Tandem Nursing

[Julia'sMom]

I tandem nurse at least 90% of the time. Partly because the babies seem to need to nurse every 1 1/2 hours and I need to have time for dd1 sometime. I am lucky enough to enjoy tandeming. It may not be the same bonding, beautiful experience I had with my singleton, but it's working.

However, I need to learn to tandem without the EZ-2 nurse pillow. I'm dreaming of getting out of the house without dragging it along. So, oh wise ones, what positions work? I've tried a cradle/football combo and it just seems awkward. Any pictures would be most appreciative. Most importantly, how the heck can you tandem lying down??? I would be golden if I could master that. Please send a photo, even if it's just of two teddy bears as I can't seem to understand the descriptions I've read here. TIA!

[daisie31]

I don't use the EZ pillow, don't care for it so I gave it to another twin mama and she loves it...go figure. I nurse on the couch with a couple of pillows. Mine are six months now but I always did the same when they were younger too. I always do one cradle on the right side and the other is either football or if the bigger twin is on that side, she gets the cradle too with her head in the other's lap. I keep a boppy in my car and use that to double football when we are out, which is very often. It works so well that I wish we could duplicate that set up at home...I guess I could just go nurse them in the driveway.

Nights are totally different. I let the booby baby lay next to me and she nurses on and off all night. The other one didn't need to nurse as often until recently but she still get the other side of her sister to sleep and when she wants to nurse she is sorta flung up over my up side and nurses that way. I sleep with a large body pillow behind me with another one on top of that so that she has a sorta even "platform" for her body to rest on. I can ease back onto the pillows so she isn't upside down and then I cradle her head in my hand. She is laying perpendicular to me, like a t...she being the small cross part of the t, laying on her side with her face looking at my head....so her head is kinda laying on my ribs. My hand is at the back of her head...towards my waste. I have to prop her head up a little with a very light weight baby blanket so her neck isn't strained. when she is done, I grab her and kind of flop her back to her sleeping area, having to sorta squish her sister getting her there. It funny how much flopping and squishing goes on every night but somehow it works and we all sleep. I have very light sleepers and this is the only way it works for us. Until they had head control, I slept propped up with a ton of pillows with one in each arm and they nursed every hour or so.

I wish they would sleep better but I can't even work with them because they wake each other up and we would have total hysteria because if one cries, the other will start up soon too.

I am sure it sounds very complicated but it isn't too bad. If I can remember, I will get a picture for you this weekend.

It's weird now when I get to only nurse one baby, it's sooo easy and can snuggle her right up. It's not so snuggly with too but at least it's not irritating to me like it used to be. Sometimes we get into perfect position and sometimes the whole session feels really off. When I am only nursing one, I feel like I could make an entire turkey dinner on a skateboard....it's just so compact and easy.

Hope you can get some idea of what I am trying to very poorly explain.

Dena

[attached2mason]

Originally Posted by daisie31

When I am only nursing one, I feel like I could make an entire turkey dinner on a skateboard....it's just so compact and easy.

thanks for the giggle, mama

I will be watching this thread closely. My boys will be here soon and I'm starting to have some anxiety over the nursing logistics for the first time in my pregnancy.

[Nanasi]

I may have gone from a B cup to a D+ cup, but I still have not figured out how to tandem nurse lying down. That's true talent! However, I have figured out a pretty workable solution for nursing in the car (if you're serious about getting out, it's a lifesaver). This works best with another person to help, but I sit in the passenger seat and hold the baby on the right in a cradle hold with my legs far apart so his butt can droop. Then the other baby is in the football hold with his head in his brother's lap and his butt propped up on a blanket or the diaper bag, which is on the emergency brake.

If we're out and about, I just try to find a bench. I put them in the football hold with their heads on my thighs and I bend forward... I know it's not ergonomically correct, but it works better for us. Bringing them up to the boobs all the time would give me carpal tunnel or forearms like the hulk!

[Llyra]

I never managed to tandem lying down. My breasts are just too small, and the position my kids needed to be in to be latched meant that it was just anatomically impossible!

Once mine could sit up, though, our favorite tandem position was sitting up, one on each knee, riding my thigh like a saddle. Like this: (scroll down to the saddle hold, and use your imagination to insert the other baby )

http://www.momzelle.com/blog/nursing...s-worth-a-try/

[Intertwined]

Here's me nursing my seven month old twins (forgive my appearance, we were in the middle of moving and I was getting up every two hours at night still )

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e1...2/DSC_0138.jpg

I am laying on the couch, but that's how I nursed them in bed, too. With tiny babies, I just laid a pillow on either side of me to support them. I am lucky that my babies pretty much come out with decent head control already so they are able to hold their heads well even from very early on.

[4Marmalade]

I am not big chested by any means but have been able to tandem nurse lying down. Then again they are dc's #3 and #4 so maybe #1 and #2 helped stretch them out a little . I lie flat on my back and basically just hold each baby in the crook of my arm alongside me. Picture holding a baby in the cradle position across your body but then just sliding the lower part of their body to your side so they are lying sideways. Their head rests in the same spot it does for the cradle hold. When they were younger I would sometimes use a pillow to help prop their body up a bit. To nurse sitting up I sit on the couch and each one sits beside me, turns towards me and latches on.

I'm not sure I have ever tandem nursed in public aside from an occasional LLL meeting or in the car. I have just never felt comfortable tandem nursing in public.

[MamaRabbit]

When going out of the house I'd take my regular boppy with me. And at home on the couch I'd use it. Wedge myself in the corner with the boppy slightly off-center towards my right. Left boob gets baby in cradle hold and right boob with baby in football hold on the rest of the pillow and usually with feet on the armrest of the chair.

