me they finally stopped that! I did end up supplementing him for about 3 weeks with either formula or EBM. Then as he was gaining wt like crazy and it was an enormus hassle to breast feed him, supplement him, do the same for her then pump…I just quit and he did great. Now he is a voracious eater and has no problems at all except maybe eats too fast at times! He does take EBM by bottle when I am at work but clearly prefers the breast. I tried the SNS with him and it worked ok but in the end it was just more hassle than help.

    With her going to the NICU..I didn’t see her for several hours. Then she was on tube feeds and did not tolerate them at all. WHen my milk came in they gave her that via the tube and her digestive issues totally resolved. She just couldn’t digest the formula. She actually had to be on IV feeding for about 7 days. She was 3lb 13 oz at her smallest. At day 5 she got quite ill with a virus and was very lethargic. That happened at the time they had just started to let me try and feed her. Was very frustrating. She had so many IVs and tubes that holding her without messing that up was hard and trying to BF her was hard to manage. I was scared of pulling out a line and then knowing they’d have to re-stick her. Once she got over the virus…I started trying again. She got it instantly. She was a pro from the start. We supplemented her too mostly cuz she was just so small. She came home at barely over 4lbs.

    I have fed them tandem but found it to be more hassle for me than not. One would finish before the other. One would eat to sleep and then would get woken up when I had to deal with the other. He would pop off mid feed before he totally got the hang of it and milk would squirt everywhere.

    Now I feed them on a modified demand style. WHoever is hungry first eats first then the other eats too hungry or not. It works fine with the breast as they will always take the breast. Is harder with the bottle – especially at night. If he wakes and we feed him we then wake her to ‘dreamfeed’. She will take the breast but it is really hard to get her to take a bottle like that. As I do work some nights (physicain) she occasionally hs to get bottles at night.

    We tried AP but I found it hard with them both. I think I would totally do it (minus the co sleeping – just not our thing) with one but I couldn’t handle individual demand feeding with them both.

    I use a boppy and it works wonderfully.

    I think it totally can be done but it is a committment and is difficult at first. I never considered stopping but it is very time consuming when they eat every 2-3 hours. I’d spend 45min-1.5 hours with each feed. Feed, burp, supplement, feed, burp supplemnt, change 2 diapers, pump. Rest for 1/2 – 1 hour and start again. When we stoppped supplementing it was faster. Then I stopped pumping after each feed and it was faster. I make tons of milk so that has never been a problem. Now I just pump when I am at work and try to do it at the time they are getting a bottle at home.

    THere were many times I just sat and cried when he wouldn’t latch on. WHen he’d wake after an hour and seem hungry. WHen I’d get engorged and he couldn’t latch on. But the lactation consultant was a God-send and gently guided us through it all.

    Another problem: in the hospital: feeding him on demand with him in our room and trying to work in feeding her in the NICU too. It was – for me -impossible to manage both. I could not feed him every 2 hours when he seemed hungry and also get to the NICU to feed her the same amount. She basicaly got hosed out of early breastfeeding as invariably her time to feed would be when the NICU was closed to visitors or she would need to eat when I was feeding him and they would go ahead and feed her so she’d be done by the time I could get up there. Finally on our last 2 days they let us room in this cool hotel like room and let her move from the NICU to be with us and we had them both in our room – hooked to monitors. THen finally I could feed them both. It was killing me to be running back and forth from one floor to the other to try and time feedings. I got virtually no sleep for those 10 days.

    She came out no worse for the wear by not getting to breastfeed for the first 7 days. She figured it out without any problem at all. SHe was better than he was even though he’d had a week to practice.