Encouraging breastfeeding moms of multiples
This post was transported in its entirety from Emmie’s blog at allthis.typepad.com to preserve the wonderfully rich content and give this information a permanent home. Be sure to view the comments to see all of the stories. We’d love to add your story to the site! Comments are closed, so please share your story using our new form. Thanks!
When I was breastfeeding twins, I had limited access to information about the issues that can come up. Kellymom and Karen Kerkhoff Gromada‘s book Mothering Multiples: Breastfeeding & Caring for Twins or More were about it, and while very helpful, we each find our own way of doing things that works*
I think I may be able to contribute something to what’s available, and I need your help. As mentioned here, I get lots of Google hits every week, as well as regular e-mails, from moms who are considering, having difficulty, or about to give up breastfeeding their (often preemie) multiples. My own experience is just one experience, and what we did will not work for everyone.
I’m setting up a repository of breastfeeding stories by mothers of multiples. What worked for you? What didn’t? How do you feel about it now? What do you wish you had done differently? Did you supplement, and how did that work? Feel free to tell it like a story, a list of facts, a chronology, advice, memories, whatever you want. I’ve set up a Typelist to the left so anyone can go right there and read all the stories. I’ve posted several categories for the stories to go into, so just pick one below. When they’re no longer on the main page, you’ll be able to find them to the left.
Let’s keep it along the lines of “this is what worked for us”, and leave the heated debates for some other forum. There is certainly something to be said for peer-reviewed research, statistics, and science. But there is also something to be said for stories, experiences, and perspectives.
Please consider sharing your hard-won perspective and giving a little encouragement to moms of twins or more who want to breastfeed.
If you didn’t breastfeed, for whatever reason, this is not intended to make anyone feel bad or dredge up all that stuff. I promise I’ll continue to post about stuff totally unrelated to breastfeeding (and twins!).
*Personally, I ended up doing things in less of an Attachment Parenting style than I thought I would. We didn’t co-sleep for more than a few months, and we always fed the boys at the same time, for instance. We used bottles of EBM, regularly. When the boys were a year old, and jealousy made it very difficult for us to function as a trio, I put limits on nursing. I’m completely at peace with those decisions, but I still think there’s a dearth of information out there about breastfeeding twins that isn’t specifically AP oriented. I’m not knocking the efforts of Kellymom and other AP moms. AP moms are obviously (and laudably) very committed to breastfeeding, and I think that explains the connection. But I worry that moms who don’t want to co-sleep or feed both twins on demand individually (never waking one up to feed them at the same time) won’t get the information they need, because the only alternative they seem likely to find is a paragraph here and there in mainstream parenting books saying something along the lines of “breastfeeding twins is sometimes possible”. That is not to say that I don’t welcome stories about how you AP your twins, just that all are welcome (including those who combined formula and breastfeeding, pumped and had babies who didn’t latch, went back to work, or breastfed for a short time) and I hope to eventually have a diverse collection of breastfeeding stories here.
I didn’t really have a set style to breastfeeding, I just went with it. Sometimes it was separately, but most of the time it was simultaneously. When they were tiny, we had the bassinet in our room for easy access at night. Then as they got older we tried to transition them to their cribs, but they would only stay there for an hour or two and then they ended up back in our bed. So we ended up co sleeping even though that wasn’t our intention. It was fine, but as they got older they would just wake up on their own and jump right on me.
As I look back, there was a lot of experimenting going on. I think you just got to go with what works for you. Try different positions, try cosleeping and not cosleeping, schedules and no schedules, figure out what works best for your family.
I’m sure you know of Jody’s (Raising WEG) posts on breastfeeding her triplets. That’s all I know of at the moment, but I will keep an eye out. I think it’s a great service, and I admire you greatly for bfing twins. I can’t imagine getting through the first month with two voracious newborns to sustain. Yowza!
I think I’m also going to put something up on my blog and a forum I frequent, if you don’t mind.
