Help! Breastfeeding 6 week old twins and not getting any milk when expressing
Hi everyone,
I would really like your help and advice. I am currently EBF my almost 6 week old twins. I haven't used forumla since the first week in hospital, the second week was still expressing and bottle feeding EBM, and getting pretty good amounts at each expression session ie around 100-130mls per breast. I slowly added an additional breast feed a day and dropped a EBM bottle feed a day, and have been just breast feeding for about 3 weeks now. However, as the girls are going through a growth spurt, they are now wanting to cluster feed pretty much from 4pm to 7pm, on and off the breast the whole time. And as I am tandem feeding, it is like my breasts get really empty half way through and they are getting frustrated and crying. I am perservering, however have been topping up just before 7pm bed time with about 30-50ml of stored breastmilk. So I don't fall behind, I then express about an hour later. I haven't really don a full express in almost two weeks, and now I can't get much more than about 40mls each side.
Why is this happening? Is it that the machine has lost its effectiveness? Or my breasts aren't producing as much? Or the girls can still get good volume but the pump can't? I really want to continue but am worried about my milk suppy. I also want to be able to get a decent about of EBM in case I am away from them and someone else can bottle feed them.
Hun, congratulations on your little girls! You are right, they are a lot more efficient at getting milk than your pump is. As long as they are doing poos and having plenty of wet nappies then your supply is more than likely fine.
As for getting a stash of EBM, I have no idea how I'd do it if I had twins I had enough trouble working out when to express for only one bub! I take my hat off to you! But FWIW, when I needed a stash for DD1, I used to express about an hour after she had settled for the night and add to the stash until I had enough. I have avoided expressing for DD2 because she is so hard to settle for the night and after DD1 I hate expressing LOL
The most likely option is just that the bubs are drinking all you've got right now. Keep feeding them and you will catch up. And if you keep expressing at the same time each day then you will also make enough to feed the pump too.
It is also very likely that they will sometimes be unhappy and wanting to suck even if they aren't hungry. Try a walk outside or some music or a bath and see if that helps.
You are doing a terrific job!
hugs
Kate
Can I recommend you call the ABA helpline on 1800 mum 2 mum to get some one-on-one advice with an experienced counsellor over the phone? You've done so well.
kmn - i had a giggle at your 'feeding the pump to' comment
bd - both my kiddies cluster feed every night for weeks, by the time they went to sleep i would be running on bare minimum, so its probably why you cant express much. towards the end of the cluster feed is when they get very irritable, its not your supply i doubt, its just an overworked, tired baby. feeding for such a long period is exhausting for small babies and i imagine it gets them a little overstimulated and overtired and they start having difficulty shutting off. i have found as soon as the fussing starts, i would push it only a little bit longer to get a real good feed in and then swap to a dummy and work on getting them to sleep.
your supply will increase quite rapidly when they choose to go through growth spurts but the feeling of being empty in general and not having the engored feeling is something that will slowly happen over time as your supply levels out to the demand, dont worry its not a lack of supply, please dont ever feel like you supply has issues, as long as you are not messing around with formula and stuff it should be okay. this supply levelling will also make it harder to express.
as kmn said, you will be feeding the pump to, so the more often you express the more they will think you are feeding, its just a matter of timing, obviously you cant express the other side while feeding on the other, so apart from when they are cluster feeding, wait probably half an hour after the feed to make sure they dont want anymore and finish expressing as much of what you have left as possible. if you do this each and every feed your supply will naturally increase
good luck and well done so far, you are a champ for bf twins
Thanks so much for your responses. I have been persevering with BF, the afternoons have been the hardest, it has pretty much been 1 week of BF between 4pm and 7pm, and I have been topping up with a bit of EBM so they settle at 7pm for bed. I think today we have turned a corner, they didn't seem quite so fussy and no top up tonight, so hopefully my milk supply is now meeting their demand.
I have also taken your advice and started expressing twice per day at the same time, and have slowly seen my output go from 70mls to 140mls, will keep going and hopefully improve on this.
Studymum, thanks for mentioning re overtired babies, this makes sense.
What you can do to boost your supply is get some aktivite from the supermarket and you can try some lactation cookies - the recipes for those are on here as well and getting some ferungeek etc. Have a look in the BF forum, i'm sure there is a thread in there with loads of tips for boosting supply. Oh and make sure you drinks loads of water! Those little girls are really taking it out of you atm and drinking water helps a lot.
Help! Breastfeeding 6 week old twins and not getting any milk when expressing
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I had enough trouble working out when to express for only one bub! I take my hat off to you! But FWIW, when I needed a stash for DD1, I used to express about an hour after she had settled for the night and add to the stash until I had enough. I have avoided expressing for DD2 because she is so hard to settle for the night and after DD1 I hate expressing LOL
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