Anyone here who DID NOT Breastfeed?

I was just curious if anyone here decided not to breastfeed their twins and had a good experience bottle feeding from early-on. My son will be 2.5 years old when the twins come along and I had a terrible experience nursing him when he was born. Due to the pain (from nursing), the amount of time it takes to nurse and the fact that I will be having a c-section, I have decided not to breastfeed my twins and was seeking advice from other non-breastfeeding mothers. I am concerned about what to do when my milk starts coming in and what to do, if anything, to avoid becoming insanely engorged, etc?

Any advice would be wonderful!
Thanks!

 

My friends who have decided not to BF always wore a tight sports bra for the first few weeks and they were just fine! You'll be just fine and your body will adapt. I've also heard that Sudafed can help with engorgement. You might ask your OB if there are any meds you can take to help with engorgement.

Good luck!

 

I didnt breastfeed for many reasons. What helped me the most was cabbage leaves for the first few weeks. I was able to get some at the hospital and that helped. I also wore a sports bra and a wrap around the sports bra. They gave me the wrap at the hospital.

 

:wavey: Hi there! I gave up breastfeeding after a week, for most of the reasons you mentioned and a couple more. Anyway, the first few days I was really engorged and sore, but, really, I was almost too busy to even think about it! I took some Motrin, when I got really uncomfortable, and that's about it. GL with the rest of your pregnancy and delivery! Can't wait to meet your babies!

 

THIS! I had a just turned one year old at home so I attempted to breastfeed the twins in the hospital but neither of them would latch well. I decided I'd work at it while I was in the hospital with noone else to worry about but if it wasn't easy when we got home, we'd be bottle feeding. I would have preferred breastfeeding just because bottles and formula are a pain in the patootey but overall it was no big deal. I wore a bra and nursing pads around the clock for a while and took Motrin, like Becky mentioned. In the grand scheme of things it's a very short time and totally insignificant when you're dealing with newborn twins. Congrats on your babies!

 

THANK YOU! Very helpful! I think I probably need to get some sports bras and be sure my husband picks up a cabbage so I can use the leaves. I did use them when I stopped breastfeeding last time. Also, for anyone else who may need advice, Altoids are also supposed to help dry you out (the lactation consultant told me to suck on them all day). Thanks again!

Kudos to all of those mommies who are breastfeeding your twins!

 

Drinking either (or even both!) sage tea or peppermint tea is supposed to help the drying out process too.

 

:wavey: I bottle fed my girls right from the start. I wore a tight sports bra and when my milk came in I put an ice pack over each breast in the bra. It was gone within 24 hours.

 

I did not BF either. I jusy wore as sports bra for a couple of days and I was fine.

 

I'll tell you what NOT to do -- is ignore it and do nothing.

I tried to nurse for a few days, and pumped/supplemented w/formula for a couple of weeks then just went straight formula.

I just let the milk dry up on its own and I leaked a little bit until 5 MONTHS post partum. The next time, I'm going to try cabbage leaves as all of my Mommy friends who tried it said it worked beautifully.

 

There is really no way to get around engorgement, it is just the process your body goes through. The key is to wear a comfortable supportive bra, some providers continue to recommend using an ace bandage but when I took a breastfeeding course when I was an labor nurse, they said not to do this... I would say do your research on that particular bit. Definately do not pump to relieve the engorgement because it will make it worse. Use ice packs to help decrease the circulation and reduce the engorgement. Others have also recommended the use of cabbage leaves although I think that studies have not truely shown effectiveness with this. I personally know nurses and lactation counselors that will swear by it. It certainly can't harm anything. Use tylenol or motrin as long as you are not allergic.
Engorgement always stinks even for the BF moms but the good news is that it will resolve shortly. In the meantime, enjoy your babies and bottlefeeding can be very fulfilling as well. I nursed my oldest son for 3 weeks before switching to bottle due to mastitis. I felt so guilty that with my daughter I was so determined to be successful that I let it consume me, I did BF her for 10 months but I was so stressed the whole time because I was putting so much pressure on myself. I told myself I wasn't going to do that to myself with the twins. I would do my best but I was going to approach it realistically for myself. We supplemented and I provided BM for them for 4 weeks. I'm proud of that accomplishment and I'm happy to be bottlefeeding them. I got very little sleep when I was BF and I think my husband was also glad when we went totally formula because he could participate more and I was happier because I was getting more sleep.
Anyways, good luck, hope some of this is helpful.

 

Best of luck on the rest of your pregnancy. :hug:

 

My hospital gave me a binder I could wrap extra tight with cabbage leaves in it - worked like a charm. Although, about a week later I had to do it again... every time the babies were crying to eat, I started leaking milk, again. Second time around took care of it completely. Good luck!

 

my boys are 2 months old and have been on bottles from day 1. they latched on pretty quickly, i think it just comes naturally to them, but if there is a problem the nurses with certainly show you the proper techniques and if you are having a really hard time train the boys themselves.

as for your breasts, i recommend ice. one of the mom's on TS recommended that i use ice and my breasts stopped hurting within days, literally by the second day of icing them the milk dried up or something because they no longer hurt and the engorgement went away.

good luck!

 

I have chosen not to bf any of my children - two singles plus twins. The first time around, the nurses at the hospital bound me up with an Ace bandage - I got super engorged and was miserable ... I thought it was by far the worst part of having a baby, from a pain perspective. I was not taking pain meds since I was not sore from my c-section, but probably should have to help with the engorgement. The second time, I used sports bras and cabbage leaves PLUS I took the pain meds after I left the hospital. Still engorged, but the pain was much more manageable - cabbage leaves are great - keep them really cold! I hear they may or may not actually be beneficial, but they seemed to help - maybe just psychological, but couldn't hurt!

