tips & tricks for feeding tandem thru the night alone?

My boys are 8 wks tomorrow and we are breastfeeding. One has reflux that is not too bad with tagamet but still causes him discomfort after most feedings. i've been handling the night feeds alone for a couple of weeks now so that dh can get some rest -- so at least one of us is not totally exhausted. this means i usually feed them separately at night - feed the one who wakes first, burp, change (if needed), swaddle, soothe down to sleep (rock them), then get the other one. the problem is that it generally takes an hour per baby (sometimes more if one has bad reflux) so i'm up for at least two hours at a time. the reflux baby is most comfortable if i hold him upright for at least 30 mins after feeding.

we tandem nurse during the day and sometimes at night, but i have a hard time getting them back to sleep by myself when they eat and are awake at the same time at night. the feeding is fine but if one or both need a change after nursing it gets tough. even if they don't need a change i can't seem to get them both soothed and usually have to wake up dh to help.

does anyone have tips for any part of this process? maybe if i could rock them together it would work - does anyone have a technique for getting into and out of the rocking chair with both babies without totally waking them up? any other ideas???

thanks in advance...

 

Honestly, I tried this for only a week by myself...I was so tired and grouchy that it was worth it to DH (and definitely me) to wake him up to help w/ changing and we were supplementing with bottles then too, so he got up and got those while I was tandem nursing and then would doze until I needed him to help w/ changing. I fed my girls in bed with us though.

Good luck, I hope you can figure something out!

 

Hey there! I started tandem-feeding at about 2 weeks for all sessions because it just took too dang long to feed them separately, especially in the wee hours of the night. Here was what I would do - I had the couch all set up with pillows to support me, and boppys on either side for the babies (covered in blankets so they were nice and soft.) I had ice water and granola bars or snacks too - did that before bed to get ready for the long night ahead. I also had a baby papasan thing on the ottoman next to the couch.
When a baby would wake up, I would get him up and change his diaper. If the other baby wasn't up yet, I'd wake that one and change his diaper too. Then carry one out to the boppy, situate him, then get the other. Tandem feed them and usually one would drop off and the other would need some cuddle time, so the one that would drop off or be drowsy I'd put in the bouncer (which had a vibration and soothing noise thing on it) and I'd nurse/cuddle the other until sleepy. I'd then put both in the cribs, and if one got up, I'd rock that one to sleep in the rocker.
I would also get up DH to help you sometimes ... I have the same situation, he works long hours and I liked to let him sleep but if I'm going to be up for the next hour feeding them, I figured he could get up and help change diapers. He'd change one and bring him out to me, then he'd change the other while I started nursing the first. Sometimes he'd stay up with me to help burp and put down one that fell asleep. Otherwise I had the system of boppys and bouncers - it did work out nice with the one who fell asleep going in the bouncer. Oh, sometimes I'd use the swing too, to rock one while I held the other.
Hang in there! It's rough right now, but it gets soooo much easier ... I was just thinking to myself last night, remembering the long long long nights of nursing twins ... now, like last night, Con woke at 1130 and it takes all of like 7 minutes to nurse and put back down ... Chase was up at 230, nurse, and down by 245, and back in bed for me! You're doing a great job, mama! PM me if you have any other questions!

 

I have been nursing my boys at night alone pretty much since the beginning... it can be exhausting but is not too bad. I started out for about 3 nights trying to sleep in bed with the boys in a co-sleeper. Forget it! I was constantly falling asleep while nursing my newborn twins, and when I was awake, I was uncomfortable and miserable. Next, I moved out to the couch to sleep, with the boys in a Pack N Play, so I could watch TV during marathon nursing sessions to keep myself from falling asleep on them. I fed them individually as needed or tandem if they both were awake... again, not a good situation because I was nursing one or both constantly. At this point, I was nursing about 20 hours per day and totally wiped out. So, I called a lactation consultant, who gave me the magical gift of sleep through sme tips she gave me... maybe they'll help you!

