First time Mom with a few questions

Hello! I am a new mom to twin boys who are now six weeks old and just have a few questions. I knew you all would be my best resource!!

1) I am bottle feeding. What are your favorite bottles? We are currently using the Dr. Brown bottles but it seems to take the babies forever to eat with them - like 30-40 minutes a bottle?

2) Our pedi says an ounce of formula for every two pounds they weigh. How much formula are you giving your babies?

3) Both of my babies have alot of crying/fussiness after eating and need alot of caressing to calm down at times. How do you deal with this when their is two and you are by yourself. They seem to be having stomach pains and pass alot of gas from their bottoms. Could this be an intolerance to their formula?
Right now they are on Similac Sensitive but I wonder if they should be on a soy based formula.

4) I have never really swaddled the babies. Is is too late to start this now? Would this maybe help them fall back to sleep better after their feedings - especially at night. What do you swaddle with? I'm afraid to use a regular blanket for fear of the whole SIDS thing.


Thanks so much for reading and your advice!

 

1. We used Dr. B's too. Maybe they could go up a size on the nipples?
2. My two never made their quota for the day using the 2oz per lb, it was always quite a bit less than that. At 6 weeks, we were still at 3oz.
3. Do they have reflux? Arching, screaming, refusing bottles?
4. I swaddled them with a regular receiving blanket, until they started breaking out of them, and then I just dressed them warmly at night.

 

1) I am bottle feeding. What are your favorite bottles? We are currently using the Dr. Brown bottles but it seems to take the babies forever to eat with them - like 30-40 minutes a bottle?
We use Dr. Brown's as well, and the girls did take about the same amount of time to finish a bottle as yours are.

2) Our pedi says an ounce of formula for every two pounds they weigh. How much formula are you giving your babies?
I always fed what they would take and didn't worry about amount per pound.

3) Both of my babies have alot of crying/fussiness after eating and need alot of caressing to calm down at times. How do you deal with this when their is two and you are by yourself. They seem to be having stomach pains and pass alot of gas from their bottoms. Could this be an intolerance to their formula?
Right now they are on Similac Sensitive but I wonder if they should be on a soy based formula.
Maybe you could try burping them more often during feedings. I fed mine tandem using two boppies, which made burping often pretty easy.

4) I have never really swaddled the babies. Is is too late to start this now? Would this maybe help them fall back to sleep better after their feedings - especially at night. What do you swaddle with? I'm afraid to use a regular blanket for fear of the whole SIDS thing.
I used receiving blankets which aren't big enough to fall over their faces when they get loose from them.

 

1) I am bottle feeding. What are your favorite bottles? We are currently using the Dr. Brown bottles but it seems to take the babies forever to eat with them - like 30-40 minutes a bottle?

We also use Dr. Brown's, and it probably took them that long at that age also. They get faster....now it takes about 15 minutes to finish an 8 oz. bottle and a jar of solids!

2) Our pedi says an ounce of formula for every two pounds they weigh. How much formula are you giving your babies?

Ours said the same thing, but he said it was a maximum. So we filled the bottle according to this formula, but then they just ate as much as they wanted. We have some really good eaters, so they usually finished their bottles, but we didn't make them finish if they didn't want it. We did find this to be a very good guide, though, for our boys who would keep eating and eating if we let them. They overflowed if we gave them more than the one counce/ two pounds.

3) Both of my babies have alot of crying/fussiness after eating and need alot of caressing to calm down at times. How do you deal with this when their is two and you are by yourself. They seem to be having stomach pains and pass alot of gas from their bottoms. Could this be an intolerance to their formula?
Right now they are on Similac Sensitive but I wonder if they should be on a soy based formula.

We also have very gassy babies, and it has helped us a lot to put Mylicon (we actually use the Wal-Mart version, which is literally 1/4 the price) in every bottle. We just put a couple of drops (even less than the indicated dosage) in each bottle and it seems to help them a lot. When we've experimented with not using the drops, they get really gassy and fussy. They started on these in the NICU, and they told us there that it was safe for them to have the drops at every feed.

4) I have never really swaddled the babies. Is is too late to start this now? Would this maybe help them fall back to sleep better after their feedings - especially at night. What do you swaddle with? I'm afraid to use a regular blanket for fear of the whole SIDS thing.

