One of the silver linings of the twins being in the NICU was the amazing lactation support I received.
On their second day of life, the twins started receiving breastmilk in extremely small doses. Every day as they gained weight, the amount increased as well. Despite all the factors working against me from the surgery, pain meds, and blood loss, my milk came in on day three. Of course I had woken up to a pump beside my bedside in the ICU and religiously pumped every three hours. However, I got super lucky and my milk supply quickly increased until I hit about 55 ounces about two weeks after their birth. Since then I vary between 50-60 ounces a day. Moo.
As the twins grew stronger, they began to attempt breastfeeding on my one visit a day to the NICU. Unlike my experience with attempting to nurse E, these twins were ravenous and would eagerly open their mouths and latch on. I was shocked. There was no pain or cracked nipples with the daily attempts. Lactation nurses would come whenever I asked and gave me good supportive information. Besides that, one of them literally walked me through the process of heat, pump, and ice to get through my initial engorgement.
After the madness of having mastitis four times and eventually being hospitalized while breastfeeding E, I'm amazed and grateful at the difference this time around. At five months in, I have a deep freezer full of milk and two growing babies.
xoxo
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
That's awesome! Are they mostly breastfeeding now? I'm hoping I can eventually get my girl to nurse overnight at the very least, but it has been too stressful and anxiety-provoking in the NICU for me to give it a good shot.
ReplyDeleteThat is so, so awesome and goes to show that no two pregnancies are alike, just like no two babies are alike.
ReplyDeleteGood for you, mama, and for them!
Thanks so much for your offer! Elliot would love them if you found them. Shoot me an email if you come across them and I'll send you my address. I'd be happy to pay shipping.
ReplyDeleteAwesome about the breastfeeding! That was a big fear of mine when A was born just three weeks early. After. Very rough time breastfeeding E it too was a night and day experience.
Err...email address is hcalabre@hotmail.com. :-)
ReplyDeleteI'm so inspired by this - I wasn't looking forward to breastfeeding this time after everything that went south with the boys (and it wasn't NEARLY as bad as your last experience!) - this gives me hope that it will be better. :0)
ReplyDeleteWhat a blessing. That's so great. And four bouts of mastitis!? How awful.
ReplyDelete