Pregnant with Multiples Chat Thread Summer - Fall 2011 - Page 2

[abowin]

• Name? (if you feel like it)
• Amy
• You and maybe your partners age at the birth?
• 37/38
• Are the babies Mono or Di or what combo of both?
• di/di
• What number of kids will is be for you?
• 1&2
• Genders? Will you be finding out?
• girls
• EDD and or planned birth timing?
• 1/26/12
• State you live in?
• IL

[BellyBean]

Hi, I just found out we are expecting twins on Wednesday.  Still taking in the news :)  and honestly, a little scared.  I hope to find some support and friendship on this forum! 

• You and maybe your partners age at the birth?
• I'll be 31, DH will be 36
• Are the babies Mono or Di or what combo of both?
• Di/Di
• What number of kids will is be for you?
• 2 and 3
• Genders? Will you be finding out?
• yes, we plan on finding out.
• EDD and or planned birth timing?
• If it was a singleton, EDD was July 15.  New EDD (per the internet) is June 23rd.

[kateber]

Originally Posted by BellyBean 

Hi, I just found out we are expecting twins on Wednesday.  Still taking in the news :)  and honestly, a little scared.  I hope to find some support and friendship on this forum! 

• You and maybe your partners age at the birth?
• I'll be 31, DH will be 36
• Are the babies Mono or Di or what combo of both?
• Di/Di
• What number of kids will is be for you?
• 2 and 3
• Genders? Will you be finding out?
• yes, we plan on finding out.
• EDD and or planned birth timing?
• If it was a singleton, EDD was July 15.  New EDD (per the internet) is June 23rd.

My EDD is June 23 also! Although my due date doesn't take into account that it is twins so it will likely be earlier. I have a DD who is almost 2 and 1/2 years old

[BellyBean]

Kateber, wow we have a lot in common!  I am so glad to know I'll have someone that can relate.  I am so excited and worried at the same time..and definitely a little overwhelmed right now :)

[dsb76]

Congrats - I will add you to the list as soon as I can.

My twins were born 11/9/11 at 36wks: Audrey and Maxwell.  Both are finally out of the NICU and home this week (Max on Monday and Audrey on Wednesday) and they are doing well.

I also have a two year old who is being a real sport about all these babies.

Trying to figure out the coordination of nursing, pumping, bottles etc. and how to find time for sleep.

[BellyBean]

dsb76, thanks for the welcome!!  Congratulations on your new arrivals!  I am glad things are going well with your DD.  It's great to hear from a BTDT mama.  That is my biggest concern right now is how my DD will adjust.  I don't want her to feel pushed out by the new babies.  I am so scared that the chaos is going to leave everyone lacking the attention they need.  Your post reminded me of another question I had.  I BF'd DD, but a lot of what I have read from twin mamas talk about pumping.  Is it easier to mix pumping and BF'ing with twins?  I am sure you are very busy these days so I completely understand if you don't have time to respond.  I have plenty of time to figure it all out :)

[dsb76]

We really lucked out as our dd has been great about having her new brother and sister home.  I think it helps a lot to have a good support around - my mother and dd's regular babysitter/childcare provider have been helping out daily since my husband went back to work before the babies were home from the hospital.  I've also been trying to give her some one on one time (though it is hard).  Plus we are trying to keep to our regular schedule - putting her to bed at the same time, I have been getting up with her in the morning to make breakfast before bringing the babies downstairs etc.  She has been really gentle around them which helps so I have been letting her be pretty hands on as well.

As far as your question about pumping / breast feeding - I am new to this so you probably will get some more experienced advice from other moms on the site.  I was planning of breastfeeding and only pumping eventually for when I went back to work but both my twins ended up with stays in the NICU and weren't nursing adequetly while in the hospital so I gave them expressed breast milk via bottle for more than half (sometimes close to all their feedings) while they were hospitalized.  The NICU staff and doctors recommended that I advance breastfeeding sessions really slowly when they came home (starting with only 2 nursing sessions a day).  I am advancing them a lot faster then what is recommended as they both latch and suck well and seem to have the ability to take between 1.5 to 2 oz via breast per feeding now (I am tracking their weight on a medela baby scale I rented, occasionally measuring milk transfer after nursing, and making sure they have lots of wet and poopy diapers) but I am still giving them bottles at night for the time being and pumping for that as well as making sure I am maintaining a good milk supply.  While I feed them when they appear hungry I am encouraging them to nurse or take a bottle every 3 hours (the schedule recommended by the NICU).

[rinap]

My twins are five months old. I vastly prefer breastfeeding them. We were really lucky not to need any NICU time, but they were a month early and didn't get nursing down until about six weeks, and didn't nurse at night until almost three months. So in our case, I needed to pump and feed early on. I think it's not an unusual story.

Some people also find it easier to breastfeed one and bottle feed the other at each feeding, but we only did that early on in emergencies. Now I feed them one at a time, while singing to the one who is waiting. Sometimes I can even manage both at the same time.

[mylilmonkeys]

Mine are nearly 9 mo already!  I have only pumped twice to go out with DH for a few hours.  Otherwise they are completely breastfed (and only one took the bottles when we were out, anyways).  Mine were term and never needed hospitalization, so that makes a big difference!

Early on, I fed them both together a lot on my EZ2nurse twins pillow, then I switched to nursing them one at a time as they were able to space feedings a bit longer.  I liked to try to keep them on separate schedules so I didn't have two screaming babies to deal with, but could change one diaper and nurse while the other napped and vice versa.  But these day, they see one nursing and the other crawls up for her share, so I am tandem nursing a lot again.  At least now they can latch themselves on pretty well by themselves.

[heartofawarrior]

• Name? (if you feel like it)

Akilah

•  
• You and maybe your partners age at the birth?
• Just me and I am 30
• Are the babies Mono or Di or what combo of both?
•  Mono/Di Fused placenta and separate sacs
• What number of kids will is be for you?
•  These will be my first
• Genders? Will you be finding out?
•  They are boys
• EDD and or planned birth timing?
•  June 10
• State you live in?
•  WA
• Anything else you want to share?
• I am a single mom planning a twin homebirth :-)

[dsb76]

I haven't been on this forum for a while.  Maybe another expecting mom would like to take it over because I am back at work and not to attentive to updating lists right now.

I went back to work today !!!  babies did well without me.  I have a fair amt of pumped milk saved and I will make the time to pump at work (and I'm pumping while driving to and from work as well)

Audrey sleeps really well at night (usually only wakes up once) Max will sleep for the first 4-5 hours (7p - mn or 1 am) then wakes up every 1.5 hours needing comfort nursing.  we will see how that goes now that I am working.  I hope they don't reverse cycle.  I can;t believe they are almost 4 months old!  So crazy.  Life is crazy.