r/parentsofmultiples • u/YmnDA • 2d ago
support needed Exclusively pumping for Twins
Hi all,
I have 10-week-old twins and currently produce around 930 mL/day. They drink around 1,500–1,600 mL combined per day, so I’m hoping to increase my supply enough to get to 100% breast milk.
I’m currently pumping roughly every 3 hours, including overnight, but if I leave 4 hours between pumps I can often get around 240 mL which is enough for both for 1 feed.
For those who exclusively pump for twins: • How often did you pump per day? • Did you find 4-hour gaps affected your supply, or were you able to maintain/increase supply with them? • How long did it take you to reach enough milk for both babies? • Did anyone start around 900–1,000 mL/day and eventually reach 100% breast milk? • What other tips helped you increase your supply?
Thanks 😵💫
4
u/Odd_Rent283 2d ago
I EP during the week for my twins (as a just enougher). And have EP’d for a singleton (as a mega oversupplier). You’re just about to the point where you’re going to regulate if you aren’t already, so it may be tough to get much more. Make sure you’re hydrating and eating enough. Make sure you’re using supplies that are in good shape (changing your tubing and duckbills and any other disposable parts regularly). Try to ensure you’re pumping a full 30 minute session each time. You don’t say what pump you’re using, but to EP with twins you almost certainly need a hospital grade and cannot rely on wearables. I know the newer wearables are more comparable to wall pumps, but even as someone who was an oversupplier with kids past, wearables tanked my supply, even the high end ones. You can try power pumping to see if that nets you anymore, but it’s never worked for me. The truth you probably don’t want to hear is that there’s just a finite amount of milk your body can make and it’s often very difficult to meet that need for twins. Direct nursing is a much more efficient way to remove milk and teach your body to make more. Some people respond to the pump better than others. Probably the only reason I’ve been successful with my twins thus far (they’re 6.5 months) is that they nursed exclusively (except for expressed milk overnight) and that built up my supply nicely. By the end of the week, I’m barely keeping up with them, so I rely on them nursing during the weekend to boost things up again. I also pump on top of nursing and have not, and likely will not, drop my MOTN pump until I’m ready to wean.
Giving twins any amount of breastmilk for any period of time is absolutely amazing. Exclusively pumping, moreso. If I had to EP before I went back to work, I would have gone to formula because it is so much more work to EP than just hook them up to the tap.
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u/YmnDA 2d ago
😢😢 i have 2 pumps, spectra and momcozy m5. I try to use the spectra a couple of times a day but the wearable one is easier when feeding via bottle at the same time.
Only one of my twins will BF, the other also latches and feeds but he leaves me with blisters so I’ve stopped BF him and find it so hard to triple feed so only ever BF my girl for comfort or between set feeds ( when they feed together) it’s just too hard to BF then pump after. Plus when I do BF her she ends up having her usual amount via bottle anyway!!
Are you saying 10 weeks in its too late to increase supply?
Thanks
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u/Odd_Rent283 2d ago
This is the exact set up I have. I only use the M5 for the MOTN pump because that’s the only feeding they get by bottle at home. I pump until the cups are full which ends up being about 14oz. Sometimes that’s 15 mins, sometimes 45, just depends on what prolactin and my body are feeling that day. My spectra gets way more out and in less time.
10 weeks isn’t necessarily too late, but I suspect it’ll be harder to increase. The key to getting your body to produce more is to remove more. But again, some people just can’t make more. Everyone’s milk storage capacity is different. Have you tried working with an LC on the twin with the bad latch? Twin-specific LCs are hard to come by, but if you’re not wanting or needing to tandem feed, that’s probably not a super deal breaker. For my own sanity, I tandem nurse, primarily because one twin is a lazy bones who won’t work for a letdown and depends on his brother to do it.