[Shuli]

I used to love nursing lying down. I started off as a large breasted woman, so it was just a matter of head control. I would put the babies' heads on the crook of my elbow, roll them towards the breast and they sucked. It was great for the middle of the night so that DH would bring me a crying baby and we would fall alseep nursing, then DH would take him back to his bed. I never tandemed in public and I always tandemed, it seemed that whenever one was hungry the other one wanted to eat too. I had a regular larger size nursing pillow and I would football hold both all the time, that is how I felt most comfortable.

Good luck.

[Julia'sMom]

Originally Posted by Llyra

Once mine could sit up, though, our favorite tandem position was sitting up, one on each knee, riding my thigh like a saddle. Like this: (scroll down to the saddle hold, and use your imagination to insert the other baby )

http://www.momzelle.com/blog/nursing...s-worth-a-try/

Thanks! That looks like a very feasible position. I just need to improve my posture, otherwise the babes are already too tall.

Originally Posted by Intertwined

Here's me nursing my seven month old twins (forgive my appearance, we were in the middle of moving and I was getting up every two hours at night still )

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e1...2/DSC_0138.jpg

I am laying on the couch, but that's how I nursed them in bed, too. With tiny babies, I just laid a pillow on either side of me to support them. I am lucky that my babies pretty much come out with decent head control already so they are able to hold their heads well even from very early on.

Are the babies lying on top of each other? It almost appears so as though they are both diagonal across your body.

Originally Posted by 4Marmalade

I am not big chested by any means but have been able to tandem nurse lying down. Then again they are dc's #3 and #4 so maybe #1 and #2 helped stretch them out a little . I lie flat on my back and basically just hold each baby in the crook of my arm alongside me. Picture holding a baby in the cradle position across your body but then just sliding the lower part of their body to your side so they are lying sideways. Their head rests in the same spot it does for the cradle hold. When they were younger I would sometimes use a pillow to help prop their body up a bit. To nurse sitting up I sit on the couch and each one sits beside me, turns towards me and latches on.

I'm not sure I have ever tandem nursed in public aside from an occasional LLL meeting or in the car. I have just never felt comfortable tandem nursing in public.

For tandeming lying down, do the breasts basically fall to the side, so the nipple is sideways? Otherwise, I'm not sure how I can picture doing this. I nap with them each in teh crooks of my arm, but have never tried nursing that way.


Thanks for the replies! Now I just need to start practicing. By the way, does anyone know when they start spacing out their feedings so I can get more than 2 hours of sleep at a time? :Love

[Intertwined]

Originally Posted by Julia'sMom

Are the babies lying on top of each other? It almost appears so as though they are both diagonal across your body.



For tandeming lying down, do the breasts basically fall to the side, so the nipple is sideways? Otherwise, I'm not sure how I can picture doing this. I nap with them each in teh crooks of my arm, but have never tried nursing that way.


Thanks for the replies! Now I just need to start practicing. By the way, does anyone know when they start spacing out their feedings so I can get more than 2 hours of sleep at a time? :Love

Yes, they are sort of crossed. We did it that way when they were younger. When they got older they did "nursenastics" and crawled all over me and each other (while latched on, of course )

Yes, the breasts do sort of fall to the side. I wore a nursing bra most of the time to help with support. Except at night. I can't stand sleeping in a bra! I would sort of smoosh the babies up against the boobs to keep everything in place. I always wished for perkier boobs!

My twins started sleeping for slightly longer stretches around 8 weeks. It REALLY got better when the synched up some at about 4 months and BOTH were sleeping 3-4 hours at the same time. That rocked. This is the moment when I will NOT tell you how long it took me to get decent sleep again.

[4Marmalade]

Originally Posted by Julia'sMom

Thanks! That looks like a very feasible position. I just need to improve my posture, otherwise the babes are already too tall.



Are the babies lying on top of each other? It almost appears so as though they are both diagonal across your body.



For tandeming lying down, do the breasts basically fall to the side, so the nipple is sideways? Otherwise, I'm not sure how I can picture doing this. I nap with them each in teh crooks of my arm, but have never tried nursing that way.


Thanks for the replies! Now I just need to start practicing. By the way, does anyone know when they start spacing out their feedings so I can get more than 2 hours of sleep at a time? :Love

They do kind of fall to the side. I can also kind of lift up my shoulders/upper arms to lif their heads. I also sometimes bend my arm at the elbow and stick my hand under their heads to elevate or cradle their heads.

I just remembered too that when they were really young I used to lie on my side and side nurse ds while using a pillow alongside my back and laying dd perpendicular across my body and she would kind of nurse face down on the upper breast.

[Llyra]

Originally Posted by Julia'sMom

Thanks! That looks like a very feasible position. I just need to improve my posture, otherwise the babes are already too tall.

Yeah, that can be a challenge. That's why it worked so well for me-- my breasts are really small and high, so even when they were toddlers, if I just leaned back a bit, they were still at the right height. It's the extreme smallness that made it impossible for me to tandem lying down-- my breasts don't fall to the side when I lie down. They point straight up at the ceiling.

Once they get that big, though, that they're too big for the saddle hold, it's easier to have them sit or kneel next to you, one on each side, and lean in a bit. That reminds me- we also used to do this bizarre variation on cradle holding, where each of them would lie on the couch, one on each side of me, with their legs away from me, and their heads towards me, and I would prop their heads and shoulders with pillows. We'd take up literally the ENTIRE couch, and by the end their legs were hanging over the arms of the couch, too, but it worked well because the bulk of their weight was not in my arms or on my lap.