i have a question for you mommy's of twins.
when soleil comes home- i have no idea what to do with feeding schedules. i mean, should me and my husband both wake up and each feed one- or should we feed them in shifts?
neve wakes up every 2-3 hours to eat. my pediatrician says to feed her on demand, and if she sleeps up to 5 hours in a row, not to wake her. now what happens when both wake up simultaneously and want to eat? i mean, you can only feed one at a time. i have no idea how this is going to work.
any suggestions?
Sunday, December 23, 2007
questions
Posted by Gemini Girl at 4:15 PM
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8 comments:
Hi,
I would try as much as possible to get them on the same schedule. We had two night feedings and I would take one and my husband would take one (that way we each could get a few hours in a row). When they were really young, we fed at the same time because they were such poor eaters. AFter they were stonger, we would put them in a bouncy seat and sat in between them and popped the bottle in their mouths. When I breastfed (I don't know if you are) I tried to get them on at the same time. Feeding them together, no matter how you do it, saves so much time. As for waking up in the middle of the night, we kept them on the same schedule. You have to or you'll never get any sleep. If one woke up to eat, we woke the second one. I would let a sleeping baby sleep only if you are certain she won't wake up in the middle of the night, and yours are still so small, they still need to be eating round the clock. Sometimes one boy wouldn't eat quite as much as the other, but oh well, I still tried to feed him anyway. The alternative is having him wake up an hour later. I am very strict with my twins schedule though. Same bedtime, eating time, etc. I would have lost it otherwise! They both slept through the night the exact same night. Now, at almost two, they still won't go to bed or eat without the other!
Good luck, you'll do fine once you get the hang of it and find what works for you family!! Hope your little ones are together soon!
Candice
One more thing, there are few different ways to feed at the same time (bottles). You can do the bouncy seat thing, which I liked best. Or you can prop one up on your legs and put the other in a seat. You can lay their heads on your lap, so their head to head, and feed. They also sell different types of bottles with a tubing so you put the nipple in their mouth like a pacifier and they suck it up like a straw. I never had luck with these but know others who did, check online or BRUS.
Like I said, in the beginning you'll both need to feed them until they get bigger, after a few weeks, you'll figure out a bunch of tricks!
Great post, Maya. I neee ideas, too!
Here's my 2 cents. At the beginning, I don't remember exactly, probably from birth to around 1.5 months, I fed them one after the other. But like twinboysmom said, I ALWAYS fed them together. Which ever one got up first I changed/fed and then woke the other if they were still sleeping.
If they both woke up together, I did the same thing. I didn't USUALLY have criers, so I didn't have to deal with a screaming kid while I was feeding the other one. But, sometimes, the one waiting did cry. Hence, having a pacifier close by. I would stick that one in the waiters mouth while feeding the other baby (usually laying in my lap).
This made me realize though, if I could keep putting the paci in the babies mouth while feeding one, maybe I should just try feeding them at the same time.
What worked for me was having one baby lying in my lap (I would sit indian-style and put there head near my knee. the other one I would put next to me in a boppy pillow. Then I would stop half way through (or whatever works for you) and burp the one, while giving the other a paci. Then switch, then back to bottle.
It def took a while to get the double feeding down. The first time I did it, I was all nervous, and kinda rushed the burping, and had 2 babies spit up on me. So the next time I made sure I took ample time to burp, even if the other cried a bit.
As for sleep, my DH was home the first 3 weeks. so we would get up together, each take a baby, then go back to sleep. But it STILL wasn't enough sleep (is it ever?) so we decided that we would split the night in half. I would be "on call" from 9pm (he would go to sleep then in the spare room) until 3am, and then I would wake him and we would switch. This way we both got 6 hours of sleep. It was a LIFE SAVER! You don't realize how much it helps to get your sleep in one chunk.
When he went back to work, we tried to do the same thing, modified slightly. My DH doesn't have to leave until 8am. So I would wake him around 4am, so I could get 4 straight hours. But he would go to bed early (9-10pm) so that he still got a good chunk of sleep.
I hope this helps. Please feel free to email me with more questions. But at all costs I would keep them on the same schedule and feed them together. Good luck!
I had been wondering the same thing... especially because I'm hoping to breastfeed them. I had taken a birthing class with a lady who suggested that for the first couple of days, I feed them separately just so I could give them individualized attention and get used to their feeding style. Afterwards, I should feed them together. We'll see how this works out!
Well my mom breastfed my sister and I for about a month, one on each breast. It can be done if you use one of those boppy pillows. Otherwise what she did was used something similar to a boppy pillow, put us on the ground or couch and bottle fed us both. We apparently were on the same eating and sleep schedule and I imagine you'd like that anyhow because otherwise you'll be up all night! Are you sleeping them in the same crib? My sister and I shared a crib and then a room until we were about 5. Then we finally got our own rooms.
I breast fed, so I had to get up. J was incharge of getting them and giving them to me. burping and putting back in the bassinet.
We always split it. one parent per child. some say it's crazy because then neither sleep..but I say screw it...I didn't want to have NO sleep at all.
you will figure out what works best for the 4 of you.
When one woke to eat we woke the other one. When they were two weeks old I was on my own with them day and night since hubby had to work. I didn't feel it was fair for him to have inturrupted sleep. So I put them on a large ottoman next to eachother with a large pillow behind both of their heads, put the bottles in their mouths and propped them up with burp cloths and sat back and waited until it was time to burp one. I'd replace the bottle and then burp the other.
In my opinion it's real important for them to be on the same schedule for your sanity but there is the other school of thought that they are two individuals with individual needs and they should be met that way. So it's up to you to decide which is more comfortable for you.
I hope you are able to get more time off of work! Jan 8th is way too soon for you! :-(
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