So after a long pause in blogging, I'm back. At least for now, inspired by a class I am assisting in teaching tomorrow at Enlightened Mama on breastfeeding multiples. The following was taken from an email written years ago while I was BFing my second set of twins. It was sent to a new M.O.M. (that's mother of multiples) who was looking for general advice from an experienced, breastfeeding M.O.M. I sent her a long email, including much of what follows. Please read and enjoy for what it is worth. Sorry, it is a little disjointed.
First -
realize you will be spending lots of time in a chair feeding babies. If you can't accept that, then you will have
a hard time succeeding. Set up a
'nursing nest' somewhere convenient in your house with a comfy chair and a TV
tray next to it with all the essentials.
Mine has magazines, paper and pen for jotting down grocery lists etc.,
lotion, nipple cream, my breast pump (on floor below table) and even my laptop
so I can read what's going on! (even if I can't type). It makes the time spent nursing seem pretty
short. It's in the living room in a
place where I can also see the kitchen so I can keep tabs on my 4-year olds.
Second,
realize that building supply may take time - it did for me. Only perhaps 2 weeks with my first babies
(but they were nursing constantly!), but probably
almost a month for my second set before we were totally done with formula. We used Enfamil Gentleease,
because our first babes had so much trouble with food sensitivities. When I did try to use the samples of regular
formula they did seem to make our babies more fussy.
Feed.
Supplement. Pump. You dont' have to
supplement every feed, but you will know when your baby is getting frustrated
at the breast because she may come unlatched, crying. Try pumping for 10 minutes every time you
supplement. But don’t stress yourself
out – you have 2 tinies and perhaps even some older children to care for. even
if it's not right after you supplement with formula, do after a another feeding that day. This comes with a caveat though...I didn't
worry about pumping until my milk came in at 2 or 3 days. You need a break those early days. I refused
the pump at the hospital and the lactation consultant gave me a raised eyebrow. I reminded her that I had done this before
and was sure the milk would come in as long as I gave my newborns plenty of
boob-time (which I did...I would let them go for 45 minutes if they wanted to). You can pump in the hospital if you find it
convenient, it may help your milk come in faster, but if it is stressing you
out, just skip it. Your milk WILL come in if your baby is given time at your
breast, don’t be afraid to wait out the arrival of your milk without a pump!
I too
breastfed right after birth. Tell your
hospital staff that you want to breastfeed as soon as possible after birth. For my first set of twins they were 35
minutes apart and I had Baby A at breast before B was born to help with
contractions. It was awkward laying
down, but it worked. With my first(s) they
brought the babies to me to nurse every 3 hours...asleep, awake no matter
what. It was a little over the top for
term 7lb babies and totally exhausted me.
The second time was a little too far the other way. If the babies were sleeping, the nurses would
say 'You want us to wake them, why?'.
Times change I guess. Just try to
nurse them at least every 2-3 hours, until your milk comes in.
If no
specific directive from your pediatrician, nurse them every 2-3 hours during the
day plus whenever they 'request' it. I'm sure they will let you know if
htey are hungry at night. This means
that you may need to wake them up during the day to feed them. Granted, if
they just finally fell asleep after a long fuss and 20 minutes later it's been
3 hours since you last started feeding them (this was always the case with our
first twins!) don't kill yourself waking them right on schedule like I did at
first! Just be reasonable, let them get
some rest and start it all over after they got to sleep for 45 minutes. With our first set we succumbed to the
relatives’ requests of 'why wake a
sleeping baby?!?' and entertained visitors all day, and fed babies all night. After a week we learned our lesson: Feed baby during the day or baby will wake
you all night!
Get a
prescription nipple cream if you need one. There will be
alot of action on those nipples and I had problems with cracking both
times. supposedly, you should never have troubles if your baby is latching correctly,
but I just don't know that's totally true.
With hungry full term twins who are let nurse on demand I had trouble with one nipple both times even though the lactation consultants said her latch
was fine. and strangely enough, the same
babies didn't bother my left nipple. (or didn't bother it as much). I'm convinced it's because my right boob and
nipple are much bigger than my left, and their little mouths just weren't
big enough to nurse in a totally compatible way. So just realize that there no matter how
'properly' you and your babies are, there may be some soreness. whenever my nipples got really sore, I just
pumped that side for the next 12 hours and it would start healing nicely.
(prescription steroid nipple cream also very helpful here!)
I agree
tandem nursing saves lots of time. It is
very difficult to tandem nurse though in the hospital. I did it a few times with our first set just
ot practice. The second set I only did
it at home with the boppy in my 'nest'.
It is difficult because that babies don’t know how to latch on their own
yet, so if one comes undone, you don't have enough hands to get him
re-latched. Don't stress over
tandem. I recommend trying side laying
nursing in the hospital though - this was a life saver for me! I don't htink I could have nursed twins without being able to snooze a little while I nurse. If it makes you nervous, set a radio alarm to
quietly wake you in a few minutes so you don't fall into a totally deep
sleep. I always turned on the lamp as my
subconscious reminder not to fall into a deep sleep and that worked for us.
I am no
lactation consultant, but I highly recommend using bottles for supplements and
even if you don't need to supplement, doing at least a bottle a day with breast milk. My first set of twins
refused all bottles at about 5 weeks because they didn't get one often enough, and boy
was perhaps the most difficult aspect of thier first year of life! My first hospital stay they never offered bottles and we cup
fed. When I had the second set of twins, they (the hospital Lactation
consultant) said that nipple confusion doesn't really happen and I should just
use bottles because its' so much easier.
I agree.
Finally,
when it comes to maintaining an adequate milk supply, I found that it was helpful
that when my babies slept longer stretches at night, I would wake up
dripping. When this happened, I went and
pumped then the babies would drink that
the next night when they were stockpiling for thier big long stretch. But it
worked because it evolved into them sleeping through the night at 3 months yay!
I pray for that for all MOMs!) and I would pump before I went to bed (if it was
a late night for me) or early in the wee hours (if I turned in early that
night). Then they would drink that the
next night when they were clusterfeeding and stockpilingso they could sleep and what they didn't
drink I stuck in the fridge.
Good luck and best wishes to all you !!!!!
