I came across an entire website recently that is devoted to breastfeeding twins.. and it has a spot where women share sort of their personal journey of breastfeeding almost the same way that one would share a birth story.
I figured it's worth writing about because this is actually one of the first things everyone asks me when they find out I have twins! And they seem rather shocked when I reply that yes I'm breastfeeding them exclusively. Honestly even my pediatrician and lactation consultant seem a little shocked that both girls are so gigantic and have never even been supplemented on formula!
This is not due exclusively to some heroic effort on my part, though I can't say it's been a walk in the park..
The truth is that I almost feel like I was born to breastfeed twins because I have/had a pretty massive oversupply. The force of my let-down used to blow poor Jackson away! I had to block feed him (meaning one breast per feeding only) to keep it down but it still was pretty out of control. The twins struggle with my let down as well, especially poor Evelyn because like Jackson she has Laryngomalacia which causes her to choke often when feeding. The fire-hose effect of the let down just makes that even more likely to happen!
But, when breastfeeding twins (particularly not in tandem -more on that later) an oversupply is a blessing, not only because it means I have plenty of milk for both babies but because with the massive amount of milk that they transfer during my let down, then only need to be on the breast for about 5-10 minutes each. That's not to say they don't linger longer when they feel like it, but I'd say they average about 10 minutes each. Thank GOD. Otherwise I would literally feel like they were attached to my boobs 24/7!
The last time my Lactation consultant came for a home visit we weighed Trini before and after a feeding but we unlatched her about 5 minutes in (or maybe she choked and came off, I can't remember!) and just for fun measured her after. She had taken in 5 ounces in that 5 minutes! And like I said they both nurse longer than 5 minutes so I really think they are taking in at LEAST 6 ounces in a complete feeding, which is a lot.. and probably explains why they are gigantic chunk-a-lunks!
So that's the good part. The bad part is that we have/have had some latching issues which are challenging.
For one thing, Trini has an incredible pinchy latch and her suck is SUPER STRONG. So what happened in the hospital was that we started out tandem feeding and thanks to Trini my nipples were getting sorer and sorer..culminating to the day at home a week or two later when I called a L.C. to the house out of desperation, crying because they were so sore and I couldn't take it anymore!
She wisely advised me to give myself permission to NOT tandem feed them. This allowed me to much more effectively control Trini's latch and even unlatch and re-latch her if necessary – this is really challenging to do when you don't have any hands free like you don't when you tandem feed newborns! Also because Evelyn chokes and comes off sometimes it's much better to have free hands to take her off the breast and hold her upright while she starts breathing normally again. I do hope that someday when they can essentially latch themselves we will be able to tandem feed, but for now sequential feeding is working OK for us. Besides, I rather like the one on one time with each baby which can be all too scarce when caring for twins!
To address Trini's painful latch, I went to the same craniosacral therapist who had worked on Jackson to try to get Trini to loosen up her vice-like grip on my nipples. The other problem we had was that she wouldn't open her mouth at the breast! It was sooo frustrating. I would try everything: tickling her nose with my nipple, tickling her lips, expressing some milk onto her lips.. her response was either pursed lips or she would "lap" the milk up off her lips like a little kitten! In those moments I would put her down on the bed and wait for her to cry and then basically force my breast into her mouth at which point she would start sucking incredibly vigorously but tightly and too shallow and destroy my nipple.
In craniosacral she worked on loosening Trini's latch and she also helped me position Trini and showed me how to wait for her to open her mouth on her own which she did once I started positioning her better. It was completely pain free during my visits with her! I am unable to recreate that completely pain free nursing like we had in those sessions probably because I'm not latching 100% correctly but also because Trini's latch regresses to pinchy when she uses the pacifier (which requires a tight pinchy latch to keep it in her mouth!).. it undoes a lot of the good loosening work that the cranial sacral achieves. But hey, not using a pacifier with twins is not really an option – not unless I want exponentially more fussing and screaming!
So things really improved 3 weeks ago at our second visit to the Craniosacral practitioner. But a week or so later a new problem emerged which is that both girls (but Trini much more than Evelyn) are "clicking" excessively at the breast. This clicking is actually them losing suction which means air is getting sucked in to the belly.. which means gas. Also, with Trini this means that even if I latch her deeply, during my let down she starts clicking and losing the latch and getting shallower with each click which traumatizes my nipple slightly. I'm debating what avenues I can pursue (if any) to try and address the clicking or just hope they grow out of it soon.
That's my breastfeeding story so far – just in case anyone was interested ;)