How many bottles?

I was just wondering about how many bottles I might need. I read on the beginners tips thread that I might need about 14. I plan on breastfeeding but supplementing with formula (one baby gets breast and the other formula one feeding than vice versa the next feeding). Of course if breastfeeding doesnt work out we will the have to use all formula. The bottles we are going to use come out this Friday so I would like to just buy them all at once. Also, how many of what size will I need? I was thinking 5 4oz and 5 9oz? I'm pretty clueless so any advice would be excellent!
thanks!!

 

I think I have around 16. I wouldn't buy more than 2 smaller bottles because they outgrow them so fast.

 

And not to be a bubble burster but just be careful how many you buy of one type of bottle. Sometimes you have to go through a few types of bottles before you can find the right one for baby or babies. They can be pretty picky about those dang things

 

We have 16 4 oz bottles and 16 9 oz bottles. I feel like all I do is wash bottles, but I'm solely bottle feeding and no breast. So it may be different. But each baby eats about 6-8 bottles per day, depending no how well they sleep at night now. In the beginning it was 8 bottles per day. So I got enough that we'd have 8 bottles per baby per day. It seems to work pretty well.

I bought the Avent bottles and never had a problem with my babies liking them.

 

Hi! This doesn't exactly answer your question, but since you're planning on doing some breastfeeding, I just wanted to invite you to visit the breastfeeding forum. BFing twins is a lot to get your head around, and the forum is full of awesome ladies who have experience with everything (EBF, combining BF with formula, etc).

Just my 2 cents as a mom who's BTDT - it is actually much, much easier to BF both babies at once than to give one a bottle while the other nurses. DS was on bottles for months before he learned to nurse, and it was such an enormous PITA. BFing is so easy - you just open your bra and you're all set - but with bottles there's all the prep work and cleanup (and meanwhile hungry babies are yelling at you!). Like a pp said, it feels like your whole life is washing bottles. Life got so, so, so much easier when both babies were nursing.

We did still have some bottles, so that I could get out and get a break or get some sleep at night. We had a stock of 7 Dr. Brown's 4 oz. bottles. (Before that, we'd been using the 10 gazillion little bottles and nipples the NICU sent us home with.) That was plenty for us.

Ditto pp - you may have to try different kinds of bottles and nipples before you find something that works for you, so don't stock up too much.

Good luck with the rest of your pregnancy! And do come visit the BFing forum - we'd be happy to help you with any questions.

 

QUOTE(DATJMom @ Jul 27 2008, 07:54 PM) [snapback]899151[/snapback]
And not to be a bubble burster but just be careful how many you buy of one type of bottle. Sometimes you have to go through a few types of bottles before you can find the right one for baby or babies. They can be pretty picky about those dang things

I agree, and sometimes you have to try different nipples as well. My oldest DD would only use the orthodontic nipples (after trying many many kinds), but the twins took the regular old nipples that come standard on bottles.

I didn't have tons of bottles I preferred to wash them out throughout the day instead of having them all to wash at the end of the night. I probably only had about 8 bottles total, that was 4 oz and 9 oz.

 

I'm guessing approx 5 bottles per baby...or 10 bottles total. I agree, though...don't waste a bunch of money on little ones...

 

I agree with PPs.
At first we went through lots of bottles we had to wash them a lot but since about three months they have been taking 5-6 bottles a day so I think 12 is a good number. We never bought 4 ounce bottles. They outgrew them too quick.
We also changed bottles at about 2 months so again I agree with PPs. We started on Avents and I think I bought about 16 of those. They wound up leaking really bad (whatever you do don't buy those!!!!) and the doctor recommended Dr. Brown for tummy issues so we switched!!

I don't think that answered your question, but just our experience!
Good luck :winking0009:

 

we had 8 4oz and 8 8oz. Our girls used the 4ozers for at least the first three months, can't remember exactly how long.

 

I am going to bottle feed exclusively and we bought 6 of the smaller bottles for now. We are using drop ins, so we don't really have to that many bottles, just extra nipples and liners.

 

I agree with not buying so many small bottles. I have a lot of 4oz bottles but the boys have already outgrown them. I was given about 4 small and 4 large bottles that we use (I breastfeed, but we do bottles often).

the NICU gave us TONS of bottles to store breastmilk and use when they were little and I still use them. I am glad that I didn't purchase any because the ones they gave us worked out so well.

Also, I would purchase two types of nipples, slow and stage one. Our boys needed the Stage One nipples at about 5-6 weeks so it was nice to have it and not have to go buy it.

Maybe just purchase 2 bottles incase you are given alot at the NICU - might save you some money, but if you dont like the NICU ones, or your babies dont have to be in, then you have some to use as backup.

 

QUOTE(DATJMom @ Jul 27 2008, 07:54 PM) [snapback]899151[/snapback]
And not to be a bubble burster but just be careful how many you buy of one type of bottle. Sometimes you have to go through a few types of bottles before you can find the right one for baby or babies. They can be pretty picky about those dang things


that's what I was going to say we had some bought for a shower which they didn't like, so then just bought 4 (think advent), they liked them, so ended up with 16 I think.

amanda

 

I just buy the playtex bottles that you get the liners for. That way you only have to buy one bottle for each baby. You don't have to do any washing, it's really convenient. Besides, you can squeeze out the excess air that causes gas. They've worked excellent for all 4 of my babies.

 

Thank you all so much for your responses. This may be a dumb question but since a lot of you mentioned not buying too many 4oz bottles can we just buy the 9oz bottles and use a level 1 nipple with them instead of buying 4oz and 9oz? I feel like that would cut down on the cost some?
Anyway I think we decided to buy maybe 10-12 bottles and then a couple of drop-ins as well.

 

We used the Dr Browns, and had 24 8oz bottles. We never used the smaller onces, because I never understood the point of them. My two came home from the hospital eating every 4 hours ... so we went through 12 bottles a day ... and we ran the dishwasher every two days ... As they started dropping bottles because they were sleeping longer, I was able to go to running the dishwasher every 3 days ... etc.

Good luck!