We loved the swaddleme blankets by Kiddopotomus. We got them at BRU for about $10 each, and they velcro closed so the babies can't get out (well, at least probably not at 6 weeks...they'll get out of there eventually). Give it a try; it definitely comforted our guys when they were that little.

 

1) I am bottle feeding. What are your favorite bottles? We are currently using the Dr. Brown bottles but it seems to take the babies forever to eat with them - like 30-40 minutes a bottle?
i use the avent bottles, dont take them so long to eat, yeah or u could just get a faster flow nipple, its kinda messy at first but they get used to it


2) Our pedi says an ounce of formula for every two pounds they weigh. How much formula are you giving your babies?
mine are at 5 oz right now, we just have always given them what they were hungry for and they are fine

3) Both of my babies have alot of crying/fussiness after eating and need alot of caressing to calm down at times. How do you deal with this when their is two and you are by yourself. They seem to be having stomach pains and pass alot of gas from their bottoms. Could this be an intolerance to their formula?
Right now they are on Similac Sensitive but I wonder if they should be on a soy based formula.
have u tried using gas drops? that really helps mine alot i would think they would throw up alot if they couldnt take the formula

4) I have never really swaddled the babies. Is is too late to start this now? Would this maybe help them fall back to sleep better after their feedings - especially at night. What do you swaddle with? I'm afraid to use a regular blanket for fear of the whole SIDS thing
ours always break out of he blanket, we used a receiving blanket when we did do it

 

QUOTE(happyfor2 @ Sep 26 2007, 08:17 PM) [snapback]424796[/snapback]
Hello! I am a new mom to twin boys who are now six weeks old and just have a few questions. I knew you all would be my best resource!!

1) I am bottle feeding. What are your favorite bottles? We are currently using the Dr. Brown bottles but it seems to take the babies forever to eat with them - like 30-40 minutes a bottle?

2) Our pedi says an ounce of formula for every two pounds they weigh. How much formula are you giving your babies?

3) Both of my babies have alot of crying/fussiness after eating and need alot of caressing to calm down at times. How do you deal with this when their is two and you are by yourself. They seem to be having stomach pains and pass alot of gas from their bottoms. Could this be an intolerance to their formula?
Right now they are on Similac Sensitive but I wonder if they should be on a soy based formula.

4) I have never really swaddled the babies. Is is too late to start this now? Would this maybe help them fall back to sleep better after their feedings - especially at night. What do you swaddle with? I'm afraid to use a regular blanket for fear of the whole SIDS thing.
Thanks so much for reading and your advice!


1. We used the Dr Brown's for a long time, too. It doesn't seem like they're quite old enough to be ready for a bigger nipple, though.....I'd make sure the formula is getting mixed really well so there aren't any clumps slowing it down. But seems like at that age they just took awhile to eat.

2. I don't remember! I do remember, though, if they finished the bottle all gone I was told to give them more. They said there should be some left when they're done.

3. That's a tough one! Swings were awesome. Make sure they've burped really well....my dh was the burping king & always swore that just one burp wasn't enough. Have you tried any gas drops? My dd had a LOT of gas & was always more fussy & we got the drops from Gerber......worked almost instantly.

4. We just used regular blankets for swaddling, something with a little bit of stretch to them. If they didn't show you how at the hospital, I'd have someone show you so you don't feel nervous about it getting loose. Probably your doctor, or you could probably even call the hospital & ask if you could swing by & have the nurses show you. This might even help with the fussing! Mine simply loved being swaddled. When they were wrapped up tight in their blankets & lying next to each other, they were so happy.

 

1-we used the Avent bottles. Easy to clean and easy to use. The only drawback is sometimes they can be leaky.
2-We gave our guys as much as they would tolerate. and slowly increased. I think at about 6 weeks, my guys were eating about 3 ounces.
3-Our guys have always had gas. It could possibly be a slight case of reflux??
4-Swaddle at any time!! Our guys loved it!!

 

We used Dr. B's, too!
I do not remember how much formula I gave them.
It sounds like reflux?
I never swaddled - I have this strange obsession with no swaddling. (my dh would always make fun of me) But, I did try a few times and they hated it.