Yes! Thank you, and thank you to anyone else who’d like to spread the word, twin/multiples mom or not!
This is a great idea! I just sort of “winged it” after the little bit of help nursing staff at the hospital, but it would have been great to have some continued support somewhere. I admit I was totally ready to give up the first week, bit I am glad I somehow decided to stick it out. I will work on contributions for this cause.
I breastfed my b/g twins for 27 mos. I miss it terribly, too, now that they’re three and a half.
No one particular style worked for me, but I had the advantage of having a wonderful set of mammaries that would pump eight ounces from each breast. That got me through the phases that babies go through with nursing that made it difficult for me. I found patience that I never knew I had, because I was so determined to keep at it. Patience is such a key to making it work. Patience and perserverence. And when you feel like you have reached the end of your rope, find someone to talk to who understands nursing and preferrably one who can commiserate about having twins. If anyone is in such a case, feel free to email me through my blog, as it is such a wonderful thing for your babies. I’d love to be whatever support I can. And especially for people doubting themselves on whether to keep at it throughout a bit of the toddler years. There seems to be so much flack given to those who nurse past a year.
I can’t read the tiny print. What’s up with that?
Oh, Emmie, you have fantastic timing. Even bringing it up makes me feel better right now. Especialy since both my mom and MIL are here now, and both very supportive of BFing, but with ZERO twin experience. So their help is well intentioned and sometimes useful, but often fails to grasp the sheer effort and time involved in the twin aspect of things. And I’m only days into it. We had such a range of support and “assistance” from the staff at the hospital, so now that we’re home we’re trying to figure out what works for us. And in the meantime, can someone tell me I will one day get more than an hour of sleep at a time? (and more than a couple in a day?)
Dear Cass – hang in there! I know it’s so very hard right now, but it will get easier and easier. You’ll get into a bit of a rythm, they’ll sleep longer stretches, you won’t believe how great that first 4 hour stretch feels. You’ll bond with them more, you’ll fall in love with them more, you’ll enjoy it more. You have official permission to not enjoy this part. Many women don’t, but they still love their children dearly. Someday you’ll have a day like mine. Come home from work, play with the kiddos, take them swimming, make supper while they run around in their diapers, eat dinner together, sing funny songs while they bathe and blow raspberries in the water, and then read a book and put them to bed. Enjoy the rest of the evening to yourself. It will happen someday.
I still don’t understand why, but when I was really in the hardest part, like you are, I had such a hard time believing it would ever get better – breastfeeding, sleep, the crying, any of it. It really, really will.
Avert Your Eyes!
Back during the first big breastfeeding brouhaha of 2006, I debated joining Phantom Scribbler’s get-out-the-breast campaign but wimped out, for two reasons. One, my scanner is so old that when I try to load its software onto my new computer,
My twins breastfeeding story is on the web.
I nursed for 3 years and 30 days. But who counted? 🙂 I was done before my daughter was. My son would have stopped anytime after about 15 months, but kept being reminded of it by the daughter, so kept at it varying from regular to intermittent for the next two years.
I nursed our twin exclusively for 18 months. No bottles or supplements. It helped tremendously that I successfully nursed my two older singletons. The twins’ pediatrician and some friends were not at all encouraging about my desire and determination to nurse, saying it “can’t be done” or at least w/o supplementing because you “won’t have enough milk”. Don’t listen to negative comments. Your body knows what to do. I bought a special nursing pillow and attempted from day 1 to tandem nurse them. Our twins tandem-nursed until they could no longer fit on the pillow together, at around 8-9 months. My husband was a huge help in bringing the twins to me in bed for the nighttime feedings. At one point during the first 60 days post-partum we hired a night nurse who helped me with two to three night feedings weekly. We took her reccomendation and fed the twins at the same time. It didn’t necessarily put them on any schedule, but permitted us to feed them together so that they would adopt similar sleep patterns as newborns. We did try feeding them on demand one weekend and found that as soon as one was fed and asleep, the other woke to be fed. They cycle never stopped and we never slept. By three months, our twins had settled into a nursing pattern and we no longer needed outside help and they were not waking up as frequently in the night. I hope other mulitple mothers will not be discouraged from nursing if they choose to nurse. This is the best start you can give your children. Ask for help if you need it from family, friends, La Leche, Lactation Consultants, Doulas.