She taught me to wake the sleeping baby when the first one is ready to eat and feed tandem always. Change them before nursing if needed (if they have a BM or seem uncomfortable), otherwise wait and just nurse. After 15-20 minutes, stop the babies from nursing, change diapers (this part can involve some crying but usually not too bad), swaddle them, then put them back to the breast for up to 30 minutes more, and they will usually fall asleep at the breast in much less than 30 mins. Usually, they do not soil their diapers again, and you have happy, clean, sleeping babies... no need to change them! Just gently remove one and then the other from the nursing pillow, then transport to their crib, and they are all set! If they do soil their diapers it's usually only one of them, so that's not too bad either.

I usually keep a bouncy seat with vibration nearby to place them in during diaper changes. Also important for us is to make sure the lights stay dim and everything else stays calm.

This may sound complicated but it's a routine that works really well for us!! I hope you can find a system that works for you so that you can get some sleep!!

 

great ideas!

twinboys07 - that sounds like a great system - definitely worth a try here. do you always change both of them after the 15 mins of nursing or only if they need it? i'm just hoping that my reflux guy cooperates. sometimes he's uncomfortable even in his bouncer.

kendraplus2 - thanks for the ideas... we have an ottoman that might work for that too!

 

QUOTE(joy8 @ Jul 24 2007, 10:43 AM) [snapback]342895[/snapback]
twinboys07 - that sounds like a great system - definitely worth a try here. do you always change both of them after the 15 mins of nursing or only if they need it? i'm just hoping that my reflux guy cooperates. sometimes he's uncomfortable even in his bouncer.


I change each baby either before or during (or both if necessary). So, if they are poopy or wet before, I will change them before. Otherwise, they will go straight to breast. If they didn't get changed before nursing, they get changed in the "intermission" (as we call it!). So, each baby is changed either before or in the middle of the feeding (sometimes both). I hope I explained that so it makes sense! I think I forgot to say... we also burp at "intermission". Sometimes it seems like a lot to do smack dab in the middle of a feeding, but it works well overall-- better than anything else I've tried!!

I hope you have some luck getting better sleep soon!

 

I also try to avoid tandem nursing at night. I find that when I tandem nurse, it wakes me up a lot more and I have more trouble going back to bed after I'm done. When I HAVE TO tandem at night, I turn our hall fan to "high". (We keep a fan in the hall near the bedrooms so when the babies are making a bunch of noise in the middle of the night or in the early morning, the fan can muffle their noises and not wake our older child. We also use it when older child is playing to not wake the babies up).

If both babies are up at the same time, I take them into the bedroom and set up to nurse them there. I rouse DH only when one baby is done and needs dropped off to her crib. If one baby wakes up while I'm already nursing the other baby, I hope that that baby wakes DH up, then he brings me that baby. Or, I start calling to him on the monitor to wake up and bring me the crying baby. My husband only has to be up for 30 seconds -to either bring me a baby or return one of the babies to the crib, so I don't feel bad about that. I do it this way so the babies don't fully wake up and cause me more trouble.

When my babies were the age of yours, I had no luck waking the other for feeds. The sleeper wouldn't nurse well at all and would still be up an hour later. Also, I stopped changing diapers at night except when poopy. That helped! Especially since we swaddled and unwrapping and changing and re-wrapping was a major pain.

Good luck! It gets a ton better!

 

QUOTE(twinboys07 @ Jul 25 2007, 05:14 AM) [snapback]343611[/snapback]
I change each baby either before or during (or both if necessary). So, if they are poopy or wet before, I will change them before. Otherwise, they will go straight to breast. If they didn't get changed before nursing, they get changed in the "intermission" (as we call it!). So, each baby is changed either before or in the middle of the feeding (sometimes both). I hope I explained that so it makes sense! I think I forgot to say... we also burp at "intermission". Sometimes it seems like a lot to do smack dab in the middle of a feeding, but it works well overall-- better than anything else I've tried!!

