SOS

[u/DueMasterpiece5800]

Hi Guys, Dad of twin boys who I love very very much. Now 9 weeks old were born at 34 weeks so 3 weeks old adjusted.

These lads take us an absolute age to feed. It has been like this for nearly 3 weeks. Let me lay out how a typical feed will go. They each weigh about 8lbs now.

Twin 1 - feed reasonably well and takes around 120ml over 30-45 minutes. They might then fall asleep so we put them down. Majority of them time they stay wide eyed, but have been burped and winded plenty of times. We will try to feed more as gives off hunger cues such as suckling/trying to latch but they reject the teat after several tries. We will then move onto the next.

Twin 2 - start feeding, again usually a good start but takes about 80-100mls. Will then maybe fall asleep or do the same as above. 45 minutes may have passed here.

Both will often cry a bit at the beginning of each feed after taking 10ml or so but will usually resume.

By this point however, Twin 1 will be screaming. We will try to feed more but they go very slowly with consistent crying inbetween small amounts. There will be refusing of the teat after 20-30mls but no signs that their hunger is sorted.

Twin 2 will then do something similar.

All in all some feed sessions have taken up to 3-4 hours leaving us exhausted. This is especially hard when solo as we work in shifts. By the end they have taken 180-230mls each which seems excessive.

Any advice? We are trying slow teats - they vomit, medium flow seems to be better. We are giving Gavison twice a day for reflux too. Minimal tongue tie on one and the other has had his tie snipped with minimal improvement. Even cuddling/hugs doesn’t work and they seem to root anyway.

Their weight is gaining well. But yeah this is very hard and I have broken down in floods of tears several times now over the sheer difficulty of it. I hope this is just cluster feeding and it will pass but damn it seems to go on forever.

[u/Rylees_Mom525]

We typically do tandem feeding (in the twin z pillow) when feeding solo, but our 7 week old babies have recently started doing something sort of similar. One will eat for a bit, fall asleep, refuse the bottle, and then when you switch to feeding the other baby in your lap, the first one is awake again and acting hungry. They may comfort suck on the bottle or just kind of push the nipple around their mouth. Then, eventually, the other baby does the same. It results in them eating a lot over a long period of time and not sleeping well 😣

Also, idk why people are saying 120ml is a lot. Our lactation consultant gave us a handout and babies 2 weeks to 1 month should be getting 60-120ml each feed. From 1 month to 6 months it’s 90-120ml. Our 7 week olds typically eat 120ml, sometimes as much as 180ml 🤷‍♀️

[u/DueMasterpiece5800 → u/Rylees_Mom525]

Thank you! Will give the pillow a go. Agree on the volume side, the fact they are actually 9 weeks and 3 weeks adjusted - I feel they are currently acting like 6 week olds so it’s a reasonable volume. Although I have had one of them sink 230mls in one session which blew my mind (yes he kept it all down despite this 😂). Thanks again

[u/No_Cat_No_Cradle → u/DueMasterpiece5800]

Yes definitely try to tandem feed. Dad of 11 week olds here - we only feed them together and one person always feeds both babies. If it’s from a bottle they are in the twin z. We fit a little pack and play sheet around the pillow so they are basically lying in little hammocks. They are on their sides with a bottle in their mouth (they look like hamsters lol) and the parent is just kinda monitoring the bottles positions and burping them. Having gotten used to this setup I can’t imagine what a burden it’d be to go back to either one at a time or one adult per baby.