When my son’s pediatrician found out I was pregnant with twins at one of his well baby visits she advised me multiple times during that visit that I would need to supplement the twins after birth until my “milk came in”.
I was pretty shocked to hear this because I was already pretty far along and had done my research. I also was nursing a toddler and I didnt imagine my milk would have any problem “coming in”.
This was the only twin advice she had for me and she was so adament about it that she repeated it many times.
Of course I ignored her.
I was extremely fortunate in my breastfeeding experience with my twins. FIrst of all I had nursed two older children without incident. With each I felt I had so much milk I could have fed the whole neighborhood so I never doubted that I could make enough milk. Second of all, my twins came at term. I cannot imaging the struggle a mom must face in trying to breastfeed premature babies who must stay in the hospital. Just getting started breastfeeding in the hospital in the brief overnight stay is dang near impossible.
The hardest part about breastfeeding twins for me was that for the first 6 weeks of their life I did nothing but nurse. I sat on the couch and nursed all day long. This was agonizing for me because I also had a 16 month old son and I was home alone all day with 3 and a rapidly deteriorating house.
For those six weeks I cried a little every day. But the actual mechanics of nursing werent so bad. Just forgiving myself for not being able to clean the house or make dinner or play wiht my son was tough.
I started out with an ‘easy2nurse’ pillow, and these things are pretty great, but I had many problems at first. For instance if I wanted to lean back the pillow would push away from me leaving a big crack for the babies to slide into. THe pillow was also extremely big and didnt fit well in my recliner etc. .. AFter a very short while I found that I could get much more flexibility nursing both babies if I was propped up in bed on pillows with tons of extra pillows around me, I could use all the other pillows to position the babies in various positions.
My son had slight latching problems so it did take some patience to get him on. HIs twins sister could latch on from across the room practically so once I got him set very carefully I just had to get her close enough and everybody was happy.
After the twins were born my older son started wanting to nurse like a newborn again because there was now milk availible, and it was a little bit of a challenge working him into the routine but it worked out all right and I nursed all three of them for the next 14 months.
My twins weaned just a few months ago at 2 1/2. I was so ready.
As for what worked. I started out with the rotating cosleeping model suggested by Karen Gromada and this worked great until about 5 months when my babies hit that mark where they wake up if you put them down asleep or move them when they are asleep. After about a month of no sleep we moved the babies into their own room and I came in when the first baby woke, nursed him/her back down and then picked up the second baby for a dreamfeed. And I see absolutely nothing “un AP” about offering a feeding to a baby before he or she asks for it. There is also nothing “un AP” about not cosleeping if cosleeping is not working for the family.
We never needed supplements and we didnt offer bottles of pumped milk either. In my experience pumping a bottle is harder than just nursing that baby anyway. I had three babies and had absolutely no time left for pumping.
There were days when things were absolutely crazy. There were times when my husband actually had to feed me my dinner because I was nursing two babies and couldnt move my arms.
After the very beginning I nursed my babies separately whenver possible. Even if it meant one right after the other. Howver if they were hungry at the same time I nursed them at the same time.
They started nursing at the same time always again after about 9 months, and after about a year I did most of my nursing lying flat on my back.
I even nursed them in public a few times, although leaving the house with twin infants and a toddler wasnt somethign I did often.
Things might have been easier if I had been diagnosed with twins earlier. As it was I was 32 weeks along before I knew I was having twins and it was just too short of notice to wean my son (also he was only 13 months old at that time) I might have given in to the pressure and fear to wean if I was earlier along. As it was I decided to wean, but felt strongly that these babies would not come early so I changed my mind.
THey did NOT come early and I was induced at 40weeks 1 day.
