Do you wake 2nd baby to bf?

I am interested in what works for others.

Do you wake the 2nd baby to feed them after feeding the first?
Or do you wake them to twin feed?
Or do you just feed each one as they wake up?

Its so hard to know what to do sometimes, especially when every instince is telling you not to wake a sleeping baby. But then if you don't you sometimes end up feeding non stop. But if you do, you could be waking a baby who may otherwise sleep for 3 or 4 hours?!

 

I did feed the second baby right after feeding the first one. I didn't get tandem nursing down for awhile though, so it was always one after the other. My DH and I had a routine, he would diaper, burp and return the babies to their pack and play/crib, and I would nurse them. We did this for about the first 3 months.

I did swaddle, use white noise, pacis, etc though to try to encourage them to sleep as long as possible. I also fed them the same way throughout the day, so they were used to eating at about the same time.

Keep up the good work Momma! You are in the thick of it right now.

 

the rule in our house was that if one baby was hungry, they both were! it worked best for us & helped keep the girls on a similar routine which eventually developed into a really solid schedule. it was definitely hard to have to wake them sometimes, but it was a compromise i needed to make to maintain my own sanity. i do know there are moms here who have nursed both their twins on demand from day 1 & were happy with that choice as well. so honestly, whatever feels right to you & works for your whole family is going to be the best thing.

the other thing i've seen here is when the first baby wakes, you just loosen the still sleeping baby's swaddle or otherwise create a slightly less appealing sleep situation (turn on a light, turn off the white noise, etc), then they usually wake up gradually on their own just in time for the first baby to finish up nursing.

 

Yup, in the early days, I always woke the 2nd baby if she happened to be sleeping. Otherwise, I found that I couldn't get any sleep because the 2nd would just wake within the hour anyhow. By about 6 months, I stopped waking the 2nd one.

 

If Sydney woke up, I'd wake up Sabrina right after and feed her. If Sabrina woke up, I didn't usually wake up Sydney. Sabrina was very tiny, didn't gain weight well and would sleep all night long if I let her, which was a bad thing for her.

 

I tried the waking 2nd baby up when one woke, but it didn't work. The woken up baby, even after a diaper change, would be too sleepy to nurse and to top it off would be up the next hour as well.

I would just nurse them individually at night when they would awake. IF both woke up, dh would get up and help. (not too often)

 

Yes, I always woke the second baby up, and I never tandemed at night--too many bad latches and a sleepy Mom, which made the problem worse.

 

I never tandam fed, but I always woke the 2nd up. I tried a couple of times not to do that and it was a disaster each time...I had no more than laid my head down on my pillow and shut my eyes when the other started screaming..so I always woke both up.

 

I tandem 99% of the time. Every stinking time I feed just one (dh really likes the idea) the other wakes up anyway. Oddly I am feeding just 1 right now- he ate a lot of cereal and did not nurse before bed but 2 minutes, so I expected him to wake very early. This is the first time this has happened, though.

 

I also always woke the second one up, I tried twice not to, and ended up being up with one or the other almost all night! Never again! :hug:

 

I also wondered about what to do in this situation! Iin the early weeks/months, I woke the other twin with no problem at all because I knew he needed to eat during the night. It became a harder choice after the 3 month mark when I wondered if it was really necessary. The decision was made easier for us because our little girl is always the one to wake up and our little boy would sleep for days if we let him. He happens to be the "skinny one" so I figure that an extra feeding or 2 wouldn't hurt him. Also, it was usually a dream feed anyway so it wasn't difficult to get him back down.

Not sure if others have this issue but I always like to feed at the same time because otherwise, my milk supply gets all out of wack. I have only given in once or twice and just fed one and it usually ended up in a terrible day/night for the entire family!

Lots of luck to you! It will get easier soon!!

 

I typically woke the other one. In the early days if I didn't I would be up ALL night taking turns nursing them. After not too much time they got to where they would typically wake at the same time any way.

 

I have found this too. Actually at the moment, I have been having these issues during the day on the last few days too. So I haven't done much actual 'tandem' feeding lately.