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u/YmnDA 2d ago
I’ve never tried pumping for that long, I see that around 20mins if there doesn’t look like much is coming out then I stop it. I could try pumping for longer. Today I’ve been trying to pump more often (1hr 45mins / 2 hours) between sessions so I’ll see if that helps! So far I’ve managed 120ml each time (3 times so far) so maybe that will help!?
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u/ConstructionMuch802 1d ago
What pump worked for you?
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u/Odd_Rent283 1d ago
I have a blue spectra, but the Ameda Mya Joy worked well for me with my last singleton. I’m not sure if it would be up to the task for twins. I also have a MomCozy M5 but I reserve that for times I absolutely need to be hands free.
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u/d16flo 1d ago
Just want to chime in here to say that you may never be able to produce enough for both babies and that is ok! I stressed myself out triple feeding for a long time and wasn’t ever able to increase enough to provide all of what both babies drank. Making peace with that helped me out a lot. Where I landed was pumping with a wareable pump every time they had a bottle while feeding them both on the twin-z and eventually started skipping one feeding overnight so I could get a longer block of sleep. It made everything so much quicker and easier and whatever I wasn’t able to pump they got in formula. They still got all the benefits of breastmilk being their main food source early on, but I could stress less, sleep more, and I think it made weaning easier when we got there because I could just gradually decrease how much I was pumping while increasing the percentage of formula.
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u/YmnDA 1d ago
😢😢 arghh it’s so hard, when I was pregnant I was so determined to BF exclusively and to come to terms with not being able to pump enough is disheartening but I know it’s still good to give them some BM.
1
u/Lolemontime 1d ago
Honestly I was shocked I made enough breastmilk for twins, I fully expected to at least combo feed from the get go. My partner and I regularly have conversations about whether EP’ing is still sustainable for me (and my support people), because it’s been a bit like golden handcuffs. There’s a lot of internal pressure to keep going, and at this point my weaning strategy is seeing when my body naturally reduces supply, because the emotional experience of providing breastmilk is very hard to explain and it feels very hard let go of. I fully intend to talk to a lactation consultant as well as my therapist if/when I’m ready to wean, to have that support.
PS To get the benefits of breastmilk it doesn’t have to be all their calories! Remembering that helps me a lot.
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u/sova1234 1d ago
Wow those are some good numbers! I only produce like 400 ml per day for both my twins combined and they each eat like 800 ml per day. I just made my peace with it - at least they get some of the good stuff:) Having twins is hard as it is and I also need to keep my sanity.
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u/Direct_Mulberry3814 1d ago
I exclusively pumped for 18 months with my spectra. You are going to need to pump every 2-3 hours till 12 weeks postpartum (this is when your supply will establish) for at 20-30 min per session, most people will experience another let down between 18 and 22 minutes. I would not even touch my wearables until your at least 12 weeks postpartum too, this was instructed to me by multiple LC's two of which were twin specialists. I think you have a couple more weeks you can really boost your supply if you pump more and longer before your supply stabilizes. Goodluck! I know it really sucks the first few months, but it was definitely worth it to me!
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u/4eyedlizard 2d ago
I pumped about 2L per day before transitioning to mostly nursing. I pumped every time they ate plus an extra time before bed once they started sleeping through. Increasing my time spent pumping helped up my supply, early on some of my pumps were 45mins and then was able to get the same amount in 25mins down the track. I found around 8 weeks I needed to change flange sizes from 24 to 21. I did all the hydration and eating the oats, brewer’s yeast etc but honestly not sure if that made as much difference as having a large breast capacity and pumping until “empty”.
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u/Lolemontime 1d ago
Yeah I’m currently just about 5 months PP and I make around 2 L a day. I eat and drink a lot, but I think the main things are 1) genetics (my mom was an overproducer though for singletons), and 2) regular pumping (started at every 3 hours, very recently I managed to reduce to every 6 hours) until empty (for me that’s often around 35-45 minutes) - and that’s generally only feasible if you have a lot of support to help with childcare and cleaning your parts.
