Anyone breastfed twins? Suggestions, stories, sympathy requested.

In My Humble Opinion
1

I just brought home two beautiful, healthy twin boys who were born last Friday. Everything’s great, except that I’m having a really hard, frustrating time getting started on breastfeeding them. I ended up having to deliver by c-section, which delayed that first critical feeding, plus all the drugs I was given made me and them groggy for a while, so we’re kind of behind on getting started.

With the help of a lactation consultant in the hospital, I was able to get one boy to latch well and feed for about 45 minutes one time, but haven’t been able to get him to do it since, and the other not at all. They both will occasionally find the nipple and suck a little bit, but not consistently. We’re trying to get each of them on the breast at each feeding, but there have been a lot of times when I’m just too tired and frustrated to give it enough time. I’m pumping, so my supply is there, and though my milk hasn’t completely come in yet, it’s getting there, and we give them the pumped milk first before any formula at the next feeding. I’ve tried a nipple shield, but that doesn’t seem to be helping.

As I said, I’ve been trying both of them on the breast each time, but I think that’s making me rush things because I’m thinking I’m going to have to get the second one on there. So I think our strategy from here on out will be to focus on one at a time, alternate them and spend a lot more time trying to get one latched while Daddy simply gives the other one the bottle, and I think I’ll pump a little bit first to get the flow going and the nipple good and prominent.

If you parents have any other tricks to suggest, please do. Or even just stories about your own struggles, because that helps remind me that I’m not the only one to have troubles. I won’t give up on breastfeeding, because the advantages so outweigh the disadvantages of getting started, it will be SO worth it if I can be successful. It’s just really hard right now, and I’ve been in tears more than once from the frustration of having a hungry, crying baby at my breast, and I have this wonderful food for him, and can’t get him to take it. I know a lot of moms and babies have trouble, and I’m trying to remind myself of that so I don’t get discouraged.

2

Congratulations, Geobabe! How wonderful!!! It sounds like these are your first children, although I can’t remember for sure.

I’m a mother of twins who didn’t manage to breastfeed (severe PPD and one baby in the NICU). I didn’t have or seek bfeeding help beyond the stupid hospital class and the overly uptight hospital lactation consultants (I hated them), and my C-section left me loopy, too. I pumped a bit, we did a few feedings, they got some bmilk, but by the end of the first month they were 100% formula. And they’ve been really healthy, tall, hitting milestones, yadda yadda yadda.

However, don’t let that discourage you. Breast is best if you can swing it, and it’s a helluva lot cheaper!

Call your local LaLeche women! Find a boobie doula! Go to Mothering.com (or send your husband)! There are women out there who KNOW bfeeding. They could get milk out of a rock! Even if you have to pay someone to come to your house and hold your hand (or boob), it’ll be cheaper than formula for twins.

I’ve read threads on Mothering.com where they’ve helped women overcome a whole bunch of problems, things I thought were insurmountable. Lots of experienced bfeeding twin moms over there, and they’re great help.

You’re doing a wonderful job - bringing home healthy twin babies represents a big accomplishment - be NICE TO YOURSELF!!! Staying rested and hydrated is one of the keys to doing this. Let someone else do the housework.

Sorry I can’t help you w/this particular hurdle, but if you hit any others keep in touch!! I love love love my babies (toddlers now ::sniff::), but there were times when I felt like I was drowning.

3

Next week will mark 9 months of almost-exclusive pumping for me. (“Almost” because I’m three ounces shy of a full supply each day, so have to give her a tiny bit of formula in each bottle.)

My first bit of advice is too late: cup feeding instead of bottle. It’s done in most third world countries where bottles can’t be cleaned well, and babies who drink from a cup have better breast-switching rates. Oh, well. But I want to put that info out there for any pregnant moms, because it was a total surprise to me - newborns can lap expressed milk from a shot glass and never get used to a plastic nipple. (Once you get the hang of it, it’s quicker and easier than a bottle, too!)

We tried EVERYTHING for months to get her to breastfeed. Like you, she was a c-section, and they didn’t give me a pump for three days (I think they didn’t think she’d make it, and didn’t want my milk to come in if she died.) When she started eating, it was by g-tube, and then on bottles the nurse would give her. I wasn’t allowed to try a bottle until she was 3 months old. The breast was out of the question - her mouth wasn’t big enough!

To add to our woes, I have very large nipples - I use the extra large trumpet things for the breast pump, and they don’t even make nipple shields big enough.

We did reach a point - at 6 months! - where we thought she was nursing, but it turned out she didn’t get any milk. The nipple was taking up too much room in her mouth, and the pressure pinched off the milk flow. She lost 2 ounces (but grew 2 inches) that month - basically, she was only drinking the 8 ounces a day I was still expressing. When I went back to pumping more often, I discovered my supply had dwindled to only that 8 ounces. Took me another month of pumping every 2 hours again and 120 mg. of domperidone a day (higher than recommended dosage!) to bring my supply back up to where it is now.

