[*mylittleprince*]

Interested to hear how long others breastfed their multiples for? I'm exclusively breastfeeding my 13 week old twins.

Did you use formula tops up at all?
Did you express and fed or always "manually" feed?

Thanks

[nessrose]

Unfortunately I only breastfed for 3 months.

I never seemed to have enough milk for them, so would always give a top-up of formula after each breastfeed. They were not gaining much weight so at the MACH nurses advice I switched to formula. I had reservations, but in the end it was the best thing for us to do. It meant I didn't have to spend so much time feeding, DH could help and our 2 year old could get the attention she needed.

Sounds like you are doing a fantastic job. Well done

[newyearbaby]

Mine are over 7 months and they are still fully breastfed.

Mostly twin fed them for the first 8 weeks, and have individually fed them since then.

It became much easier and less draining as time went on. And in the last couple of months it became super easy. They feed for about 5 minutes (10 mins is a long feed), 6 times per day. They are losing interest in their mid-morning feed now that they are on 3 solid meals per day, so it will soon be 5 feeds per day.

My other babies dropped to 4 feeds a day by 8 months, but I think these guys will be a month behind on that. Then they went to 3 feeds by 10 months.

So it certainly keeps getting easier.

[samusugiru]

I breast fed and supplemented from the beginning pretty much. I combo fed with formula, pumping and breast up until four months when they refused the breast and continued pumping until six months when I gave up. It was too much work to exclusively breastfeed since they took up to two hours to breastfeed eight times a day.

Sounds like you're doing well but honestly it was such a relief to supplement, I needed as much sleep as I cold get and it helped me breastfeed longer since my supply was tanking from exhaustion.

Perhaps a lactation consultant could help trouble shoot?

[twinboys]

Fully BF till they were 8 months.
Weaned them at this age as one was starting bite me and they were not sleeping more than 3 hour blocks at night.
They slept a whole lot better at night when the were weaned

[handsfull]

I expressed for over nine months. They did not "latch" due to being so premature and they never really got it going and I had a huge milk supply so expressed solely for them to ensure good supply. Had tons to freeze and could've fed the whole unit!

I used to hold and feed one and rock the other in the bouncer and then swapped over.

We had a great system worked out between DH and I and all went well. He was in charge of sterilising and I was in charge of production. He used to work out how much we needed and defrost the milk ready for the feeds. That way I did the 7pm feed and went to bed and he did the late night 11pm feed and then I got up at 3am to do the middle feed. We both got sleep and babies did extremely well with both of us.

I found expressing way easier to control feeds etc than breastfeeding and also easier to handle with twins.

[Mariamsmum]

Well done OP, you are doing an amazing job!
I breastfed my twins until they were 18months. It was a hard slog at first, I breastfed one exclusively, but my smaller twin had a really hard time sucking and I expressed for the first 3 months and then topped up with EBM or formula for one or two bottles in the evening when my supply was at its lowest.
By the time my twins started solids (around 6 months), my smaller twin stopped needing topups and they were breastfed with solids until 18months.
I found breastfeeding hard at first, but much easier when they were older. I tandem fed using a twin pillow at home, but would feed individually out and about.

[Mariamsmum]

Here is a thread about breastfeeding that I started when the twins were babies with updates and helpful information from other members:

http://www.essentialbaby.com.au/forums/ind...=862026&hl=

[LeggyBlonde]

The short answer is, a little over 13 months.

The long answer: they had maybe half a dozen formula feeds in hospital. I was slightly cactus after a 2L PPH.

Nonetheless I was assisted to pump regularly in hospital, and they were on EBM only before we left hospital.

Unfortunately, we left hospital on Christmas Eve, with neither twin latching on correctly, so it was all EBM for more than 10 days, since Christmas and New Year's meant there was little support to be had. Fortunately, I had plenty of milk to make it happen.

Anyways, a one day visit to the out clinic after New Year's saw us go home with both of them latching very happily with nipple shields. We did try weaning them off nipple shields without success (didn't try hard!), but I breastfed them both without them ever having another drop of formula for 13 months as I initially said, so no supply issues obviously. I will admit I am proud to have done so, but just of MYSELF you understand, with a disclaimer of "I realise not everyone can BF".

We managed to tandem feed for four months only, after that, they were wrigglers and I had to feed them one after the other, then the first one again, then the second one again, and so on and so on!

In answer to another part of the OP. We successfully mixed breast and EBM for the entire time. My DarlingH (Dear doesn't cut it) needs less sleep than me, he did the first feed after midnight with them the whole 13 months! I would pump just before I went to bed, and could always pump a full feed for the both of them in 10 minutes (I should mention how much I love the Medela company at this point, it's less than I love DarlingH, but it's still a lot). I would then sleep through to the feed after that....

I would happily have gone a little longer, but the milk fiend of the pair discovered it came in two litre bottles and went cold turkey one day! I went on feeding the other half for a couple of weeks before deciding to just stop. I pumped maybe once or twice a day for 2 or 3 days (my memory doesn't serve me well here) and then stopped, no drama.

Another disclaimer, for anyone this bothers - THIS IS JUST WHAT HAPPENED TO ME, OK?

Good luck OP!

edited for a missed parenthesis!

This post has been edited by LeggyBlonde: 09/01/2013, 10:08 PM

[jess1980]

One twin 2 weeks and the other 6 weeks, honestly if I could go back in time I would of put them on the bottle from birth it would of saved alot of tears I admire anyone that can breast feed twins especially when they have older children I just couldnt do it and Ive only just gotten over my mothers guilt from giving it up