overnight feedings at the same time

Discussion in 'The First Year' started by ~ilyse~, May 24, 2007.

  1. ~ilyse~

    ~ilyse~ Well-Known Member

    We have a colonial, bedrooms upstairs, everything else downstairs. Right now, I bring up bottles and bouncy seats every night incase there is need for a 3am feeding. Many times, when one wakes up the other one does too so I put them in their seats, warm the bottles right in their room and feed them in their bouncy seats. Many times I have thought, there must be a better way. Just wondering what others do.
     
  2. Minette

    Minette Well-Known Member

    What you're doing sounds pretty good to me! DH and I always both got up for every feeding, and each fed one. It sounds crazy to a lot of people but it worked for us. I could never have slept through a feeding anyway. And I would have felt lonely and stressed, having to deal with it by myself. DH would have been willing to take turns doing solo feedings, but was OK with doing it my way. Anyway, our house is only one story, so we kept the bottles in the fridge and warmed them in the kitchen. But it would stink to have to go downstairs for every feeding -- at least this way you are carrying stuff up & down the stairs while you're more awake!
     
  3. stanley

    stanley Well-Known Member

    My girls are two months old and my dh and I both get up every feeding and take one. However, when he goes back to work full itme, I will be by myself for 24 hr/ shifts (he's a firefighter). It makes me nervous to think I have to do this by myself. Your method sounds pretty effective to me.

    Jen
     
  4. KYsweetheart

    KYsweetheart Well-Known Member

    QUOTE
    What you're doing sounds pretty good to me! DH and I always both got up for every feeding, and each fed one. It sounds crazy to a lot of people but it worked for us. I could never have slept through a feeding anyway.


    Ditto.

    I say, you find something that works and stick with it.
     
  5. alaskamom

    alaskamom Well-Known Member

    I would take 2 boppys and put a baby in each on the floor. Then I sat in front of them (or half layed, half slept haha) while I fed them. I also bought milk maid bottle proppers---which I LOVED and highly recommend. I still would put them in their boppys and prop the bottles as I layed next to them on the floor.
     
  6. hikerkira

    hikerkira Well-Known Member

    DH and I also get up for the night feeding and each takes a girl. We have talked about ways to get around this, most of our conversations end with "Well if we only had ONE baby" lol! The main reason we don't take turns is that DH hasn't mastered the art of feeding both at the same time. (and we have the milk maid props too!) And it is a little stressful to feed both at the same time, I cant imagine doing it half asleep!

    Sounds like you are doing what works for you. This is what I do when I am home alone during the day, feed them in their bouncy seats.
     
  7. momlissa

    momlissa Well-Known Member

    For the first month, I did all night feedings. Then, I ended up sick and in the hospital with pneumonia. Since I came home from the hospital (about a month now) DH has done all middle of the night feedings. Fortunately for him, there's only one now (around 3-4 a.m.) Our house is also one story and we heat the bottles in the kitchen. Eventually, we will probably take turns getting up. I do hear him when he gets up to feed the babies, but I am able to go back to sleep. :p
     
  8. marcy874

    marcy874 Well-Known Member

    We never did them at the same time at night. We each took a night feeding and would start with the baby that woke up first, then get the other one up and feed her. Sometimes the 2nd baby would wake up when we were still feeding the first one, if we were almost done feeding the first, the we'd let the 2nd one fuss for a minute or walk over and try to give her a binky. If that didn't help the sleeping person would get up and help. I think the girls got used to waiting for us. A lot of the time though, the timing just worked feeding them seperately.
     
