Who am I kidding!?
Yes, I have mentioned in the past, that it is going pretty well. But what defines the "pretty well" part? Basically with my PCOS, I had very little hopes on my supply, forget exclusively breastfeeding! So whatever I ended up with seemed GREAT to me!
I am not trying to brag here and I hope I am not jinxing myself either! I just need to get my thoughts out, so I can look back and figure how things progressed, and may be this might help some one in the future too!
As mentioned before, I had a pretty decent amount of colostrum and my milk came in in less than 48 hours! Currently, I am producing between 50 to 60 oz of milk every day. I pump approximately 6-8 times a day (including middle of the night) (which is less as per the recommended standard)... I would like to pump more frequently, but there just doesn't seem to be enough time... and that scares the crap out of me because I feel like I might not be able to produce more milk as the babies' demand goes up, or my body might think that it does not need to produce so much milk right now (as far as enhancing my supply, I almost started fenugreek tablets to get my body to produce more milk as the babies start drinking more milk - but I felt like the babies had some reflux issues the days following the herb intake... so I stopped - may be it was just a coincidence)! So, the actual "breastmilk" feeding part ends up being Expressed Breast Milk (EBM) (we just supplement with formula 1-2 times a day - to kind of keep them used to it)! I get the babies to latch on to me a couple of times a day... but no where close to the number of times I pump! And that makes me feel very guilty!
The situation is such, that our boy (RM) is very demanding, he needs to feed every 1.5 to 2 hours... he sleeps through feeds, takes for ever to wake up and can be very aggressive! He seems to have more of a reflux issue too (it seems manageable so far - the PED recommended Zantac if things get worse - which I hope not). Where as our girl (RT) is very patient... she feeds every 3 hours approximately. So tandem feeding them gets difficult, plus as mentioned before my left breast produces less milk, so the baby on the left struggles a little more. So, whenever I end up actually BF'ing them... I have to give up on tandem feeding... or the baby is not really full (even after 30 min of feeding) and ends up supplementing on EBM! They are feeding 3+ oz of EBM during every meal right now. Also, if I spend the whole time solely BF'ing, I am afraid I will have no time left to pump and produce the actual volume they both need.
Last Thursday, I was very disappointed that they are probably going to stop BF'ing directly... because they prefer the easy to get bottle nipple. I started questioning myself as to how long I could pump... what would I do after my parents left (and I was on my own with the babies)... what would I do when I start venturing out (carry pump everywhere and keep pumping?)... would my supply increase? Though, I guess one good thing is... at least I can get them the milk they so need (for as long as I possibly can)! And then, my daughter (RT) surprised me. On Friday morning, my sweetie pie decided that she just didn't want the bottle while she was in my arms. She was hungry, but wouldn't take the bottle... she wanted my boobie! It touched my heart! It makes me feel that some day may be both will be more breastfeed than be given EBM!
I have been trying to offer RT my breast as much as I can... and she seems to be demanding it more too. Though, with pumping every couple of hours, I am not always full to provide her with the optimum milk. Though she keeps trying. She loves to snuggle around and stare in to my eyes, it melts my heart away! I just hope I can satisfy her and don't turn her away (with my pumping schedule). I also hope that I can get our boy to the same level (and both - beyond) too!
Yes, I have mentioned in the past, that it is going pretty well. But what defines the "pretty well" part? Basically with my PCOS, I had very little hopes on my supply, forget exclusively breastfeeding! So whatever I ended up with seemed GREAT to me!
I am not trying to brag here and I hope I am not jinxing myself either! I just need to get my thoughts out, so I can look back and figure how things progressed, and may be this might help some one in the future too!
