middle of the night logistics

[chiwifey]

Hey ladies! The post about bfing/pumping for twins got me thinking about logistics for the middle of the night, especially when first coming from the hospital. 

I'm curious about the following:

1. Did you pump after bfing to keep up with supply?

2. What role did your DH play in feeding, diaper changing, getting babies back to sleep?

3. Did you have additional help (parents, night nurse, other family members) stay overnight to help?

4. Did you do "one up, both up" in the very beginning or when did you start that if you did?

5. In general what was your routine in the middle of the night?

I'm sorry if these have been covered and I have missed it or forgotten. We just moved into a new house and my brain is fried from the move and now I'm starting to seriously stress the logistics of twins with a toddler. 

Thanks a bunch!

[ashb62]

I nursed my twins one at a time, but we did one up, both up, just staggered. When the first baby woke up, DH would change him and bring to me to nurse, then as we were finishing up, he would wake and change the other baby. He would get baby one back to sleep, and I would nurse baby two and put him back down. We got a pretty good routine going and could have both babies fed and back to sleep in 45 minutes or less.

On the rare occasion that they were both up at the same time, I would tandem nurse or DH would rock one baby while I fed the other.

My mom helped me some during the day for the first two weeks, but I never had outside help at night.

I pumped occasionally during the day after nursing, but I never pumped overnight. I didn't have any supply issues, though, and I'm a SAHM. I really just pumped to have a small freezer stash for date nights, girl's nights, etc.

[wamom]

1. I try to pump once a day. But I have never had a supply issue in the past but I want to start a freezer stash for going back to work. Or if it becomes harder to keep up nursing growing twins. So far at almost 3w pp we are doing good.

2. I encourage DH to sleep as much as possible since he is still working. But if he happens to be awake during anything he always offers to change and swaddle whoever.

3. No help. These babies are so much easier than my dd that it is really nbd.

4. If they are both up a change and swaddle both and tandem feed. If one wakes up I see if the other is stirring. If they are stirring I wake if they are in a dead sleep I let them sleep.

5. Diaper change, swaddle, nurse put back down (roughly 15-30 min) babies go to bed by 8:30ish are up around midnight then again around 5am. Easy peasy.

[carrotcake]

We did OUBU and I tandem fed almost exclusively, day and night. For night, H would get up and change both babies while I would get set up (I preferred to nurse in bed). He would bring them to me and I would nurse them. I'd wake him up when I was finished and he'd help me get them both back to their room.

I didn't pump after MOTN feedings. I work FT, so I pumped 3x a day while at work and generally only 1x (usually in the morning after first feed) additionally for a stash. I was able to keep up with them - we didn't have to supplement with formula as they got older. I BFed until they self-weaned at 14mo. I would've gone longer but they weren't having it.

We didn't have any help overnight. While I was on mat leave, my sister would come over for a few hours to hold a baby but that was pretty much it.

[Deleted]

I was unable to nurse (they wouldn't latch) and I would pump whenever I could. I had almost no milk supply though and stopped after 8 weeks.

DH always got up with me. I would usually diaper the babies while he would get bottles set. He would take one of the girls and I would take the other to feed. We had the girls in their own room/own cribs from Day One (it was better for all of us). Most of the time, the girls would drift off while eating but wake when we moved them to put them back in their cribs, but they usually went right back to sleep once we left the room (video monitor, FTW!).

We had no help, for the most part. Our parents would come up when they could and take the night shift for us so that we could get the occasional night's sleep, but I refused to hire a night nurse because I didn't trust any strangers with my kids. Not to mention that the idea of having a stranger in my house while I was sleeping majorly creeped me out.

We did "one up, both up" from the night they were born. It got them on to a shared schedule - it was a sleep and sanity saver.

Routine - DH would go to the kitchen and prep the bottles. I would be on diaper duty. DH typically fed Ashley, I typically fed Kayla because (for some reason) she always ate better for me. We'd burp them after the bottle then get them swaddled again (until they broke themselves out of the swaddle habit around 8 weeks old, then we used sleep sacks). The girls would typically still be awake when we'd put them back to bed, but they would usually get back to sleep really fast. DH and I would climb back into bed and try to get as much sleep as we could before the next feeding after washing the bottles out. (After a while, we stopped making the bottles fresh at every feeding and would prep a few just before bed to cut down on the bleary-eyed work.)

[anotherdreamer]

1. No, I never did. I just nursed on demand, no matter how often that meant, until supply was established.

2. DH got up at every feeding to help me set them up and change diapers while he was on vacation (he took all his vacation when they got here- 3 weeks). He still helps me when he's home, and the rare MOTN. His help and support have been invaluable. He also spent a lot of time focusing on our toddler while I was laid up nursing/napping/recovering with the twins.

3. No, just DH and myself.

4. Yes, we did. After DD2 started STTN we stopped doing it as consistently since we knew she would be fine, and just took care of DD1.

5. We would get up and I would tandem nurse them. They rarely had wet diapers so we would do a quick feel, and just leave them until morning.

[richzep]

Thank you for asking these questions. It actually made me feel much more at ease reading these answers.

[babys2015]

Our guys are just over 5 weeks old and this is what works for us. We alternate babies every night and I nurse and change one, while DH bottle feeds the other my pumped bum and changes the other. They are not always up at the same time and DH works from home so this arrangement works for us. I pump once a day to get what I need for the overnight feed, usually 12 oz. our guys are up every 3 hours.

