Breastfeeding & pumping
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Hi Alana, not a twin mom (though I am a twin) but I did struggle lots with breastfeeding, pumping, etc when my little guy was younger. Have you met with a lactation consultant? They might be able to help with latching, positions, etc. As far as increasing supply, I agree with previous poster, but there are also supplements out there geared towards increasing supply. As for pumping, make sure you are using correct flange size, that can really be a factor.
I am no one to talk since at 4.5 weeks we all got covid and I had a pumping meltdown because I was trapped in a living room with my mother. But electrolytes helped a lot ( ordered drops from Amazon, so I didn't ha r to drink 10 gallons of pedialyte), also increase pumping frequency helped , good luck and I'll tell you what my mom told me, you're doing your best. Whatever you can produce is enough to benefit the babies even when supplemented by formula
I have twins (7 months now) and have breastfed/pumped. It has been possible because we had an amazing lactation consultant. She made house calls and was covered by insurance. She has been such an amazing resource, support, and cheerleader for us. She identified issues (torticollis and ties) and gave tons of tips for supply and schedules. I ended up renting a hospital grade pump. I take moringa supplements. I tandem with the brestfriend pillow. It is challenging early on when they are sleepy and weak. It is very challenging to keep up breastfeeding two! Best of luck and take care of yourself. You are doing amazing.
I have twins! I really struggled with supply at the beginning because I lost a lot of blood at delivery. At 3 days PP I would squeeze and literally nothing came out. I had to make a decision that if I was going to do this I had to abandon nursing and go all in on pumping. I pumped every 2 hours during the day and every 3 at night for a week, then every 3 hours round the clock for a while, then I stretched out the overnight ones. It was the commitment and consistency that worked for me more than any supplement. Diet wise- lots of healthy fats like cheese and lots of water. I was making 2L of milk a day so I drank 4L of water. I was a bit sad that nursing never worked out, but my twins got exclusively breastmilk until 11 months so ultimately I was super proud of that! Best of luck
@Travis you made 64 oz of milk a day???????????
Hi Alana, my twins never latched or and when they did it would be for 5 mins. I was lucky I started lactating couple of hours after birth so I exclusively pump. To increase supply I have been drinking coconut water and I tried greater than drinks. I would say my supply did increase during the time I was drinking it but it could just be the extra electrolytes and hydration! I also ate the lactation cookies twice a week (careful of the sugars). I got the twinzee pillow (retails for $120 …. I got mine from Facebook market place for $45) to help me feed them together. I wanted to feed them together so that I’m not spending 1-2 hours just feeding /pumping in middle of the night. I put my portable /hands free pump on and then put them in the pillow and hold their bottles. Once sleeping I transfer to bassinet.
Hi, the first weeks are the most challenging for breastfeeding, but you’re doing great! Keep doing your best, and as they said, any milk that you can give them is great. I have 5m old twins exclusively breastfeeding, but we struggled to get there… at first we had to use syringes to feed them since they wouldn’t latch… our routine was: -try to latch first tandem with twin z pillow -feed them with syringe with breast milk extracted before -if still hungry feed them with formula After they were fed, I would pump for 15 min after every feeding and give that milk on the next feeding… it was hard, exhausting and my nipples were extremely sore because sometimes if they did latch they would latch incorrectly Little by little we started to increase from 2-3 min to 8 and then to 20’min of breastfeeding and little by little I started to actually have a stash of milk and not need any formula, but this wqs a slow process… my babies where born in October and we achieved this in December 💕
@Julie yep!!! It was a wild ride
I have heard women say to drink Body Armor and “power pump” at least once a day (pump 20, rest 10, pump 10,rest 10, pump 10) so it would add up to one hr a day for the power pump session. Also, we make the most milk between the hrs of 2 am and 5 am (don’t ask me why, I just read it in a lactation book) and eat foods that are galactogogues (spinach and oatmeal are some) and avoid milk depletion foods like mint or horseradish or meds like antihistimines cuz they dry up your supply.