Tag: breastfeeding

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Everything Else

Best Diet Ever

For the past five months, I’ve been on the best, most effective diet of my whole life. Breastfeeding two babies.

I’d heard nursing multiples I’d burn about a thousand extra calories a day. Take a second to let that sink in, 1000.

So the multi momma nursing books recommend you compensate for that by eating 1000 fatty extra calories. That’s 100 more than when I was eating for triplets & 400 more than my calorie goal when I was pregnant with Zach & Lucy.

Somedays I’m better at eating than others. And the days I’m too busy at work to have second breakfast or weekend mornings I nurse before I drink or eat anything, I pay for it with hunger pains & nausea worse than when I was in the first trimester. My body is working hard & I’m trying my best to keep up.

I’ve learned to carry a big jug of water with me at all times. And I keep snacks now in my drawers at work. I pack a lot of food for my workday & still sometimes take advantage of our cafeteria.

But yall, even eating as much as I do, with a scoop of gelato on top, I’ve still lost close to 60 pounds since May 21.

taken in NICU bathroom May 26th.
Monday morning in office bathroom

It’s crazy. And while breastfeeding multiples & pumping at work is tough {& probably needs its own post later}, it’s so worth it. Hello! I’m wearing my skinny girl khakis & have set aside my fat kid pants for the first time in years!!

{I swear I’m not trying to be braggy, annoying or knock-you-down-pro-breastfeeding, I’m just shocked at the weight loss & wanted to share.}

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Babies Photography

My Newborn Twin Must Haves

When I was pregnant, I searched for others’ favorite items for their babies. I found a lot of posts for singletons but not as many posts & lists for multiples. So in order for me to remember {baby brain & sleep deprivation} & to help other multi mommas, here’s my must have list for the first three months.

{I linked to Amazon because they have it all, but check prices at other places. None of these links or items are affliated nor sponsored.}

Breastfeeding

The my brestfriend twin pillow. Have it in the car so you can learn to feed them on it in the hospital. I was tandem feeding the babes on the mybrestfriend pillow when they were just 5 days old. And 4r months later, I still have it strapped to me for hours every day.

Medela Symphony for at home & establishing supply. Medela Freestyle for travel & portability if you go back to work. You can read my Symphony vs Freestyle review.

Hands-free Pumping Bra. You have 2+ babies. You can never have enough hands. These bras {get more than 1} allow me to tweet, blog, FB chat, & read while pumping.

Nipple Shields. I know a lot of LCs & others in the breastfeeding world frown on these, but my babies were little & born too early to know how to latch/suck/swallow/breath at the same time. These helped them immensely to breastfeed. I was told on their due date to try to start “weaning” them off the shields. I’d remove the shield halfway through a feeding when they took a break, but if they seemed unhappy with that, I’d put it back on. Feeding babies over feeding babies without shield. Right at 3 months, Lucy started taking all feedings without the shield. A couple weeks later, Zach started nursing better without it as well. Get these from the hospital so you don’t have to buy them.

Burp Cloths aka old school flat cloth diapers. We got a ton as gifts & blow through them all. The nipple shields are great {see above}, but they leak~ out the bottom, out of the baby’s mouth. & I think mine are messy eaters, so I’d put a cloth under them to protect the my brestfriend pillow cover.

Sleeping

Fisher Price Rock-n-Play sleepers. Mine slept exclusively in these for most of the first 3 months.

Wubbanubs. With multiples, pacifiers get lost, misplaced, mixed up easily. But it’s easy to find & remember that Zach has the tiger & Lucy the lamb. Zach is a huge fan & will hug tiger to sleep. Lucy likes the Wubba more than any paci but can go without.

Swaddle blankets. We liked the aden + anais ones & these other ones given to us but purchased from Home Goods. We used them all the time when they were in the Rock-n-plays.

SwaddleMe. Now they’re in the crib to sleep, we wrap them in the swaddleme nightly. They’ve always liked their hands out, so we swaddled from chest down. Lucy is almost too big for them & it makes me sad!

Clothing

I like gowns the best for night~ just pull them up from the bottom for changes. My husband didn’t like that gowns meant socks & that they could kick out.

My husband prefers snapped sleepers {zippered ones bumped up & would touch espeically Zach’s chin making him think it was time to eat aka not sleep}.

Diapering

I can’t say enough about cloth. I have a few reviews coming up on my favorite types for them as newborns & now that we’re in daycare. But safe to say that we’ve saved a ton of money by going with cloth. Zach also hasn’t gotten the blisters again after we’ve switched him from pampers to cloth. Neither have had any diaper rashes either.

