Fed my boys for the first time together

Up until now it was either my mom or dh feeding one of the boys. Now my dh is starting his new job (he used to work from home)on Saturday and I tried to do it all today, my mom was visiting and left last week. When the feeding time came I was so looking forward to it, and now at the end of the day I am pretty sure I am a failure feeding both of them at the same time. For one Brandon has mild reflux and is very gassy we have to burp him every ounce and he was so unhappy when I didn't hold him to feed him. It took me over an hour to feed both of them :headbang: The last feeding I fed Brandon (even though he is needs to be burped 500 times he is still faster eater) and put Matthew in the swing, poor guy was so unhappy and angry I was crying with him. I am thinking of getting buppy pillows I tried regular pillows and feeding them on our bed but they are moving all over the place so I had to put them in the bouncy seats. What the heck am I doing wrong? Please tell me it will get better? I am getting a knot in my stomach just thinking about it. Help!

 

:hug: It will take some adjustments for you and for them, but you can do it! You just have to figure out what works best for you & them. I used to prop my two against the arm of the sofa & sit in front of them to feed them. Or I would sit on the bed with one baby propped on either side of me, facing me. Bouncy chairs, boppy pillow, even carseats can work, too. The burping thing is hard, because invariably you have to stop feeding them both just to burp the one. But you might try propping the other one's bottle with a folded blanket. Just keep trying different things, something will definitely be right for you! :hug:

 

I hated it too and tried several configurations and finally found that using our highchairs (which can recline) was best. I would pile receiving blankets on each boys' lap and rest my wrist on the blankets. When I need to burp one boy, I'd leave the other bottle propped on the blankets.

 

ewww i hate feeding problems, i have (and am having) my fair share of them. a friend of mine with twins uses two nursing boppy pillows and puts one baby in each pillow and feeds them that way. another way is to use their car seats to feed them but it's hard to feed them both at once when you have to burp one so frequently. i eventually gave up on the dual feeding because it ended up taking longer so i just feed one and then the other immediately after. often times i will alternate between babies during the feeds...you know, feed one a few ounces burp him and put him down and pick up the other one and do the same thing until they are both done. good luck!

 

:hug: You'll figure it out. I said if anything having twins has made me more creative! I fed mine in bouncy seats for the longest time but if they are still small enough...I used 1 boppy pillow around my waist and a pillow on my arm not by the end of the couch and would get all situated with them in front of me so I could still hold them. It took a lot of wiggling so I only did it if they were calm before their feedings Good luck!

 

I usually try to avoid dual feedings if possible, but if they are both ravenous I would rather feed them simultaneously than listen to the other one scream. To do that I usually just stick them both on a contoured memory foam pillow on either side of me. The dip in the pillow helps keep them in place. Our boys are about to turn 6 months old and we still use those pillows daily, either to feed, or just to sit them beside us on the couch. We obviously don't leave them alone on them for 1 minute to run to the bathroom anymore though My guys never did take to the boppy pillows, probably because we didn't really break them out too often, heh. They just didn't fit as well on the couch. You can get these type pillows at Walmart for under $20.

Here is a picture of me with using the pillows. In this picture I am actually holding Brandon while feeding him, but only because his brother was satisfied just lounging on the other pillow. We have a piece of styrofoam tucked under the head part to elevate it some (it was just something we had laying around!). And our cat Charlie sometimes feels neglected and crawls on my shoulders to sneak in some lovins

 

When they were that young I really didnt double feed if I didnt have too. It was very stressful. But once they got older and more predictable about how much and how long, it got much better to feed them together. :hug:

 

I highly recommend getting two Boppy pillows. That is what I use and feeding them both is a snap. I use them to feed them in bed and on the couch. Both my girls have reflux and I have to burp them both at least once or twice before they finish their bottles. Inevitably one will be crying while you burp the other one but it's short lived. One of them also is a faster eater (strangely enough it is the smaller one) so she will often cry once she is done the bottle and a pacifier usually calms her until I can burp and soothe her. I then end up holding both and rocking them in the glider or else I pop one in the swing and hold the other. We only have one swing at the moment but will probably pick up another second hand because they both love it. I also just bought two Nap Nannies that I use to feed them on the floor or in bed at the same time. Don't worry - you will get the hang of it and will wonder why you didn't start sooner!!

 

I really hated the beginning also. Both of mine have (had, hopefully) reflux and feeding them wasn't easy by myself. There were many times I had to force feed my girl, which was not easy. My boy wasn't too bad off but he was an endless eater. I would have arguments with him on when I would be almost yelling at him "I just fed you!" It was really tough and I don't believe I got through it. And to top it all off I also have a 2 year old at home.

All I can say is just keep trying! What I found that worked for me was to use bouncy seats for both and sit in between them. The whole burping thing sucked, really bad. I just gave into the fact that there was always going to be one crying. (I hated to hear them cry) You can only do what you can do.

It is A LOT better now. They will be 6 months on the 1st. But it got a whole lot better about 4 months. So unfortunately you have about 1 month and 1/2 left. Just try to take it a few hours at a time.

IT DOES GET BETTER!!!!!

It took me a long time to relax about them crying. But if you think about it the odds are having two at once that one will be crying.

 

You don't have to feed them together. I did it maybe 3 times total and we all hated it. What I did instead was staggering their schedule by 20 minutes. They ate after naps, so I would just wake up one after 3 hours, feed, then wake up the other (or I would feed the first one who woke up). Yes there were times when they both cried, but honestly it didn't happen that often overall, and we all got the hang of it pretty quickly, as I knew they could wait 3.5 hours to eat, so I fed them before they got too hungry. If yours get really hungry after 3 hours, you could try to feed them every 2.5 hour or something.

You'll get the hang of it!