I hope you have some luck getting better sleep soon!


At that age we did a lot during 'intermission' too! Now that my girls only nurse for about 5 mins each...we really only get intermission first thing in the am and right before bed, when they seem a little more hungry. :winking0009:

 

twinboys07 - thanks, that does make sense. I'm having trouble bringing myself to try this out ... the devil you know!

Chillers and Take Luck - can't wait for it to get so easy! thanks for keeping my hope alive!

 

So I still am not sure that I consider myself to be much of an expert at it, but here is what I have been doing. My DH depicts the eating schedule and has from the start. When he stirs, I get both babies up and carry them together to the feeding area I have staged for the night in the living room. I have a blanet with diapers, wipes, extra pjs (just in case), etc. layed out on the ottoman. I lay both babies down and unwrap them from their swaddlers, get their diapers changed (which I found helps to wake them enough to eat) and bibs on. We then move over to the couch where I have my twin nursing pillow set up and I feed them both. The tend to feed for about 10 minutes right now before wanting to go back to sleep. I then take them back over to the ottoman, swaddle them up, and place them back to bed. I have found that I don't waste time with burping--they don't really seem to need it much at night because they are so relaxed--just walking back to the bedroom is often enough to stir up a burp or two. I think you just need to find what works best for you I just felt that any other alternative was way to time consuming for me--but i am able to fall back asleep really easily so all that moving around isn't a huge issue. Best of luck to you

 

OK - so I have to report that things are going a little better after trying some of the suggestions here. I have tried twinboys07 system and for the last two nights I was able to get them both fed and down to sleep in one hour instead of two! That is so great!!! This has worked partly because they have both been waking up at the same time so I'm not having to wake one out of a deep sleep.

Then, last night I tried a combo approach. They went down for their long sleep at about 8 pm. They were up at about midnight and I did the full deal - unswaddled them both, nursed for 15 minutes, burped them, changed them both, swaddled them and then put them back to nurse some more. By this point half an hour had gone by. Once they were both pretty much done and sleepy, which only took 10-15 minutes more, I transferred the sleepiest one to the crib and rocked the other one before putting him down too. ONLY ONE HOUR! SWEET. So I got to lay back down at 1 am.

Then at 3 am one woke up again to eat. I did the smell test and after determining there was no poop, I decided to try just nursing him without unswaddling or changing. I nursed him for 15 minutes and put him back down - he's always been a very efficient nurser. He stirred for awhile but did go to sleep. Meanwhile, as soon as I put him down the other one woke up to be fed. So I did the same thing with him. Strangely it still took about 45 minutes to nurse them and get them both down even though I skipped so many steps. Still this was a huge success!

Unfortunately they were up again at 5 am so I only got one more hour of sleep, but hey, we're moving in the right direction.

Thanks so much for the ideas! They have definitely helped!

 

All I can say (and this is a grumble at 2:51 am) is that I am ENVIOUS of all of you who can tandem nurse!

I have to bottle feed EBM to one who won't latch, so i usually end up feeding her if she wakes first (which means heating water, going to the bathroom, etc.), then waking the other, nursing her, then PUMPING, which is why it takes me two darn hours in the middle of every night!

sorry didn't mean to hijack your post, just so frustrated! (and envious)

 

Lots of great ideas here about how to do it solo...

But do you & DH always do this system where one of you does all the night feeds for a couple weeks, and then you switch? That sounds like a LONG time to go with no sleep! Could you maybe trade off every couple of days, or every other day? Or you could even take turns during the night. DH and I did this: he'd take the first feeding, I'd take then next, and so on. That way, we were both tired, but at a manageable level. We could each get one good chunk of sleep at night.

(We still do it this way, btw, it's just easier now that the babies are older! He does the feeding around 1 am, I take the one around 4 am...)