<< A friend/client is currently breastfeeding her 6 week old twin daughters. Breastfeeding is going very well - the babies have each gained over 3 lbs from their lowest weight, and are breastfeeding exclusively since birth. Both babies do use a pacifier some, as both have a strong need for non-nutritive sucking and their mother feels the need for a break
occasionally. These children are her first (and probably last.) >>
Wow, good for this MOT! What a terrific job she's doing. Lots more MOT use pacifiers some -- it's two against one; sometimes compromises are about survival. Maternal survival is ultimately in twins' best interests!
<< Her issue is that she will need to return to work full time in about 6
weeks. Full time for her is 3 12 hour shifts as a labor and delivery nurse
a week. She is wondering how to go about building up a supply of expressed
milk. She has tried the tricks I use with moms of singletons (pumping
before bed, pumping after first feed in the morning, pumping one side while
baby nurses on the other) but so far gets very little with a pump. She is
using a PIS now, will have access to a Symphony at work. >>
Could the pump flanges be too small? If it's a new PIS, she should be able to "trade out" for 27 or 30mm flanges; can make a huge difference in volume obtained. Most MOT I know find pumping before bed doesn't yield much, unless evening cluster feeding is not an issue. (Lots of twins seem to cluster BF in the evening.) I'd suggest pumping twice in the AM -- about an hour after babies BF (but at least an hour before they're likely to BF again.) Once she gets going, she may actually have to beware of "overdoing" the pumping. I've seen MOT (and moms of singletons) get into troublesome overproduction situations.
<< One of the babies has had an ounce of breastmilk in a bottle, the other hasn't had a bottle yet, but she'd like to introduce one soon as the babies are now 6 weeks old. >>
I went back to L&D 2 nights with my first two. The second never had a bottle until I'd returned to work, but he didn't have a problem with it. I think babies' responses vary a lot. Introducing a bottle as soon as the newborn period ends does not guarantee that there will be no issues with it as baby matures and waiting does not mean a baby won't take it, although either can lead to the opposite result too.
<< Any tips for moms of twins on building a freezer stash? And is now the time to start, at six weeks of age? >>
How much of a stash will she really need if pumping at work for the next night's stash? She only needs to get a little ahead since she'll be directly BF most of the time.
BTW, there are several MOT/MOM on APMultiples who pumped and continued to BF after their RTW. Bet they'd have some helpful ideas for her. If she'd like to join, tell her to go to: //groups.yahoo.com She'll have to subscribe with a user name and password (free). Once in she can write in APMultiples (as one word) where it says "find a group." It's a very supportive, international group of moms with twins, triplets, etc.
Karen
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