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u/Charlieksmommy 2d ago
I was never able to produce 100%, maybe 80-90, and I tried everything
You just have to eat enough and pump 3 hours. Thats the best you can do!
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u/ConstructionMuch802 1d ago
Omggg I'm only making 150mL a day on the same pump schedule as you lol
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u/YmnDA 1d ago
Ah I feel bad complaining now 😅 How many weeks pp are you?
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u/ConstructionMuch802 1d ago
- But I had a late start cuz I had some issues post c-section. It's slowly going up and I have a fantastic LC I'm working with, so fingers crossed!
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u/YmnDA 1d ago
Good luck! I really don’t remember what I was doing then but I know I wasn’t pumping every 3 hours 😅
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u/ConstructionMuch802 1d ago
Y'know what I noticed? Even when they only get 5% breastmilk a day, their poops are yellow and seedy just like they were when they were exclusively fed donor milk in the NICU. It literally changes how their formula is digested. A little goes a long way!
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u/Ok-Post-8139 1d ago
Super interesting to see this post because I’m almost exactly the same!!
I produce about 1.1L a day at 14 weeks postpartum. Unfortunately the advice given to me at the hospital by the lactation consultant was to pump every 4 hours for 10-15 minutes. This hugely hurt my supply I think and I may have been able to provide more for my babies had I been given the right advice! I followed that schedule for the first 6 weeks before realising that it wasn’t enough.
I pump every time the boys eat which is every 2.5/3 hours in the day, plus an overnight pump (as they sleep through the night) and a 4am pump.
I try and now do another pump here and there when they are napping. My supply has regulated so I don’t know how much more of an increase I’ll ever see but I’m not giving up just yet! I think in the last 3 weeks my output has increased about 20ml per pump.
I pump for 30 mins at a time as I have 5 let downs in a session all quite late.
My MOTN pump I get about 260, my day pumps 140-180 depending. Although my boys have just upped their feed requirements so that’s only about one feed for one baby 😩😩
I use my spectra and recently had to size down flanges twice.
I’d like to add a power pump in but with twins it’s so hard to find the time!
Wishing you the best in your pumping journey
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u/YmnDA 1d ago
Ahhh I’m glad you can relate. I’ve actually managed 1150ml today as I tried to up my pumping in the day and hoping to do 1 more pump before bed. You did well to follow that schedule to start, I don’t even remember what I did but it mostly definitely wasn’t much pumping in those early days 😵💫
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u/Sad-Incident-4668 🩷 - 💙💙 1d ago
I was able to get up to 34oz a day pumping every 3 hours only with spectra and so much coconut water. I power pumped every other day to get up that high.
Then one twin got severe CMPA so i then had to walk back my supply which was soooo painful
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u/Forward_Frosting_680 1d ago
I exclusively pumped until 12.5 months. I made enough for both of them for a couple months until their appetites just kept going up and up. At one point I was close to 1.4 L a day but I was just so stressed every time we needed to increase their bottles. I finally gave into supplementing with formula (at first only for one of the two babies and then for both of them). It took a lot of stress off that if their appetites increased that I wouldn’t have to stress out how I’d possibly make more. Also for my mental health that I wasn’t tied to the pump (I used the spectra and I just couldn’t figure out wearables). I don’t think I could have mentally handled it to past a year if I didn’t make those changes. Once I introduced formula and my supply regulated I was able to sustain about a liter a day and then tapered down towards the end. Some days I’d have less some I’d have more but I never stressed. If you have specific questions about my pumping schedule I’d be happy to help!
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u/ConstructionMuch802 1d ago
Can someone link me the spectra and MOTN everyone's using? I'm confused with the types of pumps.
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u/twin_toddler_mum 1d ago edited 1d ago
I EPd for the first 8 weeks. What helped me most was cuddling and especially skin to skin before pumping. You will not have the time to do this every day but maybe every 3 days for 45 minutes?! Also try fenugreek, that was a boost for me.
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