Good luck to all the twin moms out there who are srugglign to breastfeed.
There are many of us who have successfully done it.
And double kudos to all of the moms of preemies who managed to overcome that huge obstacle and still breastfeed their twins.
Jolien
My breastfeeding ramblings turned out so long I’m embarrassed to try to pass them off as a comment. But they’re on my blog here. They touch on both the early months & supply issues.
Actually supply was the biggest thing making the early months impossible for me: my boys were weak feeders, which meant they weren’t getting enough to eat nor protecting my supply, which meant we were feeding + pumping + supplementing round the clock. Well, I’m sure plenty of you know that drill.
I also wanted to link to Meira of VoireDire’s description of breastfeeding twins, which a reader passed on to me and I loved.
Joline – thanks for your comments. The EZ pillow now comes with a belt and a spacer pillow to solve that problem, and while it feels ridiculous at first, it works.
Emmie, I’m really excited about this resource, but I think there’s one thing missing. Could you possibly set up a post for Q&A about breastfeeding twins?
I know I still have a few questions stored up, and I’m sure other newbies do too. This would be such a great place to get responses from more experienced moms.
My twin boys are 8 months and change now, and I am still breastfeeding. They were born at term, weighing in at 6lbs 9 oz and 7lbs 1 oz, and they were very hungry buggers from the get go. I started supplementing on my second day home from the hospital because my milk was coming in in drabs, and the first night home was a nightmare with both babies screaming on the breast in the middle of the night because I had nothing…nada…zippo. I still feed them all day until the last feeding before bed, and if they wake up in the night they get a bottle then too. This has been a blessing because my husband can also give them a bottle during the day if I need to get out as well. I have never had enough extra to pump and put aside.
What I would like to know is how people with two full size babies manage to feed them at the same time. My breasts are large too, and I always have to handle my breast with one hand, and make sure my baby doesn’t roll around with the other (now that they do that kind of thing…earlier I needed my hand to stroke them and keep them awake) I tried feeding them at the same time..once..and it was a disaster. I spent a lot of stressful time feeding one baby while the other cried because I just didn’t seem to have enough hands. Now that they are bigger, they have a lot more patience, and solid food has decreased the demand and their hunger for breastmilk.
It is such a relief to find a group of women going thru the same thing. We’re 3 months and going strong at this point with breastfeeding my two girls. The things that helped was first my mother was a breasfeeding consultant and she stayed with me for two full weeks (okay so that was a really great benefit that not everyone can have). What made that helpful was it was one person telling me the same things to do over and over I found it very frustrating in the hospital because as nice as the nurses were, they all had slightly different advice and sometimes it was contradictory. So I would say if you find something that works stick with it. Once my mom left my mother in law came for a very long period. That wasn’t so much fun. She meant the best but she was not supportive with breasfeeding. She would constantly suggest well maybe they are just hungry, tandem feeding just doesn’t look comfortable, can you just feed them a bottle. And she even fed them a bottle when I was NAPPING. (you can see I still have issues ;-). So my second piece of advice is surround yourself with supportive people. Once I was able to get the girls to myself we got along fabulously. My stress level dropped and my milk supply came in just fine.
The thing that did it for me was learning to tandem feed. I sit in bed so that I don’t have to worry about the girls rolling anywhere, use a big boppy, and nurse. They nurse for about 15 to 30 minutes each time and they are done. When I’m out shopping I even take my boppy, craw into the back of my minivan and tandem feed. I just don’t have the patience or time to feed each girl separately.
The tandem feeding didn’t work so well when they were really small because they had difficulty latching on but after 6 weeks I do that almost exclusively, unless I’m in public (like at the airport) and then I find it much easier/more discrete to do one at a time. So keep trying with different nursing positions even if you don’t get it for the first few times.
