Hello! I'm Jenna, a wife, mom and student! These are the things that bring me joy all in one place on my blog, Jenna's Joys!
Here is my first post on breastfeeding! Enjoy!
I am a mother of twins and my babies were born early at 29 weeks. I planned on breast feeding anyway from the beginning and when the boys were born so early they brough me a pump so I could start building my milk supply. They were only eating a couple of mililiters in the beginning so it was easy to store up lots of milk in the beginning. The NICU nurses said that for babies that tiny breast milk was the best thing for them sort of like a medicine. I was not able to actually "breast" feed the boys until they were 34 weeks adjusted. This was difficult in the hospital because we were concerned with how much the babies were eating since they needed to desperately gain weight. Overall breast feeding was easy I never experienced dried or cracked nipples and had a strong milk supply and it was the best nutrition for my babies. They also added formula to my breast milk to give it additional calories to plump the babies up faster. I am pro breast feeding and wish I could have continued to breast feed longer. I would tandem feed the babies (meaning both at one time, one on each side) and I had to use a nipple shield since they were so small. This became more difficult as they got bigger and more difficult to manuver and they started to eat a lot more and were hungrier but would always fall asleep while they were breastfeeding because they got too warm and cozy. When the babies came home from the NICU for 6 weeks I was able to continue breast feeding and bottle feeding my frozen breast milk. The boys ate through the frozen supply sooo fast! It was getting harder to breast feed both at the same time and if I didnt feed both at the same time the other would have to lay there and cry which really wears on a sleep deprived mothers nerves! Also having newborn twins to take care of doesnt leave much time for pumping and I was honestly ready to have my body back. If any of you have ever breast fed your babies before you know its almost 24/7 of having your shirt off and boobs out. My supply begin to decrease and the babies were eating more than I could manage. I hated to do it and I felt so guilty the first time but I had to begin to feed them only formula. Someone once told me its only formula NOT rat poison. Also my brother and I were only formula fed as a babies and we turned out kind of okay. (Haha. small joke.) Unfortunately formula is crazy expensive and the boys are on a special preemie formula called Similac NeoSure. It is $17.99 dollars a can and the boys eat about a can in a day! That's about $125 a week!! So breast feeding is definitly the cheaper option. But that just wasn't an option anymore unfortunately. I encourage any new moms to try to breast feed or at least pump and bottle feed if possible. It is an amazing thing to know that I made my babies grow from a miniscule 1 and 2 pounds to now 11 and 12 pounds at almost 6 months!