Wetbags. We have pail liner in the nursery, hanging bag in den & two portable bags for daycare. Love them all.

Leaving the Nest

Carriers. We have two Ergo carriers & a Moby wrap. To be perfectly honest, we didn’t get out much at first. It was either raining or 100 degrees outside for June & July. And with tiny babies, we stayed home just trying to get through the day. But once I began venturing out {I started with taking one baby at a time & had a helper with me}, these were great.

The Moby was the first carrier I tried. I think it says 8 lbs plus, but I had Lucy in it sooner or about that around the house. Wearing Lucy in the Moby was sweaty for us both in August, but now that September & cooler weather has hit, it’s easy to wrap at home, put either L or Z the car seat & place them in the wrap without help at the store. No one but me has used the Moby.

The Ergo is more friendly to Dads & grandparents to use. My mom wore it vacuuming while Lucy slept early on. I did not buy the infant insert. It was on my purchase list that got discarded in the hospital. Instead, I’d wrap them almost swaddle them in the blanket in the carrier. Between three & four months, they started fitting well without anything. We wear them in it to the store, on walks to the mailbox & around the house so I can make lunch!

Snap-n-go Double Stroller. Make sure your car seats will fit with it. Our Britax B-safes don’t. But we have Graco seats that we don’t use in the car that fit in the snap-n-go. So the few walks we’ve taken are in that & it’s really convenient.

I’m sure there’s more but that’s what comes to mind first. Feel free to comment or email me if you have questions about anything above. I’ll try to do another similar post in a few months of our next stage must haves {what do you think I need?}.

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Babies Pregnancy

Medela Symphony vs Freestyle

I’ve been holding off writing this post until I’d used both pumps for a while. I purchased my Freestyle at the end of July. I began using it exclusively a couple weeks ago.

After speaking with other moms of multiples who had successfully & unsuccessfully breastfed, I decided to rent the Symphony for three months {at the cost of $180 by the way}. I spoke with a couple LCs before I delivered, & they too strongly recommended that pump to establish milk supply for NICU babies. I’ll never know otherwise, but I feel that the Symphony, & my consistent contact with it, helped get my supply in order for feeding two.

Five day old baby Zach in Jason’s arms with the-thankfully–ever-present-in-NICU Symphony in the background.

The Symphony is big & heavy. The hospital had it on it’s own rolly cart which worked well to move it around the NICU {seen above}. It’s quiet though for the size – the motor barely hums & there’s pretty much no vibration. The sucking timing with the Symphony seemed in line with what my babies do.

The parts used on the Symphony are the exact same ones as all the other Medela pumps, except for the tubing. I was fortunate that the NICU LC gave me parts & my hospital room nurse did too. Be sure to ask for parts in the hospital – it’ll save you $50. It was nice too that I then had back up parts, so we didn’t have to wash constantly. I do go by the rule of thumb that it’s okay to place the pump parts in the fridge during the day or night & just wash them every 12 hours or so.

I started out pumping every 3 hours around the clock with the Symphony for 15 minutes at a time. The NICU LC told me it was okay to go a 4 hour stretch at night, so I could sleep a little more {this was before they were home}. Once the babies were breastfeeding, I jumped my pumping scheduled onto their NICU feeding schedule. I’d feed them every 4 hours then pump afterwards. My output was typically about an oz on each side after feeding both. If I pumped without feeding them, I would typically pump 5 oz on the right & 6 or more oz on the left.

Now let’s chat about the Freestyle. It’s the most expensive of the portable Medela pumps {was $299 at Target}. I did my research again though & felt like for my life~ work schedule, travel plans, two babies~ the Freestyle would be better than the more well known Pump in Styles.

For one, the entire pump fits in my palm & is fairly light weight. It’s a double pump, but the tubing is made so that you can change the connection and pump one at a time if needed. It can clip onto your pants aka you’re not tied to a big heavy pump. I would be unable to cart the Symphony back & forth with me to work while carrying the Freestyle up from the parking lot, up & down flights of stairs & holding it while pumping is a breeze.

The Freestyle has a rechargeable battery which makes the pump portable. This has been great for over-night pumping. I can pump in the nursery while putting the paci back in Zach’s mouth. Or pump in the kitchen under the light when the rest of the house is sleeping in the dark. Or like this morning, pump in the kitchen before work while eating cereal & packing up bottles for daycare.

The Freestyle is fairly loud in a white noise kind of way. The pumping motor is pretty noticeable. The sucking seems to be a little longer & slower than my two do.

