I'm a second time mom w/ twins. My first, my DS was a terrible nurser, and we had so many issues that we wound up moving to formula when he was around 6 weeks old. I have been completely set on nursing these babies since finding out I was pregnant, but there are some things I'm concerned about. EBFing is not something I can do right now... that may be awful, but right now we're in survival mode around here. I NEED to still give my toddler time, I NEED to not be a walking zombie during the day for him, and for my girls! if I were to be nursing my girls for 1.75 hours every 3 hours through the night I would not be able to function...
My girls are 11 days old. Since we came home from the hospital we have been giving bottles of formula for all night wakings. DH gets up w/ me, we wake whichever girl didn't wake, and change and feed both at the same time. The girls for the most part go back and forth between breast and bottle seamlessly.
They also both are using nipple sheilds. Baby A would only EVER latch w/ the shield. We absolutely couldn't get her on any other way in the hospital, we started using a supplemental nurser there to just get her feeding. We don't need to supplemental nurser, and haven't used it since leaving the hospital since she for the most part nurses when brought to the breast. I started using the shield for B after she managed to crack both of my nipples and her nursing w/o it was putting me in tears for the entire nursing session everytime. w/ the shield it was at least bearable. Now that she's been getting bottles she wants the shield too but usually nurses like an absolute champ w/ it. I have gotten her to nurse once w/o it... but honestly that's not a hill I feel I need to die on right now. In a few weeks we'll work on weaning them from that... I'd rather get our other issues under control first.
During the day I've been attempting to ebf... BUT they frequently want fed at the same time, I haven't been able to master tandem nursing reliably yet. I'm FAR from being able to tandem when I'm on my own. One of the girls (my better nurser actually) will be pacified back to sleep w/ a finger this is a problem when her sister wakes first, because it's either remove the one who is nursing, offer a bottle, or let her go back to sleep. She's only 11 days old, I'm really worried about making her wait. Their nursing sessions are regularly 30-45 minutes each. I pop off around 15 minutes if the tricks to keeping them up aren't working for a burp, then they wake and are ready to finish. Sometimes after 30 minutes or so they still act hungry and wind up w/ another 2oz of formula... I HATE this, because I feel like I'm not making enough to fill them up!!!
Tonight when they woke we actually managed to get them each positioned correctly for tandem nursing and they BOTH refused the breast. They kept popping off and screaming after 1 or 2 sucks, I tried hand expressing a few drops to get them interested and that didn't work... we wound up giving them formula because they were definitely hungry and wouldn't nurse.... they gobbled the formula and fell immediately back to sleep.
Giving up bottles just isn't an option... I'm sorry but there is NO WAY!!! not if I want a hope of being able to function for my son... I also don't want to give up nursing, I LOVE nursing my babies... I'm just not sure what to do next and DH goes back to work on Wednesday so we'll be on our own for roughly 3 feedings a day!!!
My girls are 11 days old. Since we came home from the hospital we have been giving bottles of formula for all night wakings. DH gets up w/ me, we wake whichever girl didn't wake, and change and feed both at the same time. The girls for the most part go back and forth between breast and bottle seamlessly.
They also both are using nipple sheilds. Baby A would only EVER latch w/ the shield. We absolutely couldn't get her on any other way in the hospital, we started using a supplemental nurser there to just get her feeding. We don't need to supplemental nurser, and haven't used it since leaving the hospital since she for the most part nurses when brought to the breast. I started using the shield for B after she managed to crack both of my nipples and her nursing w/o it was putting me in tears for the entire nursing session everytime. w/ the shield it was at least bearable. Now that she's been getting bottles she wants the shield too but usually nurses like an absolute champ w/ it. I have gotten her to nurse once w/o it... but honestly that's not a hill I feel I need to die on right now. In a few weeks we'll work on weaning them from that... I'd rather get our other issues under control first.
During the day I've been attempting to ebf... BUT they frequently want fed at the same time, I haven't been able to master tandem nursing reliably yet. I'm FAR from being able to tandem when I'm on my own. One of the girls (my better nurser actually) will be pacified back to sleep w/ a finger this is a problem when her sister wakes first, because it's either remove the one who is nursing, offer a bottle, or let her go back to sleep. She's only 11 days old, I'm really worried about making her wait. Their nursing sessions are regularly 30-45 minutes each. I pop off around 15 minutes if the tricks to keeping them up aren't working for a burp, then they wake and are ready to finish. Sometimes after 30 minutes or so they still act hungry and wind up w/ another 2oz of formula... I HATE this, because I feel like I'm not making enough to fill them up!!!
Tonight when they woke we actually managed to get them each positioned correctly for tandem nursing and they BOTH refused the breast. They kept popping off and screaming after 1 or 2 sucks, I tried hand expressing a few drops to get them interested and that didn't work... we wound up giving them formula because they were definitely hungry and wouldn't nurse.... they gobbled the formula and fell immediately back to sleep.
Giving up bottles just isn't an option... I'm sorry but there is NO WAY!!! not if I want a hope of being able to function for my son... I also don't want to give up nursing, I LOVE nursing my babies... I'm just not sure what to do next and DH goes back to work on Wednesday so we'll be on our own for roughly 3 feedings a day!!!