The First Year

I am a major advocate of breastfeeding. When I found out I was pregnant with twins, I was determined to breastfeed them just as I did my big boy. Since I have breastfed before, I wasn’t too concerned about making it work. I looked it up online and read about it in the baby books, and everything said it was possible.

I had these warm, fuzzy mental pictures of cuddling my two precious gifts and nursing in an serene, relaxed, possibly-classical-music-in-the-background environment.

Nope. Not even close.

I do NOT wish to deter any mom who is pregnant with twins from choosing to breastfeed. I have met TONS of moms who have nursed twins, anywhere for as long as one year to FOUR years. So I know it can be done. I did it. But it was highly unpleasant for me.

I blame stress and exhaustion.

The girls latched on from the moment they were born. Great! But they cried and cried and cried and cried in the hospital, and the lactation consultant diagnosed that they weren’t getting enough milk. We needed to supplement with a syringe feeder until my milk came in. They also issued me a hospital-grade pump to rent so that I could pump extra milk in between feedings once I got home.

Syringe feeding is awkward and definitely a two-person job. My husband and I had a difficult time with it. I was so glad when my milk came in and I could stop doing the syringe feedings. Actually, getting the hang of tandem feeding was pretty easy once I started using the double nursing pillow I mention here.

We came home from the hospital on a Monday evening. Less than 48 hours later my husband went back to work, leaving me with a fourth grader to get off to school and two newborns to care for. My mom (who also works full-time) came to help take the big boy to school that first day but from then on the four of us (me, boy, twins) walked to and from school. Every day.
In a nutshell, there was little help for us. From day 5 of their lives I was stressed out trying to get everything done.

In an attempt to continue breast feeding I had to nurse them, and once every hour I also had to pump. Pumping was supposed to kind of trick my body into thinking it was needing to make more milk than it was making. When we saw our lactation consultant 2 weeks later, both girls had dropped in weight, about half a pound each. They screamed and cried all day, every day, and the LC told me it was because they were hungry. I was forced to start supplementing with formula after each time nursing.

To boost my milk supply (in addition to pumping) I started taking fenugreek, More Milk Plus, drinking Mother’s Milk tea, and even ordered this overseas prescription stuff called Vomistop. It all helped a little. But basically, my entire day and night was focused on milk production. Oh, and getting a kid ready for school, walking him to and from school (we only had 1 car), making dinner, trying to keep up with laundry, and attempting to take care of my own needs like showering and eating. There were also my son’s youth group one night a week, 4 football practices a week, and games on the weekend. Busy schedule!

When I went back to work I took a new position that I loved, which reduced a lot of stress for me. But working a fast-paced schedule didn’t allow for much time to pump.

It was a humongous hassle for me to breastfeed the twins. It was hard on me emotionally because I couldn’t fill their needs on my own. Even though I had to supplement with formula whenever I didn’t have enough pumped milk to give them, I take comfort in knowing that I did the best I could and the girls received as much breast milk as my body could squeeze out. My goal was to breastfeed for 6 months, but with the new job, work schedule and not being able to pump much, I stopped at 5 months.

I would love to hear comments, please share your thoughts below.

I lucked out with my twin pregnancy. I was mentally prepared for a tough time, but it never happened. I figured that, with twice as much baby, I’d have twice as bad morning sickness. But during my first trimester of being pregnant with twins I only had mild nausea and no throwing up! Unfortunately, the pregnancy symptom I had the most often was, ahem… gas… Sheesh, I’m embarrassed just writing that! I guess that’s a normal pregnancy symptom, but I didn’t have, er, flatulence or whatever you want to call it with my big boy! I’m too much of a lady for that kind of thing. Ladies don’t pass gas.

Another thing I remember is that I caught a cold that never seemed to go away. The days seemed to drag on as my nose was in a never-ending state of stuffiness. I had weird cravings, too. My craving for anything citrus was out of control. I had to have lemon cookies, eat oranges and grapefruits, and I took strawberries topped with Cool Whip to work every day. No joke!.

Overall, the first trimester of my twin pregnancy was pretty mellow. We told our parents that we were expecting, but that’s about it. I wanted to keep the pregnancy a secret for the first 12 weeks just in case of a miscarriage. That turned out to be harder than I thought it would! At lunch in the teacher’s lounge, I recall some of my coworkers giving me “the elevator look” with obvious inquisitive looks on their faces. At 12 weeks I had a pretty good-sized pooch going on, and it was getting harder and harder to hide it. Other than the gut that grew earlier than I was hoping for, it was just your basic pregnancy (gas and all!).

My deepest sympathies go out to the many women who struggled to become pregnant, only to suffer their whole pregnancy with illness and medical complications. Whether it’s a twin pregnancy or a “singleton” pregnancy, there are a lot of rough pregnancy stories out there. I’m truly thankful that being pregnant with the twins wasn’t too hard for me.

While I was pregnant, people often asked if we planned to have our baby twins sleep together in the same crib. I read baby books and online forums and couldn’t see any reason why they should not share a crib. I guess if they can share a uterus then they can also share a bed, right? Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. If you choose to click through to buy,  at no  additional cost to you, the company sends me a few pennies. Your support of this blog is much appreciated.

I have blogged before about how our apartment feels so tiny and cramped with two new babies in it. Having two babies in one bed sure beats trying to find room for a second crib.

We started out putting them to bed with a pacifier and in sleep sacks and swaddling blankets. Our wiggly twins were able to get out of most swaddlers, except the Summer Infant Swaddle Me Wraps. I used to joke that these were like teeny straight jackets for our two squirmy babes! Once they learned to get themselves to sleep we ditched the baby wraps but the pacifiers took a little bit longer to wean from.

The Summer Infant wraps are super snug!

My main concern when putting them in the same crib was that when they started rolling over they would smother each other. But that never happened. When they started flipping and rolling, they would occasionally bump into each other during the night. The girls never seemed to bother each other. Sometimes they will sleep pressed right up against each other, but other times they are on completely separate sides of the crib.

I also worried that they would get so used to having each other nearby that they would be unable to sleep alone. But that wasn’t a problem either. They can easily fall asleep and stay asleep whether they are together or separate. I don’t know if this is true of all twins, but mine did fine as babies. Transitioning them to their toddler beds was another story…

Side note: I read in a forum of a woman who had 18-month-old twins that were helping each other to escape the crib. She was able to keep them in their crib by putting them to bed in a sleep sack. That way they couldn’t throw their leg over the side of the crib. This is definitely something to be aware of as they grow older!

For my family, putting our twins to sleep in the same crib worked very well because we could keep them in our bedroom. In this post I explain the American Academy of Pediatrics recommendation for cobedding twins and what you should consider before deciding to put your twins to sleep in the same crib.  Be sure and check it out, there are some great resources in that post!