Advice so I can stay sane

Hi everyone,

I have 10 week old twin boys and it is starting to wear me down Ebfing. My boys are super fussy lately and I feel like I use a lot of ovol drops and/or gripe water. It is a huge effort to get them to sleep. But I manage to get them down by 10 pm nightly even through the screaming. I was starting to stop waking the other when I feed because they seemed to be going longer but it ends up only being an hour so I'm up 3 times with each boy, 7
6 times total.
I'm so tired and tempted to give formula if they will have less gas pains?
Looking for suggestions for night:
-do I wake them both at the same time again for another couple months till we start some sleep training/CIO
-any suggestions about gas. I cut out diary pretty much, chocolate etc.
-easier ways to get th to bed at night besides eat, cry for 2 hours with gas pain and then sleep?


I need a bit more sleep and any suggestions would be great. I don't want to give up ebf but they are so fussy I feel like I'm causing it?

 

Hi hang in there! You're doing so well, ebfing is so much work and well done for continuing this far! I don't think you need to give it up!

Formula will only the make gassiness worse, I would really suggest trying different bottles and/or teats before giving up. We changed to Dr Brown's bottles and even though there are extra parts to wash, we found it really did make a difference.

I would continue to wake one up when the other wakes during the night, I did at this age because I desperately need sleep like you even though I felt that they were trying to sleep longer, in a couple of weeks you might be able to when they will start to sleep a little longer.

Have you tried moving your bedtime routine earlier? We moved bedtime by 15 minutes every day till we hit 5.30pm and it really helped with their fussiness and we found they went down a lot easier - a lot easier! as in 5-10minutes! Then you can always do another feed at 10pm, just a thought... also a bath before bed always helps, we only did every second night with a quick wash every other night, I always did some bicycling of their legs also and rubbing their tummy from the top left, across then down the right side...

Good luck and keep strong!

 

I don't think a milk based formula will reduce fussiness, I agree with Twinkler.

What I would suggest for fussiness:

1.) BURP them really frequently. I often stop a feeding two or three times to make sure I get a burp out.
2.) Bicycle the legs to get gas out.
3.) Wear your babies in a sling or wrap (probably 1 at a time to start). It makes my girl really happy.
4.) I would continue to wake both at the same time. DH & I switched off on which twin we'd take (typically we had 1 fussy baby and one less fussy baby). I knew that if Fuss-budget woke on Tuesday night, DH would take him out and care for him. I had Wednesday night. Sometimes this backfired as my more laid-back baby would cry on my 'off night' but usually it worked well.
5.) I noticed a huge change in mine when I cut out ALL dairy; whey, milkfat, chocolate... when I read the labels and went all dairy free within 2 weeks my fussy baby was fussy no longer.

:hug: and stop by the BF and pumping forum sometime to say hi!

 

I cut out dairy, wheat and peanuts. The peanuts made a huge difference for my girls. I also think it's a good idea to continue waking the other twin up at night. Mine girls are 15 weeks and we just started doing this. Hang in there, it will get better soon!!

 

My son had a LOT of gas pains (we exclusively bottle fed because we're two guys and we don't lactate... ^_^ ). I tried every single formula with him (Gentlease, Nutramigen, etc.) and nothing seemed to work. I tried some massage techniques (look for the "I Love You" massage on YouTube) and that seemed to help a little bit. It was really tough, but now our kids are 11 months and I can barely remember it. You'll get through it (and probably forget most of it) but I definitely understand how difficult it seems now. GL with everything!