  9. KellyJ

    KellyJ Well-Known Member

    We both got up to feed for the first few months and each took one baby. We always fed them at the same time and still do. Every now and then I would feed them by myself by placing them on the bed and sitting between them so my husband could get an extra bit of sleep. Once they were down to two feedings a night, we would often take turns feeding and let the other sleep. one thing that made things faster was a bottle warmer we bought at Target.I think it's by The First Years and it has a bottle cooler on the back which helped a lot when the babies were being completely impatient waiting for us to make bottles. We also always used ready to feed formula at night, so no mixing, just pop it from the cooler part to the warmer. Then after the babies were back asleep, go downstairs to the kitchen and make the next 2 bottles and put them in the cooler thing. Once they were in their cribs and we were trying to encourage better sleep habits, we never turned on the lights or anything for a feeding- just warm bottles feed and go. I would think putting them in their bouncy seats would stimulate them and they might sleep better/longer if there was less stimulation. Maybe that's not a problem, just my 2 cents! Oh and once they moved into their room, I kept an Aerobed mattress on the floor of the nursery and I fed and changed them on the bed in there. We all have our routines and we have to do what works!

    Kelly
     
  10. coconutdancing

    coconutdancing Well-Known Member

    I was too sick to take care of the twins for the first week and a half. The twins and I stayed at the hospital the minimum 4 day c-section period, then I was re hospitalized for about a week after, with them at home with my Grandparents. So I had help then. But after that I did it all myself, as Husband was working and already spent from the latter.

    I breast fed during the day and supplemented bottles with breast feeding at night, once right before bed and once in the middle of the night was all it took after the first month. How I did it was I had a nice relaxer chair in our bedroom that I pulled to the end of the bed where I slept. I would pull them both out and have bottles ready. I put one on the end of the bed to bottle feed right next to the chair while the other breast fed with me in the chair. Then I would switch and have the other breast feed while I bottle fed the other. The only thing was I had to write down who breast fed first so that I would change off the next night. Also I always had at least one hand on each at any given time, as I was always so worried that the one would fall off the bed, but neither of them ever tried as they were content after the bottle.
     
  11. Dianne

    Dianne Well-Known Member

    I always fed one baby at a time, even during the day, so they were staggered about 30 minutes. I continued the same pattern into the night, feed one (which took about 30 minutes) then feed the other. I held each baby when it was time to eat.
     
  12. CHJH

    CHJH Well-Known Member

    My husband and I both get up and feed a baby. They usually go down around 6:30 and wake once at 11:30 (although last night we tried replacing this feeding with a 10:30 dream feed - neither of them finished their bottles though) and then again at around 4 or 5. When one baby wakes, we unswaddle the second so he gets the hint that he's hungry too (much nicer than actually waking him - this way he thinks he's waking himself!). I've never been able to effectively feed mine in the bouncy seats. I have one puker and one fussy feeder. And one baby takes twice as long as the other. If your way works, stick to it!
     
  13. Inlowtwins

    Inlowtwins Well-Known Member

    I always fed mine at the same time. I would put them the in boppy or bouncie seats and give them both a bottle. I was pumping after they ate and I just didn't have the time to feed them individually. DH would take the 6 am feeding so I could get some sleep. Good Luck and does get so much easier!
     
  14. shoudeshell

    shoudeshell Well-Known Member

    Once we were able to distinguish between my girls cries, my husband and I did what he called "man to man" defence...basketball lingo. He would get Rachel one night and I would get Rebekah...when we would hear "our" baby cry we would get up to feed her and vice versa. The following night we would switch babies. Of course it inevitably would be when he fed Rachel she would sleep the longest! During the day we would always feed at the same time, but at night we would let them wake on their own. I really think that helped the girls learn to sleep all night easier. Also, Rebekah was very hard to feed if she wasn't hungry...no matter how much you would do to wake her to eat she wouldn't if she didn't want to. She's still like that today! OH, and we have a one level house too. Do what you need to do to survive till they sleep all night!
    Sheryl
     
  15. akameme

    akameme Well-Known Member TS Moderator

    it's all a blur, but i did most of the night feedings when the babies were very small since they weren't on the same schedule. if they woke at the same time, I would usually wake up my husband.

    But since they have been about 3 months old, I can feed both of them if they are propped in separate boppies on the couch - i find that works best.

    In terms of warming the bottles, I stopped doing that about a month ago and they take the milk cold.It's a huge time saver. When they were real little and eating every few hours, with breast milk I would sometimes leave the bottle out so it came to room temp. And as others said, with formula i would measure out the water and add the formula.

    however we have a small apartment, so everything is within reach.

    Miriam
     
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