But there’s a moral here: if you don’t have ginormous nipples, don’t give up! It took her 3 months to figure it out! And she did - she finally learned to latch on and suck and try to get milk - but physics and anatomy were working against her.

Working with a lactation consultant really helped, as did single-minded stubbornness.

And remember that even a bit of breastmilk is better than none at all. If you can give them half expressed milk and half formula, you’re amazing! If 1/3 : 2/3, great!

And if you have to give them 100% formula, fine. It won’t kill them. It’s much better today than it was years ago. Breastmilk is best, but formula is not poison.

4

The best advice I can give is to be flexible. And that flexibility does include the very real probability that breast milk might be nothing more than a (very valuable) supplement to a mainly formula based regimen.

You might also be doing quite a bit of pumping to get this much.

That was our experience, and our twins turned out just fine. They were and remain healthy, with few colds or ear infections. Our son appears to have completely outgrown the touch of asthma he had, due to his prematurity.

We certainly aren’t averse to breastfeeding, and our third child never touched formula after he left the hospital. This is just how it worked out.

5

No experience on breastfeeding twins, but I did have latching-on issues with my daughter due to her prematurity (she was 6 weeks early). The hospital staff insisted there was no such thing as nipple confusion.

The hospital staff was full of baloney, as was proven when I got her her home and had time to really work on breastfeeding. Fortunately, she was my second child, I had breastfed Dweezil successfully, and I had an idea of how it was supposed to work (and where to get help if it didn’t).

I had one of those silly-looking supplemental nutrition systems: The thing with the bottle hanging around your neck, and the thin tube coming out of that, that is supposed to be taped to your breast; the idea is that baby learns he can get milk easily at the breast (from the tube) so is more interested in the breast. BZZZZT - A couple of days of futzing with that, and Moon Unit was even less interested in the breast.

A lot of babies who are used to the ease of bottle-feeding won’t learn to latch onto the breast w/o a fair bit of help. What worked for us - finally - was finger-feeding. I took that same SNS, taped one tube to the tip of my little finger, then stuck the little finger in her mouth, nail side down. When it felt like she was latching on to my finger correctly, and suckling on that correctly, I’d use my chin to press the bottle and provide a bit more milk (though I imagine she was getting some from the tube even w/o that extra bit). Yes, I did wish I had a spare hand or two :slight_smile: Anyway - within 24 hours of doing that instead of bottle feeding, she was nursing full-time from the breast. Phew! Also, this is something your spouse can do for feedings, instead of a bottle. Helps break the association of “food comes from bottles and not anywhere else” also.

You might want to check in with your local La Leche chapter. I’ve heard mixed stories - some are very wonderful, supportive people, and some are the Boob Nazis (no direct experience with the latter, fortunately).

6

I’d also suggest contacting your closest La Leche League. You sound very committed to breast feeding - and as long as you are committed I’m sure you and the LLL folks will be on the same page. I knew 2 women exclusively breast feeding twins via the meetings I went to. By the time I met them they had established breast feeding relationships so I wasn’t privy to the initial trials and tribulations. One did say she pretty much did nothing but feed for the first few weeks.

LLL leaders are trained in being supportive of all efforts and all levels of breastfeeding. No doubt there are “rouge” lactation consultants out there, but I’ve always wondered if the women who complain of meeting up with Breastfeeding Nazi’s aren’t projecting some of their own ambivilance and insecurity.

7

Hey, congratulations!

I only had one and had a hard time getting started with breastfeeding after a C-section. I found a nursing pillow very helpful, and would probably be more so with twins. I had a friend with twins the same age, one of whom never did get the latching-on bit, so she pumped a lot.

One thing I had to do was hold my breast to change the angle of the nipple, or he lost it. This meant that I had to use both hands for just one baby, but I think you could manage it with twins if you had pillows iarranged n the right places. Pumping first is a good idea, and also once you get the baby almost in position you can sometimes express a bit into his mouth and this will make him a little more interested. (It’s been a long time for me–10 years–but I remember some of this stuff pretty well.)

The early days can be hard going but as you note, it’s worth it to give them an excellent start, even if you do have to supplement with formula. Be sure and take good care of yourself. It should go without saying that somebody else does all household chores and sometimes if you have a C-section your health insurance will pay for a home health aide or a doula or even a visiting nurse. Good luck, and enjoy your babies.

8

Congratulations! Here’s a collection of links that may help. That whole site (kellymom.com) has tons of really good breastfeeding information, but the page I linked is to a collection of off-site articles specifically about breastfeeding multiples.

I don’t know if hedra is still active on the boards, but she’s currently breastfeeding twins and may have some advice for you.

I wasn’t wild about the lactation consultant who visited me in the hospital, and I know that others have had to go through a few before they found one that really clicked with them. You may want to call around and see if you can get one to come see you at home. As fessie said, even if you have to pay, it will be cheaper than formula.