PP have said that they usuallt wake the 2nd. Do you feed the 2nd straight after the 1st or tandem? (Both at same time).

 

When our girls got back from NICU I nursed on a schedule, but after a week or two of failing to stick to the hours the hospital gave us I began feeding both of them on demand. I still do so up till today. I have been meaning to wake up the second one if one is awake, though, as I sometimes feel like I'm up all night.

Your babies are still young, so I'd advise you to try putting them on the same schedule. Tandem feeding is a huge time and sanity saver as well.

 

I have been mostly feeding one straight after the other as 'tandem' feeding often takes just as long by the time I burp both babies or wait for one to come off so i can have a free hand.
For tandeming, I currently use a soft u shaped pillow and extra cushions but also have a large firm foam pillow that enables both to sometimes feed without actually supporting their heads.
Trouble is they often detach and choke with the flow etc so at the moment it is usually easier to feed one straight after the other. I might tandem once or twice a day.

 

I never woke a baby to feed. I just couldn't bring myself to disturb them. If they had been born separately, I wouldn't wake one unnecessarily, would I? But I coslept so I got plenty of sleep, sleeping while they fed.

 

Depends on their age. Early on, I woke the 2nd one when I was done with the first. As they got a little older (3 months or so) I was able to do them at the same time.

Waking a sleeping baby is ofen not unnecessarily. For the first few months my babies were very little and needed to eat every 3-4 hours. I also co-slept with all my kids. There is also something said for creating a structure/routine to get as much sleep as possible. I would hate to be up and feed one, get them back to sleep then finally get myself back to sleep to only have the other wake to feed 30 minutes later.

 

for the first 5 weeks I would get both babies up when the 1st baby woke during the night (or day for that matter) to keep them on the same timing.

at 5 wks I started to swaddle again and immediately they started sleeping through a feed!! wooohooo! the first night or so of that I let each sleep and just fed each as they woke... that was a mommy disaster b/c I was up 1 extra time! ugh!!! anyway, eventually during the next couple of weeks I think I would feed at the same time. But after about 7+ wks they were both sleeping a lot, and it just depended if how it was going at the time... sometimes I woke the other sometimes not.

(I really recommend swaddling to keep them all comfy and encourage some extra sleep!)

 

Do yours like hands in or out?

 

To get as much sleep as possible was kind of my point. If I woke the second baby when I was done with the first that would have ment that I had to stay awake while nursing, loosing precious sleep. Instead I never fully woke up, just heard a baby stiring, positioned myself so the baby could feed a drifted right back to sleep until I hear the other baby stiring. They feed when they needed to and I was never awake for more than a few minutes at a time.

 

2xjoy, our babies were born on the same day

I always wake the other when one wakes up. I tandem all the time.

 

At night, I tend to feed one baby then wake the other straight after and feed her. At the moment I'm averaging about 4hrs of sleep at night (not all in one go!), and sometimes if my husband is home, maybe a rest of a couple of hours in the day.

How many hours do others get?

 

at that age, not much at all. my girls were probably waking to nurse every two hours or so - it was really rough. there were a lot of things i didn't know about newborn sleep though that i wonder now if i had known them if we wouldn't have been getting slightly longer stretches at some point. things like swaddling, using white noise, helping babies differentiate betwen day time & night time sleep, etc, etc.

 

I too woke the second baby after the first was finished and I didn't tandem during the night. After a while I could just feel when they were ready to sleep longer stretches, and for us that was when they were around 8 or 10 weeks.

The 6 week mark is incredibly tough; like you I had very little sleep in 24hrs, husband was back to work, my mum was gone home...

You are doing a great job. Hang on in there!

 

I am finding it really hard sometimes whther to even wake the 2nd. Especially since 1 is alot harder to settle than the other.
Also they arn't great sleepers and so when they do finally settle for a sleep it's absolutely horrible to have to wake 1.

sigh: 1 has just woken so I have to go - my 5mins of 'me' time is up!

 

go with your own feeling. I of course have no idea what your babies need. If you have the idea that they should be left to sleep then that is probably the right thing to do.

Good luck!

Mags