Did you breast feed/pump or formula feed your twins?

I am struggling with having to supplement with formula because I am not making enough milk for both of my boys (I am pretty much exclusively pumping so I know how much breast milk they are getting. I also have one son who is not a good nurser). What did you do during the first 6 or so months and how did you feel about it? Thanks.

 

I pumped for two months while they were in NICU and then once we got home I couldn't keep up with the supply so I was having to suppliment them a lot. I felt horrible about it at first but I was burning my self out trying to keep up so after two weeks of them being home I switched to formula. I felt good about being able to provide them with breast milk for that long because at least they were able to get some. I wish I could have gone longer but it just wasn't going to happen. They were on tons of different formula before we found one that worked for them and have no problems since. Best of luck

 

All three at some point or another. THey stopped nursing at 8 and 9 months, and I stopped pumping at 11.5 months.

 

Pumped and bottle fed for two months. Attempted to breastfeed but they were preemies and it didn't go so well. Had to supplement with formula by the 2nd month because I wasn't making enough. Decided to stop and do strictly formula.

 

I pumped for 6wks bc we had to add the preemie formula for extra calories. After 6wks it was harder to keep up with supply and they were "waking up" more and I didn't like pumping when I could be playing with them the little time they were awake then so I switched completely to formula.

 

I was in the same situation as you. I felt horrble that I was not able to provide for my boys. I was talking with a friend of mine who works for the FDA and he told me that formula is the #1 product that they regulate. It made me feel SO much better.

After all was said and done, I felt better. I was able to sleep because I was not attached to either a boy or a machine. My boys are healthy and large!!

Jenn

 

I voted only breastfed, although I did pump in the hospital. My lazy boy needed help figuring out nursing for literally 3 days. When he was 4 days old, he had his last bottle, so I consider myself just a boob-feeder. I was totally opposed to pumping initially, but wanted him to breastfeed so bad that I did it, gave him a couple of sucks on a bottle of EBM to get him to not be so hungry, then put him on the breast. We haven't looked back & as time goes on, I am happier with breastfeeding. Yesterday when they were recovering from a bug & nursing every hour, I wasn't so thrilled, but mostly, am very happy & consider myself very lucky. I have had to make a lot of personal sacrifices in order to accomplish this- no dairy in my diet, my longest break from them to date has been 4 hours (longest they've gone between feedings), but it's what I want.

 

My DW pumped ALL the time when they were in the NICU. After trying everything, she eventually could not produce any more by the time they were even able to nurse. They got some good breast milk for a bit(would have had more, had the Milk Dept not wasted some...argh!!!!)

 

I tried breastfed the hospital for the colostrum...I also pumped to help bring in supply. I continued to try and breastfeed at home...that was a pipe dream for me...didn't happen...it was just too crazy and only lasted like 3 or 4 days at home (breastfed, pumped and bottle fed). It was way too time consuming and I needed rest to heal. After about 1 week, I gave up breastfeeding and pumped and formula fed. I pumped for 1 month...during the 4th week, I weened off the pump and pumped less to dry up and went to formula exclusively.

I gave it a try...Didn't work...move on. Babies got fed and happy. Mommy got rest.

 

We do mostly breastfeed but since a few weeks old they have gotten 1 bottle of formula at their last feed, we have continued with that. Now if we are going somewhere (which is rare) or they are both screaming at once to be fed they might be given 1 other bottle of formula during the day. I have never even tried to pump with the twins cuz I don't have enough time to feed them let alone pump too haha!

 

Same here. I pumped for 10 weeks while mine were in the NICU. I was able to keep up with them until they came home. A combination of decreased milk production and a yeast infection in my milk ducts prevented me from going any further. I tried everything to keep going...After many rounds of medicines to help the the infection in my milk ducts, I then tried everything from brewer's yeast to Reglan to get my milk going again. No go. My body just decided that was it. I tore me apart to know that I couldn't provide what I thought my little preemie babies needed. But after a few weeks, it actually wasn't so bad not having to sit for 30-45 minutes at a time, 6 to 8 times a day to pump

 

We primarily breastfeed. I hate to pump so I rarely do that and when I do, I just mix it with their rice or oatmeal. We currently do 4-6oz of formula a day. I will continue to breastfeed until the girls are at least 9 months. If you are doing well with pumping, keep it up!

