One year ago today, our family was doubly blessed with the arrival of Cookie and Boomer. Today they’re happy, healthy children with very different personalities, and yet they’re the best of friends.

It has been a tough year, and yet it’s also been a fantastic year. I can’t imagine life without my sweet babies. We’re finally starting to emerge from the fog and live life a bit more.

I’m proud to say I’m still nursing. I didn’t make it this far with my older girls for various reasons, which I regret. But this time I’m letting them drive the bus. We’ll see how long this ride lasts. We nurse 4x/day and sometimes once at night, though that’s getting less and less common. We still use the LA at every feed, but I hope to eventually ditch it. I’m in the process of going off galacts. I dropped Fenugreek at 10 months, Alfalfa at 11 months, and have just a few days of Shatavari left. I’m down to 90mg of DPD, and should be off in 6 weeks or so.

And for those just starting out, it really does get easier. BFARing twins was HARD in the beginning, yet here we are at a year with smooth sailing ahead.

Jen

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Compromise.  I was talking with another BFAR mama at LLL today about BFAR and compromise.  I’ve had to make some compromises to make BFAR work for us. 

For a “perfect” BFAR experience I would:

• have a medication/intervention free birth
• nurse frequently in the first few days
• nurse bare on each breast before supping (twice per breast if I were nursing a singleton)
• only supp with an at-breast supplementor
• pump after every feed
• take every galactagogue available at the highest dose–120 or more pills a day
• co-sleep
• wear my baby/ies at all times

In reality I:

• had an intervention heavy birth
• was very sick post-partum and couldn’t nurse at all for 24 hours
• supped with bottles in the hospital
• never pumped at all
• limited my galactagogues to 4–42 pills a day
• don’t co-sleep
• only wear one baby at a time, and not as frequently as I’d like
• supp from the beginning of the feed without nursing bare first

But I do:

• use an at-breast supplementor at every feed since coming home from the hospital
• take the galactagogues I chose faithfully
• enjoy nursing my sweet babies
• keep my sanity
• define my own success

If I tried to be perfect, I’d go insane.  Instead I’ve found a balance that works for me.  Others make different choices that work for them.  We all are successes.

Jen

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Can my babies really be half a year old already?  We’re dealing with the typical 6mo bad nursing behavior–popping on and off, distracted nursing, biting, grabby hands.  We’re working on nice nursing manners.  It’s hard to do with twins, but it’s necessary.  Last night, I got fed up and tried to swaddle them for the first time in a while.  Cookie wouldn’t tolerate it, but Boomer settled down and nursed quite well.  And with him settled, I could focus on her, so it worked out well. 

We did have some supply issues recently.  It started with mint M&Ms at Christmas.  It didn’t occur to me until later that mint can hurt supply, and boy did it!  I was supping 16oz/day more!  It didn’t help that the 6 month growth spurt hit at the same time.  I decided to start cycling my herbs.  I take alfalfa, shatavari, and fenugreek two weeks on and one week off.  I stagger the week off so I’m always taking two herbs at all times.  This is just my second week of this experiment, so we’ll see how it goes.  But I’m already starting to see improvement. 

Here’s to many more months of nursing! 

Jen

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Here we are with 1/3 of a year gone already! Babies are doing great. They’ve both doubled their birth weight–Cookie is 10lb 10.5oz and Boomer is 12lb 4.5oz. They both are rolling tummy to back, smiling, and “talking.”

Nursing is getting better again after a setback with a blister. We made the switch to the double football hold, and during the readjustment I got a nasty blister on one side that eventually turned into an open wound.  It’s slooooowly healing. The good news is we now nurse in the double football easily.

They still take a combined 24-28oz of formula depending upon the day, so I estimate my supply has maxed out at 50-55%. Part of me still struggles with not making more, while most of me realizes that would be a full supply for one which is fantastic! (Then part of me wants to have just one more baby so I could nurse with a full supply, and the rest of me says I’m out of my mind!)

One other thing we’re doing different now: I nurse them one at a time in the night (if I can get away with it.)  During the day I try to keep them on the same schedule and tandem nurse.  But at night, I SOOOO enjoy nursing lying down and going back to sleep.  Boomer usually wakes up first, and if I get to him in time Cookie won’t wake up.  So we move to the couch and I fall back to sleep.  About an hour later, Cookie wakes up and I switch them out.  This has gone a long way in saving my sanity.  Having to actually get up for feeds in the night was the biggest change from when I nursed Peanut and Snickers. Of course, we’re able to do that now, when we couldn’t early on, because I no longer need to supplement in the night.  Yay! 

Jen

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Babies are nursing well and gaining well.  We’ve settled into a routine.  But we do have a challenge that will soon be upon us.  So far, I’ve been nursing one in the cradle hold and one in the football hold.  This configuration isn’t going to work much longer as they get bigger.  I’m going to have to switch to the double football.  I’m not looking forward to this for a couple reasons.

First, the football doesn’t really work well on my left side.  The nipple is far off center post-surgery, and it’s just difficult to get a good latch in the football position.

Second, once a baby is latched in the football hold, it’s tricky to reach over to latch the other.  Moving my arm that far causes the latch to break or slip.  This is especially frustrating when using the lact-aid. 

We’ll just have to practice and readjust.

Jen

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We’ve survived the six-week growth spurt.  It was less intense than the three-week.  Suddenly, things are a little easier.

Now that their mouths are bigger, latching is a whole lot easier.  We’re getting the lact-aid tubes in place pretty easily now.  Sleep is more regular and for longer stretches. 

I think reaching 8 pounds makes a difference in a baby’s nursing ability and sleeping length.  As of Monday, Boomer was 8lb 13oz, and Cookie was 7lb 13oz. 

I’m still experimenting with galactagogues.  No supplement at night is my elusive goal.  I’m debating which herb to try next.

Jen

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I’ve been taking 120mg/day of domperidone since the day we left the hospital.  I still have a week and a half until it’s at full strength, but I’ve seen a good increase over the last four weeks.  Last week I decided to add the herb Shatavari, 1000mg/day.  I’ve seen a big boost from that as well. 

I weighed the twins last night.  Boomer weighs 8lb 3.5oz, Cookie weighs 7lb 7.5oz.  A formula-fed infant at 8lb would take in ~21oz of formula a day.  A 7.5lb infant would take ~20oz.  So combined, my twins would need 41oz/day.  I’m supplementing ~24oz.  That means they’re getting ~17oz of milk, or 40% of their needs, from me!  :) 

With my last BFAR baby, my supply maxed out at ~65%.  I’m already making more than that at 5 weeks–40% for two=80% for one. 

Jen

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