My twin boys are four years old now. I breastfed them for 2.5 years and loved every minute. Well, almost every minute. They were born at 35 weeks. My big boy was 5 lbs 3 oz and came home after one week. My little guy was 4 lbs 7 oz and came home after two weeks. I had breastfed my two older boys so I had experience. I think it would have been a lot harder starting out breastfeeding twins. Harder, but not impossible. And definitely worth it.
I was blessed with vigorous nursers with a good latch. My milk did not come in until they were 5 days old. I pumped every three hours and was lucky to get an ounce of colostrum during those first 5 days. In the hospital my smaller twin was accidentally given another mother’s breastmilk. I was devastated and very emotional about the whole situation. I was afraid that being so upset would compromise my supply but it didn’t seem to matter. Day 5 my milk came in strong.
In the hospital we tried to give the smaller twin all of the milk I pumped. Once we came home I nursed the bigger twin and continued to pump for the smaller. They recommended that I supplement the little guy when we took him home but I never did. I just nursed him pretty much around the clock.
I remember hearing a piece of advice that was SO true. Someone told me that once a baby (or babies) hit 12 pounds that things get so much easier. It took my little guys awhile to get there but it really DID get easier once they did.
We co-slept and I would just turn to which ever baby needed to eat during the night. I swear I got more sleep this way. When they would both wake up at the same time to eat I would take them both to a recliner we kept in our bedroom and I would sleep there holding them while they nursed. I remember waking up and looking down at them sleeping in my arms and feeling so content and happy.
Stick with it.. it’s worth it!
My boys are almost 8 months old. They were born at 36 weeks weighing 4lbs 3 oz and 4 lbs 12 oz. The hospital I was at recommended supplementing with formula after each time the babies nursed and I did. I think I wish I hadn’t. The smaller didn’t really nurse until he was 6 weeks old. I tried using nipple guards to make nursing easier for my smaller baby but it was messy and they say the baby can become dependant on them. So I pumped for him while I fed the first. The hospital also told me to wake them every 2 hours. They ate better if I waited until 3 or even 4 hours. Now they are both nursing very well, although different from each other, and it is wonderful. When they eat at the same time I use a “Big V” pillow. It is kind of heavy and contains beads or cotton, I have the bead one. I empty the beads into the ends so the middle is empty and sit in the center with the ends on my left and right and the center behind me. Then I place the boppy pillow on my lap and slightly on the ends of the big V. This way when I place the babies on the boppy they aren’t sliding off and feeding is much simpler. I found that feeding them in my bed is the easiest. And now that they are so long it’s the only place I can feed them at the same time. I love knowing that their food is always ready. I don’t spend all day washing bottles and formula spit up not only smells horrible, it also stains so I think that breastfeeding has really simplified my life, compared to how it could have been. I can’t imagine my life any other way.
After two months of supplementing with forumula, pumping up to four hours a day, and using the SNS – my milk has come in and my babies (9 weeks old) and I have learned how to nurse. Yay!
I had to think of it as a walking/waking meditation, and I had to remember to take deep breaths, because it was such a marathon of attempted feedings, pumpings, equipment washings and forumla measurings that I had no time to eat, drink, sleep or go to the bathroom! Now that I know more, I know that the lack of eating, drinking and sleeping was contributing to my milk not coming in. So, my advice: consider having someone else give a bottle of forumla now and then (without any nursing attemps) in order to get a little rest – which perhaps would give the body a bit of healing and milk production time.
Although I love nursing my sweeties, I dislike tandem feeding and try and nurse them individually. When they both need to feed at the same time however (I’d much rather tandem feed than have one screaming hungry baby!), I do so like this: I put the big cushion from the back of the couch at the head of my bed, remove my shirt and bra (too much fabric to wear anything), and lean back – very low – against the cushion with my knees bent and feet on the mattress. I nurse the smaller baby in the cross cradle position, and the larger baby “sits” next to me with his head against my thigh. It’s a bit tough for him, as he is in a scruntched position with his chin tucked – but it’s good enough for a few minutes in order to fill him with a little milk so that he is satisfied for a few more minutes….and can lay down next to me and wait for his sister to finish.
does anyone have any photos of the best tandem nursing positions? i am only able to nurse my 3mth old girls in double football position on ez2nurse pillow. anyone doing it laying down????