As mentioned before, I had a pretty decent amount of colostrum and my milk came in in less than 48 hours! Currently, I am producing between 50 to 60 oz of milk every day. I pump approximately 6-8 times a day (including middle of the night) (which is less as per the recommended standard)... I would like to pump more frequently, but there just doesn't seem to be enough time... and that scares the crap out of me because I feel like I might not be able to produce more milk as the babies' demand goes up, or my body might think that it does not need to produce so much milk right now (as far as enhancing my supply, I almost started fenugreek tablets to get my body to produce more milk as the babies start drinking more milk - but I felt like the babies had some reflux issues the days following the herb intake... so I stopped - may be it was just a coincidence)! So, the actual "breastmilk" feeding part ends up being Expressed Breast Milk (EBM) (we just supplement with formula 1-2 times a day - to kind of keep them used to it)! I get the babies to latch on to me a couple of times a day... but no where close to the number of times I pump! And that makes me feel very guilty!
The situation is such, that our boy (RM) is very demanding, he needs to feed every 1.5 to 2 hours... he sleeps through feeds, takes for ever to wake up and can be very aggressive! He seems to have more of a reflux issue too (it seems manageable so far - the PED recommended Zantac if things get worse - which I hope not). Where as our girl (RT) is very patient... she feeds every 3 hours approximately. So tandem feeding them gets difficult, plus as mentioned before my left breast produces less milk, so the baby on the left struggles a little more. So, whenever I end up actually BF'ing them... I have to give up on tandem feeding... or the baby is not really full (even after 30 min of feeding) and ends up supplementing on EBM! They are feeding 3+ oz of EBM during every meal right now. Also, if I spend the whole time solely BF'ing, I am afraid I will have no time left to pump and produce the actual volume they both need.
Last Thursday, I was very disappointed that they are probably going to stop BF'ing directly... because they prefer the easy to get bottle nipple. I started questioning myself as to how long I could pump... what would I do after my parents left (and I was on my own with the babies)... what would I do when I start venturing out (carry pump everywhere and keep pumping?)... would my supply increase? Though, I guess one good thing is... at least I can get them the milk they so need (for as long as I possibly can)! And then, my daughter (RT) surprised me. On Friday morning, my sweetie pie decided that she just didn't want the bottle while she was in my arms. She was hungry, but wouldn't take the bottle... she wanted my boobie! It touched my heart! It makes me feel that some day may be both will be more breastfeed than be given EBM!
I have been trying to offer RT my breast as much as I can... and she seems to be demanding it more too. Though, with pumping every couple of hours, I am not always full to provide her with the optimum milk. Though she keeps trying. She loves to snuggle around and stare in to my eyes, it melts my heart away! I just hope I can satisfy her and don't turn her away (with my pumping schedule). I also hope that I can get our boy to the same level (and both - beyond) too!
Oh BB, I just can't imagine nursing two babies! It sounds like you are doing an absolutely amazing job at it. You deserve a medal!! Seriously, way to go! I hope things continue to go well and get even better.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on sticking with it! And great that you're not having the supply issues you feared.
ReplyDeleteI'd urge you to work out these issues with an LC -- find a really great LC, not just anyone. One of my many BF regrets is that I didn't take them to see an LC when they were young enough to fix their latch (well actually we saw half a dozen in the hospital, plus the visiting nurse who came to the house 3 times was an LC and worked on it, but I mean that I wish we'd seen yet another person or more until the problem was fixed). By the time I brought them to the LC who really knew what she was doing at 4 months, it was too late for them ever to properly take the breast. If they can get a proper latch it might even fix the lower supply on the left, since babies are better at simulating production than pumps.
Speaking from my experience of exclusively pumping with twins, there is no way to do it without someone else to take care of them all of the hours you're on the pump. The times when I would try to do both, invariably the babies would both need to eat at different times and I'd have to wait 1-2 hours to pump (or occasionally more when the first baby would wake up to eat yet again and I'd have to start the cycle over, and I would get increasingly frantic. If you can't get them both to take the breast, preferably at the same time, I'm concerned that it won't be tenable to keep pumping once you no longer have help. (Unless you pump while you feed one baby a bottle, which I've done but requires some advance set-up. You do have a hands-free pumping bra, right?) Sorry if I'm being bossy; I just don't want you to miss the window and be unable to turn back from exclusive pumping.
Don't worry, RM will stop being so sleepy before you know it.
Good luck!!
you're doing great! I've heard that bfing is hard so hang in there.
ReplyDelete