Breast feeding and pumping check in

How's your nipples? Are you babies sleeping? Cluster feeding driving you crazy? Are people looking at you funny when you tell them you nurse or pump?

Nursing or pumping for twins is probably a once in a lifetime opportunity for most of us, so how's it going?

 

Well, I am only nursing one baby now but we are going strong... a little too strong. We have nearly reached my one year goal (HOORAY!) and my sights are now set on weaning. She is SO stubborn and will be a tough one to wean. She still wakes 2-4 times per night and is only settled by nursing (but not necessarily eating). Of course I won't close up shop until she is ready, but I am holding out hope it is sooner rather than later - and that she will sleep better once the need to nurse is gone! It is bittersweet because she is our last child, but I think I am ready. Five years of being pregnant or nursing is enough

 

Things are going pretty good. Slowly working cows milk in while I am at work so I can cut the cord on the pump. Livie's been sleeping through the night for a while now. Sophie wakes a couple times but once is before I go to bed and she's pretty quick and to the point with it. It's funny. As much as I hate pumping, it feels bittersweet to start dropping the sessions. Perhaps because it will mean less snuggles on the weekends?

 

I'm only nursing one right now also but still going strong. Emmett's coming up on 19 months and still nurses quite frequently. It's working well for both of us - I have no interest in weaning him anytime soon as he's likely to be my last nursling. I am considering night weaning him in the next little while, maybe. Again, it's working well so I am not feeling overly worried about changing things up. I kind of love breastfeeding.

 

I'm still trying to figure out what I'm doing. We finally have both babies home from the NICU at 7 weeks old so it's an adventure seeing how they eat. Most of the time they gobble down a full feeding, then we'll have 1-2 feedings every couple days where they either refuse to wake up or only eat a tiny bit. They're still supposed to get 4 bottles of fortified breastmilk per day, then can breastfeed the rest of their feedings (4-5 times). I'm playing around with trying to do all breastfeeding overnight and doing the bottles during the day. Theoretically it will save us time when we're sleepy, since I'm tandem feeding them, and if I breastfeed I don't have to pump. On the other hand, right now they're not the best eaters so it ends up being that they start and stop a lot, need a burp break in the middle, then spit up. Plus, we're keeping them propped up for at least 15 mins after eating to help with reflux.

In any case I'm kind of torn between trying to continue this until they get the hang of eating without choking/forgetting to breathe/needing a million breaks/needing a nipple shield (their mouths are too small) and just saying forget it and pumping everything and just doing all bottles. My nipples are pretty much recovered from the initial strain of pumping and feeding, but I have an oversupply problem and end up leaking all over the place all the time. When we were in the NICU one of the nurses said, "Breastfeeding is easier than bottles for them because when they stop sucking the milk stops coming out so they won't get too much at once." I had to choke back laughter because my boobs just keep pouring out milk constantly, probably faster than the preemie size nipple they're using on their bottles.