Successful EBF twins anyone?

[newmommy7-08]

I just found out I amexpecting twins... and after a lot of difficulty nursing DS, I need some good stories or advice!

Please and Thanks mamas!!!

[EmilyG]

My mom EBF twins for over a year 25 years ago! My younger brother and sister! They each had their prefered side that they always nursed on, and as I can remember, she never had any issues. I remember going to her LLL meetings with her.
You can do it mommy!!

[CalaRei]

You might want to try the breastfeeding boards on the twinstuff forums, they've been an immense help to me. Not only for the inspirational stories of people EBF from birth, but those who eventually went from supplementing to EBF, and the ones who take BF and supplementing in stride and proud that they can BF at all. The range is wonderful and reassuring.

The first task I would take on is to do everything within your power to get yourself and your babies as close to full term as possible. We went to 37 weeks, but one of my boys was still in the NICU for 4 days, and that really started things off poorly. Secondly, get yourself an EZ-2-Nurse pillow, and make sure you have it with you if you're birthing in the hospital. I put it off and put it off buying it, and "made due" but this thing has been a freaking sanity saver, and I wish I'd had it then.

I totally agree that you can do this. My boys started off supplemented after every feeding. We moved to replacing certain feeds with the bottles, sometimes formula, sometimes EBM. Now one of them is refusing a bottle unless it's from a babysitter and I'm not around. The other is only getting 4ish oz of formula a day, and we're working to get him (mostly)EBF, too, since it doesn't affect his reflux as badly. I took the tack of, hey, formula's not my favorite, but right now this is working for all of us, so I'll just roll with it. It seems as soon as I relaxed, things started really changing for the better.

Get in contact with local LCs if you can. Find out if they can do weighings and things for you. Unfortunately, even the copays make an LC visit pretty expensive for me (3 patients, 3 copays.) Call LLL ahead of time, and see what help they can provide.

[CrunchyChristianMama]

One of my best friends exclusively nursed her twin boys until they were 8.5 mo (no solids or anything) and then they kept on for a while after that. You can do it!

[Dov'sMom]

One of my best friends EBF her b/g twins until 6 months. They were her first, though -- now she's expecting twins again and is nervous about doing it again with four other kids aged 3-7 running around.

She had a big twin nursing pillow so she could latch one baby on and then let him/her nurse without being held while she latched the other. One very big deal was getting them on the same schedule. Her mother paid for a baby-nurse the first two weeks home from the hospital, and one of her biggest jobs was keeping the baby who woke first happy as long as possible before nursing and then waking the other baby up when the first got impatient. By two weeks they were largely synchronized, at least in terms of getting generally ready to nurse around the same time, though they nursed for different lengths of time each time.

It was important, because otherwise, you can literally spend the first few weeks exclusively nursing -- a newborn can nurse for 40 minutes at a time every 2 hours X 2 =

As I recall, she was very careful about switching sides every nursing, which I've been told is important even for a singleton for eye development and skull structure, but was particularly important for her because one of hers was a weaker nurser, and her milk supply wouldn't have developed as well if the strong nurser hadn't been stimulating both sides.

One thing to be aware of if the babies are early is that the extra week or two until 37-38 weeks makes a huge difference in a baby's will to suckle.

[LadyCatherine185]

A family at our church's DIL EBF'ed her twins for (i'm pretty sure) a year!

[Llyra]

I breastfed my twins (DD2 and DS) for 16 months. I also had a lot of trouble breastfeeding my first Dd, and wound up pumping for her for a long time and then losing my supply and going to formula. With the twins, it was so clear to me that full-time formula was unaffordable for us, so I knew from the beginning breastfeeding was the only way to go, and we MADE it work. It was not without its challenges, and both twins had small amounts of supplementation in the early months, but we did it and I feel very proud of that.

DD2 had some supplements in the first two weeks because she was small, very jaundiced, and sluggish with it, and wasn't transferring milk because of her sluggishness and a weak suck. DS got some supplementation at around 2 to 3 months old, because I was very sick (I have a serious chronic illness) and my supply was dipping.

If supplementation does become necessary, an SNS or a Lact-aid can allow you to supplement at the breast, so that you're not starting a downward supply towards early weaning. For both my kids, the SNS meant that the supplements were a very short-term thing, and we returned to exclusive breastfeeding very quickly.

My best advice for twins is that it is going to be a full-time job. You will want to start lining up help so that when they arrive, nursing them is your only responsibility for a few weeks. That's tough--- I had a 2 year old in the house when my twins came, and once my "help" went home after a week, I was basically on my own, and it was very difficult. If I'd had one of these spouses who refuses to get up at night with a baby, or hadn't had my mom nearby and a friend who would come over to take DD1 out for a few hours, I would have gone mad.

In the early weeks, I fed each twin separately, because they each needed so much attention staying latched, and because DD2 needed help staying awake and focused on feeding. Once we learned to nurse both at the same time, that did save a lot of time, although there were many phases where we want back to separate feeding for many reasons.

Honestly, the breastfeeding wasn't the hardest part of twins. The never-ending diapers drove me much crazier, as did DS's refusal to nap.