I’ve had really good luck getting practical advice from the forums at StorkNet. You have to pay to subscribe, but it’s not too expensive. There’s a bunch of archived breastfeeding threads and articles here that may have some useful info, and also give you an idea of what the forums are like.

9

My wife breast fed our twins, and also had a C-Section, so I can tell you it can be done. One had a high enough bile rubean (sp?) that she was fed with a small tube, and they (she and my wife) still managed to make the switch. It took a few days, though. For one thing, the pumps aren’t as effective as a baby. (Hubby probably is as effective, though. :wink:

I second the LLL folks. They are pretty hard core, but they will take the time to be sure you get everything going, if it is at all possible for you. It is also possible that your local Mothers of Multiples group can help, also. The important thing is to give it your best shot, and feel good about that, not success or failure.

Once you do get everything working, feed both at the same time. Otherwise, you get no sleep. It does require learned pillow placement, though.

10

I’ll just repost this entry and comment from my LiveJournal…

BIG NEWS: I BREASTFED BOTH MY BABIES THIS AFTERNOON.

I called the lactation consultant, and she had time to meet with us in time for the next feeding, so we bundled the boys back to the hospital. I was feeling kind of depressed, but still wanting to try. Well, she found the magic trick–using a nipple shield, we managed to get James to take the breast, then she used an orthodontic syringe to squirt a little formula into the corner of his mouth to get him to suck. It took a few tries, but he finally got latched and ate until he was full. Then the same trick worked for Liam.

HALLELUJAH!

Now, I’m not going to try feeding them at the same time until they both really have the hang of this–they’re probably going to need the syringe trick at least a few more times–so for the next few days I’m going to be doing nothing but feeding babies and getting no sleep at all. Yipes. But I am so encouraged, and once both boys are feeding well, I can try to get them to feed together. There’s still a lot of work to be done, but we made SO much progress today, I am SO relieved.

[Later…] And I just did it again with Liam! James was supposed to go first, but when we woke him up, he wasn’t ready to eat yet but Liam was–then of course J got hungry about 5 minutes after I got L latched on, so Bill finger-fed him so he wouldn’t have to wait an hour to feed (yeah, I know, it’s still formula, but the LC recommended it since that method resembles nursing so much more than any other, and I think it’ll be OK).

11

YAY!
Hang in there!
Relax and through the haze of pure exhaustion that fogs your vision try to cherish this time.

12

FWIW, my wife delivered twin boys via C-section. We opted for the formula path, but not for any reason mentioned here. We did it because the kids go longer between feedings. At 2.5 years now, they’re fantastically great. (Well, no. They’re TWO…but developmentally I don’t think formula affected anything other than out sleep cycles and the ability to let me help feed in the middle of the night.)

If you suppliment with formula, Walmart’s got, by far, the least expensive formula.

Hang in there, we’re pulling for ya.

13

My friend exclusively breastfed twins for almost 12 months. Would you like me to put you in contact with her?

14

Congratulations! I’m proud of you for sticking it out! You’ll have those boys nursing nonstop in no time.

15

just wanted to say good luck. china wife breastfed one twin intermittently and pumped enough to help get the other out of nicu.

make sure you’re getting enough rest, otherwise it might be appropriate in your personal case, to re consider the trade off between beast feeding & pumping versus your health.

imho, people without twins have no idea how exponentially more difficult it is caring for twins.

(not to be snarky but cups are used in many 3rd world countries because it works well rather than difficultly in sterilization. two of my kids had cups and one a feeding tube)

16

fessie, you said this in another thread recently and I think it is hysterical…and apt.

I don’t have much to add beyond support…FWIW, since I have never breastfed twins, only singletons.

Kellymom rocks. Check it out.

There are a few boards just for breastfeeding multiples out there like this one and this one.

Good luck!

17

Lots of sympathy. I had one and it was a horrible time getting started. Though eventually she did. Being exhausted and confused and hormonal (and it my case having PPD) didn’t help either. And congrats on the latching on. In my experience, there was another week or so of “not too good” (sore nipples, mastitis) and downhill from there.

18

Wow. :slight_smile:

I just wanted to come into this thread and congratulate you Geobabe for hanging in there and stuff.

After twins AND a caesarean birthing, AND all the troubles getting the kidlets to do what they were meant to do mammararily etc, I just reckon you should give yourself a good pat on the titties for getting to the stage now where they are feeding well enough.

Sounds like good times all 'round, especially for the boys. You’ve done well.

A celebratory glass of champagne has been ordered for you young lady!! :smiley:

19

That would be great, thanks. We’re doing better now, with the boys latching well with the shield–I’m feeding one while Daddy finger-feeds the other for now–but we’ve still got a ways to go, and I’ll accept all support gladly.

Thanks to everyone for the responses, it’s been really helpful to hear from others who’ve had trouble. I don’t feel so bad knowing I’m not the only one to struggle.

20

This is great news! And what a wonderful way to give Dad babytime without sabatoging breastfeeding!