Twins - Harvey,LA

Congratulations! How exciting and overwhelming at the same time! I have twin girls who were born at 38 weeks - they will be 2 in January! Time has flown by! They have an older brother too who just celebrated his 6th birthday last week! Yay! I'm excited for you and KNOW the crazy emotions of finding out there is two in there (I believe I looked at the US tech and said 'you're kidding?")

Some things that I can think of off hand that helped me a lot - I read 3 books on twins while I was pregnant - Elizabeth Lyons, "Ready or Not, Here We Come " "Twinspiration" by Cheryl Lage and "Mothering Multiples: Breastfeeding twins.." by Le Lache League. LOVED Lyons book the most, learned my breastfeeding technique from Twinspiration. The Le Lache League book was ok, but reading it made me really nervous, so I only used it as a reference. Probably one of my biggest sources of helpful advice once my girls arrived was an online twin group I joined (www.twinstuff.com) - I logged on daily to read the forums and ask questions that first year! If you do join, my member name is carlaj23 - look me up! We didn't have a local twin club here, but I found these ladies, and new friends to be so helpful!

Yes, you can breastfeed twins! I breastfeed my girls for 14 months! Be determined and you can do it. I practiced tandem nursing in the hospital while I had help and I did it early on too if someone was at home to help me. Also, I did have a c-section and that did not stop me from nursing. It's just more of a challenge those first 24 hours when you have to be lying down instead of sitting up. Just be determined :) After my girls were about 4 weeks old and started learning how to latch on themselves, I tandem nursed from then on (I didn't even buy the twin nursing pillow - my girls were small and they still fit on my trusty boppy pillow the whole time....although other twin moms swear by it - I can't rem the name of it, but if you are interested, I'll look it up for you!). I'd say I tandem nursed 95% of the time once they were latching on themselves. That is just what worked for me. Trust me, you will figure it out as you go!

If you ever have any questions, you can always ask me! I love helping other moms of multiples!!!

OMG!!! My friend was in the SAME boat! They were born at almost 40 weeks.

She was DONE with kids, but her husband was on the fence. It took her 25 weeks of the pregnancy to get over her anger toward him. At 31 weeks, an ultrasound revealed twins! She has a 4.5 year old and a 2 year old.

She delivered her TWIN girls 3 months ago, at home, in water, at 39 weeks and 5 days (2 days before her due date). They were 7.5 pounds each. She's a small woman, 1/2 Japanese and refused to accept a c-section as the only option, so she found a midwife. She went into labor at 4am and birthed the first one at 6:10am and the 2nd one at 6:20am. She is currently breastfeeding both of them exclusively.

While it's true that c-section often hinders the breastfeeding relationship, partly because the pain meds dry up the milk to a certain degree, if you are determined to breastfeed, then you should be fine. Refuse the babies to have bottles at the hospital, as that will ruin the BFing relationship, because the latch on a bottle is different than a breast.

Get a latctation consultant and think outside of the box, if you can! Enjoy!

Yes you can BF twins...just consider this your time to eat til your little heart's content :) I would pump so that I could feed them both at the same time. It was not very nice having them on 2 different schedules while I was basically a single parent since my hubby worked away...I never slept otherwise. Congratulations! It's fun!!!!

This is so exciting. My first two are twins and it is so fun. (they are 10 now)
BF for me was hard. I couldn't get them to latch on. A good alternative was to pump and feed. I did this for about 3 mo. until I finally told them if they wouldn't latch on, we would switch to formula. They latched and BF for another 3 mo. (when pumping you will get a lot of milk. I got 20oz., 10/10 at one sitting once.)
that was amazing.

ALSO, after they are born....a great book to read is "Dancing Naked in Front of the Fridge." You can get it used and cheap on Amazon. It is fantastic. I recommend it to anyone wanting to know more about twins.

You will love this! Your kids will love this. Don't be scared. I think it is easier in some ways because you don't have to entertain as much. They are so close they entertain themselves.

Enjoy!

congratulations!!!!

i carry twins until 36 weeks and it was a easy pregnancy but more tired and with more weight in the belly but so far good pregnancy the first months is a little crazy but yes you can breastfeed twins http://www.ehow.com/how_###-###-####_breastfeed-twins.html this is very helpful it looks easy but you will need to try some many times but it can be done.

Yes, you can breastfeed twins, but you will need to up your caloric intake accordingly.

If you've had 2 normal pregnancies & vaginal deliveries, and this pregnancy goes well with no problems, there is not reason that you should need a c-section. But if you do have a c-section (I think the docs worry more with twins about stuff...), you can still breastfeed.

Make a connection now with a doc that has a lot of experience with delivering twins and who is comfortable with going for a vaginal delivery, if that is what you're aiming for. And don't be afraid to ask the office what his c-section rate is--stats will maybe tell you more than words....

Connect now with the La Leche League group near you: If you're in a bigger urban/suburban area, they probably have leaders that specialize in helping twin moms.

Also, google "mother of twins club" in your area: they can help with all sorts of stuff and will give you a group of moms who have "been there" and can help you through the trials & share your joys of your twin bundles of joy. :)

G-d bless you and best of luck!!