I just had the twins a few weeks ago and learned a new trick from one of my nurses in the hospital - she used newborn diapers to make ice packs by cutting a slit in the inner lining, then filling it (inside the lining) with ice and taping the slit closed. I stuck those in my sports bra and it was great - better than the cabbage leaves, I'd say. Engorgement was significantly less painful, shorter, etc. I have also had friends who have used packages of frozen veggies as ice packs as well.

One last note - one of my nurses with the twins told me NOT to use an Ace bandage or the binder I had purchased, that it actually leads to more severe engorgement. I have not researched this, but my own experience was that the time I used the Ace was the time I had the worst engorgement, FWIW.

 

Thanks for asking this, we are bf right now and my goal is to make it to 4 weeks and then probably switch to formula with maybe nightime nursing only. Good luck with your pregnancy and formula feeding!!

 

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! So much good advice! I love the newborn diaper/ice pack idea too! Will definitely keep that in mind, as well as *not* binding myself beyond wearing a sports bra.

With my son, I saw 3 lactation consultants and spent so many long, miserable days that I just can't go through that again. Also, my son will be 2.5 years old when the twins are born, and he is SO attached to me that I really want to be able to spend as much time with him as I can, within reason, and I think BFing will make that a lot more difficult. I also had a tough recovery from my c-sect last time and want to try to get as much rest as possible this time.

Anyhow, I really appreciate everyone's feedback!

 

Ditto on the sports bra. I never felt any pain, but I was engorged. My milk came in, but I never leaked or anything. I still wore the little nursing pads just in case.

 

You may not need this tidbit of advice, but for anyone else out there, just an FYI, if you're experiencing pain that you just don't think is normal when you try to nurse, pump or even just anytime you feel any kind of aching or shooting pains, please go to your OB or lactation consultant to get that checked out. You may just be experiencing normal nursing pains, but if it won't go away even after you've stopped nursing and the engorgement goes down, get that checked out. I only say this because once my boys were born, I pumped religiously while they were in the NICU for 10 weeks. After about 3 or 4 weeks the pumping got pretty painful, but I just thought that was normal. Then came the shooting pains, and again I just thought that was just normal when my milk let down. Nope. Not normal at all. Turns out I had a yeast infection in my milk ducts and I had to quit pumping and abandon any hopes of nursing for a while. I had to go on a month of heavy meds to clear it all up. Turns out all of the fun antibiotics they put you on after a c-section can have lovely side effects for a select group of folks. I had the great fortune to get a very painful yeast infection in my milk ducts. I tried to nurse and pump again after the infection went away, but my milk production went to pot. My boys were so used to their bottles, too. They hated to try to nurse.

Again, just a quick FYI for anyone out there experiencing painful nursing or pumping. Don't be afraid to get checked out for aches and pains that you think is probably normal.

 

I tried to breastfeed but due to the fact that my girls were in the NICU for 6-7 weeks, it was very hard to get milk supply. I also had a c-section and that was a whole painful issue in its own. Alot of people at the hospital really try to encourage you to breastfeed because it is better for the babies, but i really believe that it is a personal decision. While I was home I pumped every 3 hours for 30 minutes and when my breast became engorged really bad I would pump for longer periods about 50 minutes and while i took a shower I let the hot, not warm, water hit my breast for about 2-3 minutes. It helped me alot and then after a couple of days of only pumping when my breast were engorged and slowing giving it up all together my milk supply went away. Good Luck and Congratulation!!!

 

I attempted breast feeding but it really wasn't happening. I have one inverted nipple for starters (so half a normal supply) Ella wasn't taking enough and so needed topping up with formula and Ben just wasn't up for it at all.
I have no experience of breast feeding as these are my first kids, but I don't think i would have done it anyway with twins. DH has helped me out so much with feeds and we were able to split the night feeds so we got about 6 hour stretches of sleep when they were feeding 3 hourly. They also started sleeping out from 2.5 months (!!!) and are still doing it now, you can tell how much they're taking so don't have to worry they're not getting enough to eat, and breastfeeding twins in public, to me, was just a no no!!!
For me the only downside of not breast feeding is the cost of formula. So there you go.

 

honestly...I did nothing and dried up in about 3-4 days...my milk didn't come in until a week post csection and within 3 days it was gone...I did use nursing pads because it did flow a bit but it wasn't that bad...I formula fed from day 1...

 

I FF fed from day 1, my milk never came in. The hospital nurses (before we determined that my milk never came in) suggested that I use a binder and also cabbage leaves. Good luck!

 

Everyone's given you great advice on dealing with the initial engorgement, but I wanted to comment on this.

There are safe meds you can take if you do get a yeast infection (otherwise known as thrush) so you don't have to stop breastfeeding/pumping.

Unfortunately thrush can be passed to the babies so you'd need to treat them as well. Otherwise thrush can be passed back and forth between baby and breast.

I had it 3 times and the babies had it 4 times in the first 6 months of life, it's a pain, but not life threatening unless you don't get meds for them and they stop eating from the pain.

Part of the reason I quit nursing at 6 wks was because it was the third round of meds for babies and I for the thrush, and my milk production was suffering from their nursing strikes!

 

I did not BF at all (had a medical condition that the lactation nurses suggested not to) and my girls were in NICU. The sports bra/frozen veggies worked well for me, but I did not really have much trouble. Most likely due to all the meds I was on PP and a combo of preemie-ness and my own body chemistry.

I would be prepared to try different bottles though--- we went through a slew of different kinds, be prepared for it to be a challenge to find bottles that work for your LOs!! We used the hospital bottles for a long time since they struggled with other types for a while!

 

i did not plan on breast feeding before my twins were born....i had a very tough c section with placenta acreta and experienced a lot of blood loss and needed several transfusions.....believe it or not my breast milk never came in!!!!!!!!