[chiwifey]

Thank you all so much! A night nurse isn't really in our budget so it would be family members. It makes me feel better knowing DH and I can handle things the first 2 weeks while he's home with me.
richzep it's helping me feel better as well. I was having such a tough time wrapping my head around night time with 2 newborns. This seems doable with just DH and me.

[anakah]

1. I EP'd and supplemented formula because my supply never got to where it needed to be and only one baby would latch. I would pump after the babies were fed.

2. The first two weeks while DH was home, we would both get up and feed a baby when one woke. Once DH went back to work, I'd feed them one at a time starting with whoever woke up first. If they were both crying at the same time then DH would help since he wasn't able to sleep anyways. After my maternity leave, I couldn't sustain feeding them, pumping afterwards, and getting enough sleep to function at work the next day so DH took over the night feedings while I pumped.

3. We had my sister stay with us the first two weeks but after that it was just DH and I.

4. We did one up both up since day 1. DD was a sleeper and would easily go 5 hours without a feeding so we fed her whenever her brother was hungry (every 3 hours like clockwork).

5. See #2.

I think once you get a system/routine down, it's really quite maneagable.

[samantha24]

1. Did you pump after bfing to keep up with supply?
I did in the beginning but I don't care for pumping. I EBF my twin boys who are now 4 months old. The body responds to supply and demand, the more they demand the more the body supplies. At least that has worked well for us.

2. What role did your DH play in feeding, diaper changing, getting babies back to sleep?
In the beginning DH was up with me each feeding he would help change one and help set us up and then help put them back down. Then I let him sleep through the night once to be nice and now he doesn't get up to help anymore...

3. Did you have additional help (parents, night nurse, other family members) stay overnight to help?
The first week we had DH's cousins wife(who is a nurse) stay with us and she took care of them at night just waking me up to feed them and she put them back down and changed them. And the night before she left she took the whole night shift and I just pumped every three hours.

4. Did you do "one up, both up" in the very beginning or when did you start that if you did?
In the beginning I was feeding one at a time so it was staggered now I do one up both up, I don't want to risk letting one sleep just to wake up 20 minutes later and have to go through the whole process again. And now I am tandem nursing(started to at 1 month) so it just makes sense to do one up both up.

5. In general what was your routine in the middle of the night?
I change each baby, carry them to bed, set them up on nursing pillow, feed them, carry back to crib, swaddle each of them, rock one. One baby is very good at self soothing so I can swaddle and let him fall asleep, sometimes he needs his pacifier instead of his thumb. His brother has to be rocked every time or he will cry. Sometimes my good self soother needs to rocked too. Average it takes 30-60 minutes, it depends on how long it takes to get them back to sleep. Changing and feeding only takes about 20.

[mrsp419]

1. Did you pump after bfing to keep up with supply? I only pumped in the very beginning (like in the first week or two) as we got adjusted to latching, and so I could give the babies a bit of a supplement via dropper. As soon as the ped was confident in their weight gain (by about two weeks), I stopped. I SAH so I don't need a work stash, and I really hate pumping.

2. What role did your DH play in feeding, diaper changing, getting babies back to sleep? I am trying to remember. I feel like he did not wake up every time because I did not necessarily need him to. I think he helped me get the babies on and latched in the very early days (while I was recovering from my C-section especially), and would give them their droppers after. I don't think I changed them every feeding unless they were in the hospital. I had them next to me in a pack and play, so as soon as I could easily roll over, grab them, and feed them myself, I let DH sleep.

3. Did you have additional help (parents, night nurse, other family members) stay overnight to help? The first night that I was home from the hospital my mom stayed with us in case we needed help getting the routine down.

4. Did you do "one up, both up" in the very beginning or when did you start that if you did? Yes. It was an absolute life saver for me. I did not necessarily tandem feed every time right off the bat, but by a week or two I was doing OUBU and tandem feeding.

5. In general what was your routine in the middle of the night? My brain is really not going back that far! I am actually kind of bummed that I don't remember. I feel like it was not very complicated, though. The babies were in DH's and my room until they were about 5 months old (first in a PNP together, then in separate rock and plays). I did OUBU (though I tried to "hit the snooze" button with the pacifiers). They were swaddled, given pacis, and slept together until they were about 3 months old. I tried to tandem feed them as much as possible. Once they were nursing well, and my boobs needed a break to heal some blisters, we would implement one formula bottle as a middle of the night feeding, which DH and I would alternate giving so I could get a 5-6 hour stretch to let my nips heal. Now, they generally go from 7-6/6:30 without eating.

[FCtwinmom]

So my experience is a little different. Both of my babies where in the NICU for 5 weeks.

1. Only my DD ever really got the hang of breastfeeding so I would pump for my DS after feeding her. Eventually I just switched to EPing for both of them. We are still going with that at 5 months. As far as supply when they were in the NICU I was religious about pumping every 3 hours on the same schedule that they were eating on to establish my supply.

2. Since I have mostly pumped and DS has alway bottle fed my DH has pretty much always gotten up to help. I also went back to work before him because he works for a family business and has a llittle more flexibility.

3. No additional help just us.

4. We always did one up both up.

5. We fed them every 3 hours until they both naturally lengthened throughout the night. We still do every 3 during the day but they generally go longer at night.