 

I just wanted to invite anyone who is trying to breastfeed or has any questions about breastfeeding to visit us in the Breastfeeding Forum here at TS. We have a wonderful group of Mods and members who can answer just about anything and are very supportive!

 

I voted other. We BF with formula supplementation for the first month or so, but then my supply dried up so we've been FF ever since. I wish we could have kept it up, but it was too stressful for my body.

 

I did all three. Tried very hard to nurse, and one of mine just didn't get it (now we know why -- he has a lot of oral motor issues). So I ended up pumping exclusively, because I couldn't manage nursing one and pumping for the other. I supplemented, too, because I didn't pump enough for both. I'd say they got about 50/50 EBM and formula.

I did this for 10 months, then went to all formula, and whole milk at 1 year.

ETA -- I had a really, really hard time with not being able to nurse exclusively, because it came so easily with my older daughter. I shed many tears and was depressed about it for a long time.

It's gotten better, though. My kiddos are now 2.5 and healthy, and I look back at that time with only a small bit of regret.

 

I pumped for 4 months. The girls were 10wks early so they didn't bf well at all. By the time they started to catch on I was through. I wasn't producing any more than I did in the beginning so my supply wasn't enough for them and since my breasts didn't get much stimulation, they didn't know to make more.

I probably could have tried harder but mentally I just couldn't do it anymore.

 

I pump 3x a day and give my girls breastmilk and formula. Tried to just breastfeed, but they were too sleepy and I was exhausted :drown: do to complications following my csection. So I switched to pumping and supplementing. Plan to do it as long as possible. Did the same with my son, however he had more EBM than the twins do. We made it to 9 months with him and had a freezer full of EBM that he wouldnt take and I had to throw out. I was sick over it.

 

For the first 5 weeks, I did a combo of nursing (with nipple shields -- they wouldn't latch on any other way), pumping, and formula feeding.

At one point (around 2 weeks) I had them almost entirely on pumped breastmilk and almost no formula -- but I only managed that by temporarily giving up nursing. There was just not enough time to do all three.

Then I tried transitioning them to nursing without shields, and it didn't really work, and finally I gave up and went to full-time formula. I was disappointed that nursing hadn't worked out, but I have never been so relieved in my life as when I decided to quit.

Definitely check out the BF forum for support!

 

I did all 3, although I never had a lot of luck with pumping. I also encourage you to check out the Breastfeeding Forum here on TS. There is tons of support there from women who have/are successfully breastfeeding twins.

Breastfeeding Forum

 

I only nursed for 6 weeks, but I also pumped after each feeding. I would do formula for one feeding that my husband did, if I didn't have enough milk. I know in the beginning the LC recommended pumping right after each nursing session to build my supply. Also, they get more milk when they nurse than you get pumping. Can you get in touch with a LC in your area. We saw one at the hospital we delivered at. They were so much help in the beginning. Good luck!

 

I chose "Other." I pumped the first 6 months and had plenty of supply, so it was exclusively. The last 6 months were almost all FF.

 

Shoot - I clicked on breastfeeding but I meant to hit BF and pumped (so sorry.) I BF'd most of the time but offered EBM once a day. But I pumped 4x a day to build freezer stash. I supplemented with formula starting 9.5 months and we weaned completely at 10 months. I do not miss that pump! Good luck to you.

 

I bfed and pumped until they were 2 months old, but then had to start supplementing with formula at 2 months due to the boys having sucking problems and improper milk removal.

They are now five months old, still have bfing problems, and I am pumping and supplementing with some formula. We are still working on breast feeding/latching a few times a day. I am not giving up hope that we may not be able to get back to more frequent breastfeeding again if we can ever get their mouth issues worked out. And I plan to pump until they are at least a year old.

 

I did all of the above (details below). I love breastfeeding and I'm glad that I have stuck with it. But I don't think it has to be an all or nothing venure. Good luck!