There’s a gallery of photos of nursing positions on Karen Gromada’s site: http://www.karengromada.com/karengromada/photos/index.htm
I’m hoping to compile some on this site, too, in the future!
WHAT IS A BOPPY PILLOW OR NURSING PILLOW. WHERE CAN I FIND/BUY ONE. I HAVE TWIN BOYS OF 8 MONTHS. I AM BREST FEEDING THEM UPTO NOW AND WOULD LIKE TO BREAST FEED THEM FURTHER TOO.
I have 2 fraternal twin girls who where born at 34 and 5 days in NICU for around 2 weeks one longer than the other. My first girl came home first and doesnt like the breast so we pump and i feed thru a bottle. then a week later the next girl came home and she was fed neo 22 with breastmilk i pumped cause she was 3.14 and a little slow on growing. now that she is home she is the piglet. the bigger one is slow to eat and i use formula also and she spits up alot. my breast milk is like 2 oz a breast and i pump every 4 to 6 hours. if i pump every 2 i get the same 1 oz per breast. the littler one doesnt like the breast also. so bottles are my way every 2 1/2 to 3 hours eating. the hospital had them on one on the hour and the other on the 1/2 hour. now that they are home when one cries the next cries so they want to eat at the same time. sometime i just let them cry till i get to her, but i have figured an idea to feed both at the same time. leaves more sleep for me which im still not getting. 2 big pillows, baby in each. i have a tummy boppy that i reverse and lay the bottle in and rests so she can feed and the bottle holds itself up. the next one same thing big pillow, but with a blanket bunched up under the bottle holds it in place so she can eat. believe me they eat better this way then when i hold them. they finish the bottles faster and when i hold them they fall asleep so i have to constantly work the bottle to get them to finish. on ebay i found this mother of twins who made the tummy boppy pillow with a little band in the middle to hold the bottle. you reverse the u shaped with the ends going up towards there head and position them on an angle then theres the bottle. doesnt slip and if they spit it out they can always come back to it. i dont leave them along or go to far from them when they are eating, but since this my carple tunnel has gotten better. i have severe numiness in my hands since the birth and preclamsia. it hurts to hold the bottles all the feedings so this works out perfect. there called nursing pillows.
I am a labor and delivery nurse/ women’s health nurse. I am a lactation consultent and worked night shifts all my nursing life. Now, I’m pregnant with b/g twins after 2 years of infertility treatments. I am reading the posts of women who still make many mothers feel guilty about supplementing. STOP THIS!!! Not every body can breastfeed, and thank God for formula that can nurish our babies. Most of premature babies need lots to eat and mothers milk takes on average 3-5 days of constant sucking/pumping to build enough of supply for a one baby. If your baby is premature 3-4 lbs for example, they won’t lutch and if they do it takes lots of work and energy for them to suck. The energy that they need to survie, thrive, fight of infections, grow. That is why the hospital staff always supports supplementing at least during the hospital stay. At the same time we give you a pump and sterile bottles for storage to build you supply, for when the babies are out of the danger zone. Nobody wants a 4 lbs premy to loose more fat that he or she dose not have at all, become jundice, dehadraded… I am personaly tired of hearing mothers 6 months in to breastfeeding a healthy baby at home, “I wish they did not give my baby any formula via bottle in the hospital”. Are You kidding me, You have a healty baby because they gave the baby formula, via bottle and nipple, quickly, preserving the energy and fatting your babay up so you can take her or him or both home! On other hand, at least 95% of mothers in the hospital during the second night, scream for formula during the night. They are tired, beastfed all night and day and night and the baby is still screaming, and the truth is——the supply is not there yet, its getting better with each BF, but still not enough. Another reason that we would push for supplement if, mom’s nipples are just not perfect, and baby has no idea what to do. I work with moms to latch the infant for 1hr (hard times for mom and babies and staff who has 5 to 6 couples per shift to take care of), than we pump (with occ., 2-3 drops of colastrum that we try to give to babie), then we feed the tred and screaming baby formula so we can in 1 to 2 hrs try again. Just remainding everybody, that there are many medical reasons that prevent the mothers to Breast feed. Mestactomy, pituatary tumors, certain medications that cross to breast milk. Lets be tolerant, supportive, not jagmental, and understanding to all the mothers, and the hospital staff, and thank God again that there is a alternative to beastfeeding-formula for our little ones.
