Friday, July 8, 2011

How to Tandem Breastfeed Twins

Breastfeeding isn't easy to begin with and when you're breastfeeding twins, it's exponentially harder. Thankfully for me, I was a seasoned pro by the time my twins came. After breastfeeding my first born for 12 months, the act didn't scare me I just had to work on the logistics for my girls.

My girls spent 10 days in the NICU so I didn't have to breastfeed in the hospital. But once they came home, we ditched the bottle. Armed with my EZ-2-Nurse Twins pillow, I felt at ease. The problem was, how do I get them on? On my king sized bed, I placed my little girls in between my outstretched legs. I then took my EZ-2-Nurse pillow and buckled it around me. After tightening it, I reached for one baby and placed her gently down in position. But as I reached for my other baby, the first baby started sliding down. Afterall, the middle part of the pillow was above my legs but the edges hung down. They were small at that time so I just clumped down my arm on my first baby and reached for the other quickly. When they were in place, I scooped up their heads with each of my hand and latched the on. Success! For a week or 2 I only breastfed in my big bed. But I couldn't keep doing it since my bedroom at the time was in the second floor. So I had to try the sofa.

The sofa set-up started with placing my babies in their bouncy cradle very close on either side of my legs (I learned this to make the dismount easier). I then placed them on the ends of the sofa on either side of me one at a time. I buckled my nursing pillow and reached for them. Again the first one started slipping down as I reached for the second (I learned to use the sofa pillows and placed one on either side of me under the nursing pillow to make it level). For the dismount, I had to reach for the bouncy sit to put first baby down and then the second. TA-DA!

I am proud to say that I breastfed my twins for 14 months.

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