For the first 6 weeks I mostly breastfed with some formula supplementation. Starting at 6 weeks I started mostly pumping to increase my supply and also to give me a break. I think their latches had not been efficient, and I also had been tandum nursing which did not agree with me and made me tense. After a month of mostly pumping, my supply had grown and I shifted back to nursing. I stopped doing tandem nursing and just nursed them individually which worked great. The babies were nursing beautifully and we continued on-demand feeding during the days and bottle feeding (EBM and formula) for the last bottle of the day and through the night (so my husband could help).

I know it is counter-intuitive to much of what I read that pumping increased my supply, but it seems to have since I kept track of what I pumped daily and the amount almost doubled over a month. I would add that I have always pumped, and for that month I pumped a lot! Esp. important was the middle of the night pumping (3am or so) to increase supply. At 9 months I still pump at the end of the day.

 

I've never pumped when I am home with my babies. I nursed exclusively for the first 2 months and then I went back to work full time. I was never able to pump enough for them so we started supplementing with formula while I am at work and I nurse in the morning and at night. I never stressed about supplementing and figured that any BM was better than no BM. My DS started out a HORRIBLE nurser but with patience and the nipple shield he came around and nurses great now. I will say that only pumping will be harder to keep your supply up than if you put them to breast at least once a day because the pump is never as efficient as your baby. Check out the BF forum if you have any specific questions about this. They have been a great help to me.

 

At 3 months I have been breastfeeding pretty much exclusively. We had to supplement in the hospital because one of my girls was admitted to the NICU the night of her birth because of glucose issues. She was only in NICU for two days and they have only had a rare bottle of formula here and there since then and pumped milk if I manage to escape for any period of time I go back to work part time in three weeks and then I will be pumping and hopefully continuing to breastfeed.

 

amazing...16 votes for formula only yet no posts...wonder why that is?

I proudly bottle fed with formula from day 1...breastfeeding didn't interest me and in the long run it worked out that I didn't...my milk didn't come in until 7 days after my section and since my kids were very small (3.5 and 4.5 lbs) had I tried to BF them they would have lost too much weight...I was able to bring them home with me when I was discharged (they were born healthy at 36w) and they maintained their birth weight because I bottle fed them (and 24 cal formula at that!)

bottle feeding isn't awful...and I wish there were far less stigma and more people that are proud of the fact that they FED their children - regardless if that comes from your boobs or a bottle!

 

My boys get one formula bottle a day before bed. William is only bottlefed he has latch isues even on a bottle, so I pump for him, and Nathaniel nurses and bottle feeds. I also had supply issues so I am taking donperidone and eating LOADS of oatmeal. The oatmeal really helps. Good luck

 

we are still doing both, and we have since they were born...we started out with a lot more breastfeeding than we are doing now...now we are down to one morning nursing session and one in the evening before bed...during the day they have 2 solid meals and the rest is formula...

 

I admire your honesty :hug: -it is very unpopular right now to FF and be open about it. BF isn't for everyone, it's true. I would say, though, that the reason your milk came in 5 days after your C-Section is that your breasts weren't regularly stimulated after your babies were born to produce milk.

 

I exclusively pumped because I could not stand the sensation of breastfeeding. Pumping wasn't much better, but it worked better for me.

 

I'm glad someone put this on here cause I came on looking for info on just this topic. My twin girls are 2 weeks old and I have been pumping/feeding and supplimenting 1-2 formula bottles a day since they came home from the hospital. One of my girls was having issues switching back to the breast after getting a bottle and it was just so stressful. After a full day of her being so frustrated and hungry, I decided to express and bottle feed and suppliment. However, the pumping/feeding is starting to get very draining as well. I spend about 4 hours a day pumping, plus feeding each of them individually so I'm thinking that I'm going to start cutting back on pumping and giving more formula.

I struggle to with feeling guilty with giving them more formula, however at the end of the day, I know I will be a better mom to them cause I'll be less stressed out over the pumping/feeding issue.

We took a class about expecting multiples before the girls were born. The nurse who taught it was a twin mom as well. She said that the most important thing is that your babies are fed. It doesn't matter if its breast milk or formula, being fed is the most important thing.