My twins arrived at 34.5 weeks due to preeclampsia. I had one in the NICU for 9 days. I had a rough start with the breastfeeding as the evil magnesium sulfate delayed the onset of my milk and put me in a fog. I’d taken a breastfeeding class but it wasn’t anything like what I experienced in real life. I’d read “Mothering Multiples” which was helpful, though I cut myself a lot of slack when reading that book. I’d paid beaucoup bucks to meet with a lactation consultant. I pumped and nursed around the clock but still, my milk did not come gushing in.
No single method was entirely working for me so for a month (or so?), I pumped. Then I successfully re-latched one of my babies and was able to nurse him (not exclusively, though) for 2 years. The other baby (my NICU one) never went back to nursing. I gave him pumped breast milk for 10 months. In the end, I ended up doing a combo of nursing, pumping and formula.
Today, at 3.5 years old, I have bright, healthy kids. They did everything early! So I don’t beat myself up about my lack of nursing success; instead, I celebrate that I did my best.
We have a couple of posts up on breastfeeding multiples here:
http://gcblog.typepad.com/gemini_crickets_club_blog/breastfeeding/
It is so interesting to read of other experience with breastfeeding twins. My identical boys are 10 months now, and I have breastfed them from the beginning. They were born at 37 weeks, 6.5 and 6.9. I did some research before they were born, and my ideal was to solely breastfeed with no supplementation. Luckily, I had/have a pediatrician who supported my choice and guided me without freaking me out about my children starving. By day 3 or so they had lost about 10% of their birth weight, which they say is normal. Any more than that is cause to worry, so they were slightly jaundiced and we went to the doc every day after we left the hospital for a week. They got those blood tests, and my milk finally came in at day 3. I used nipple shields from the start – two lac consultants told me i would need to ween from them by 3 weeks, then one GREAT one finally said, use them as long as you need to! until their heads are about the size of your breasts it is a difficult for them to handle! I used them for 2 months.
I had fears when my milk wasnt in yet, but it seems to me this is the way women have been made forever. the babies get jaundiced when they dont have enough fluids to get the toxins out of their body, so as soon as the milk comes in the jaundice starts to go away. That is exactly what happened.
I do realize that my experience was really good- my kids were not born too small, or too early. They were perfectly healthy and needed no special attention. And I didnt even know until months later that if they had high billirubin levels for one more day they would have put the light blanket on them, so the doctors were watching them closely.
Anyways, I found a lot of intimidating confusing information came from most lac consultants and nurses i talked to. The ones who were the most helpful made me relax and reminded me not to worry and follow my instincts. The boys have never had formula, and they go to the bathroom regularly, so I dont worry about what they get ( also, they gain well – they have remained in the 15% percentile all along). I see a lot of stressed out mamas, and I wish I could help all of them. But I can say this – If I hadn’t been adamant about having them “natural” (no C-section) then I would have had to have surgery. The docs didnt want to take any risks at all. They were head down for 3 months! not trying would have been crazy to me. Same for B-feeding. It might not have worked out – but it did! and there were times i cried and cried, freaked out that they were starving, swore i couldnt do it – but i just always said WAIT ONE MORE DAY! and so 10 months have passed. I also went back to work at 3 months and pumped 3 times at work and they bottle fed on that. blah blah sorry so long! I always feed tandem- i couldnt handle the time crunch of separately! EZ2nurse pillow, football.