tandem nursing newborns

HELP! My twins were born a week and a half ago at 37 weeks via C-Section.  I managed to nurse them at the same time in the hospital, but I am having trouble now. 
 
I get the first one latched on, (usually in football hold) and then while juggling to get his brother on, the first one looses his good latch.  And it is really hard to get that second guy latched on well, too.  Also, these little guys are very sleepy and once they get pulled off the breast, they just sleep!  (Or scream in frustration)
 
I have sucessfully breastfed three singletons, so I am very comfortable nursing one in the cradle-hold, but I would really like to be able to nurse them together to save time.
 
Any tips? Will this get easier when they are bigger? Thanks

 

You have a couple of options: you can keep working on tandem nursing (try different holds) or work with them one on one for the next week or two until their latches are stronger and then go back to tandem feeding or do a combo of both depending on everyone's mood/energy levels/needs at the time.

Also check out this post from Dr. Jack Newman on breast compression: http://www.breastfeedinginc.ca/content.php?pagename=doc-BC. It will help with the sleepy baby syndrome although may be difficult to accomplish while tandem feeding.

 

Do you have a good nursing pillow? I had the My Breast Friend and it is designed for tandem nursing. I felt like it really helped me, especially when they were tiny. Congrats on your sweet little ones!!

 

I had a good nursing pillow and needed additional smaller pillows in the newborn phase to help them keep the latch while I latched the other one.  I always latched my stronger nurser first because I needed him to trigger the let-down for both of them, plus he was easy to relatch if he lost the latch while I latched myy weaker nursing DD. In the beginning double football hold worked best for me. I had to tandem nurse from the beginning because DD could not trigger a let down and would get very frustrated and give up trying to nurse. But otherwise I agree with Rachel that working on latching them one-on-one is easier at first.

 

A nursing pillow is a must! I have my brest friend twins deluxe nursing pillow. I love it. I don't think I could do without it. I always nurse them together. It saves time. I usually get them both up onto the pillow then latch them. It has worked well for us always using the football hold. 11 months strong!!

 

Yes.  I have the same pillow. Love it.

 

Did you latch each one using two hands?

 

I never tandem nursed my girls.  The few times I tried, I found that I had to nurse them sooner than if I nursed one than the other ( but I only had my girls so i did not have to worry about other kids in the mix).  I found I wound up spending more time nursing than if i just nursed them separate.
 
Good luck. 

 

I also found it easier to nurse them separately until they were bigger. I had overactive letdown comlicating matters though. The bonus was that I could walk around nursing one baby but not 2 so even if it took a little more time (but not much), I still was able to get more done.