The Freestyle requires it’s own pump parts. The tubing is different, the connectors are very different & comprised of 3 parts {you can buy extras of them though & I did}. You can use the flanges from other Medela models even though the Freestyle comes with different {softer plastic} flanges.

And you’re wondering about my output… That’s the main thing, right? I was worried too. So much so that my husband offered for us to continue to pay for us to rent the Symphony. But I’ve been happy to say that I don’t see much of a difference there. Now that I’m back to work, the day pumping has been on the lower end of my normal ~ about 3-4 oz on the right & 6 oz on the left. Overnight, I get the same as I had with the Symphony.

But the time it takes to produce the same amount is longer. Instead of 15 minute sessions with the last 3-5 minutes being empty pumping, I now pump mostly between 18-22 minutes before I get empty pumping. That’s the biggest difference I’ve noticed.

I think the Symphony did great to get my supply established, but that’s not to say that the Freestyle couldn’t have done that. I don’t know since that’s not my experience. But I will say that I’ve been happy with my decisions & have no real complaints so far with my switch.

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Babies

Some days

Some days are good. Filled with snuggling, napping {us & the babies}, wonderful breastfeeding-good latches, good tandem, good pumping, waking up happy & going down easily. Yesterday was mostly one of those days.

Today has been different & more difficult. Looking back over last few months of posts, I feel I’m spewing sunshine. And some moments, minutes, hours, days are. Right now Lucy is happy in a bouncy seat & Zach is passed out in my arms.

Thirty minutes ago, no more like an hour plus because it took a while, Zach woke up screaming. Screamed through diaper changing & continued til he was nursing well. And no more than two minutes later, Lucy woke up from a good lil snooze starving. We tried placating her with the lamb wubbanub & hugs from aunt Sue but that didn’t last long.

Zach has realized that he prefers to nurse alone, cross cradle style. But that’d not always possible – welcome to the twin world of sharing & compromise brother. I switched him to tandem, added her on & cue screaming on both sides of me. Lucy was more interested suddenly in the lights from golf on TV & Zach & his reflux & tummy had decided this wasn’t what he wanted. Aunt Sue tried burping Z & I did what were calling the bait & switch {paci in his mouth pulled out quick & boob shoved in}. Those worked briefly.

I finally gave up on Z eating more this feeding. I gave him snuggles, his beloved orange hospital paci & Sue got him in a clean diaper. I was able then to capture Lucy’s attention long enough to switch her cross cradle & top her off.

By then, we were all frustrated, exhausted & maybe still a little hungry. But hugs all around were given, the babies calmed down & I gave myself grace knowing {hoping} that the next feeding would be better. I’m not willing to give up on fighting through the rough breastfeeding moments. The good breastfeeding moments make it worth while. And for now, the good ‘some days’ are out weighing the rough.

Whew! If you got through reading that, good for you.

Categories
Babies Family/Travel

Feeding the Babes {part two}

I’ve been on demand feeding the babies since they arrived home a couple of weeks ago. We try to keep them on the same schedule {it makes nights so much easier}, but that doesn’t always work.

They tend to sleep in between feedings, so whoever wakes up first gets put on the boob first. We change their diapers & get them otherwise naked to eat; they stay awake & eat more effectively that way. Plus both drool & make a mess so we go through less clothes if they eat undressed. I will typically start whoever woke first in the cradle hold, on the opposite breast they last ate from. When the other baby is awake & changed {by husband or family helper}, I’ll switch first eater to football hold & put the other on. Only exception to this is if Zach is eating well, he’s small enough to leave in cradle hold & just put Lucy on football.

Lucy & Zach don’t mind being repositioned mid-feed. They also don’t have left/right boob preference {thank goodness}. But like all the multiples books I read said, they are two different people {duh} & thus totally different feeding styles, preferences & issues. As of right now, Lucy is easier to feed. Just put the boob in her vicinity & she’s pretty good. She might need a little encouragement to keep eating & stay awake after a few minutes but rubbing her head or shoulder will do the trick. I cut them off after 30-40 mins, especially L. Zach {who’s still much littler}, has a harder time sometimes. Both still are using the nipple shields, but Zach flails his arms at first {he’s usually been crying &/or excited} so he frequently knocks off the shield. Knocking it off just makes him more upset, poor buddy. But once he’s latched, he’s pretty good.

I’ve been told, by NICU, pediatrician, LCs & books, that they’ll get to be more effective & efficient eaters by their due date {July 1}. I’m looking forward to seeing what that means. Hopefully less time on the breasts & that we’ll be able to lose the shields soon.