Emily

Meet Emily, mother of four children two of them twins! Hear her story about powering through preemies to help them thrive.

Hi, my name is Emily. I have 4 children ages 4, 3, and 7 month twins. I’ve been nursing a total of 4 years in September with a 3 month break during my twin pregnancy.

With my singleton, I didn’t really think I would have any trouble nursing, but did end up having minor trouble for a few days as she was admitted to NICU for 5 days. It was 24 hours before I could hold her and 3 or 4 days before I could try to nurse. I pumped during that time and she took bottles so when it was time to nurse she fought. The LC at the hospital said it was a “texture issue” so we used a shield and she begin nursing well. After 3 weeks she decided she didn’t need the shield and we followed up at the lactation clinic and had no further issues-it was very temporary.

With my twins I was really prepared for issues and there were but nothing major and again very temporary. They were born at 4lbs 11oz and 5lbs 3oz. They were just small and lacked stamina to get full by just nursing-though Savannah tried really hard even when she dropped to just over 4lbs. Triple feeds were needed for them for about 3 weeks-this was the most difficult time in all my nursing journey as it took an hour to feed them and had to be done every 2 hours during the day and 3 at night. Due to their size and gestation at birth this included waking them up if necessary and was utterly exhausting.

This is the only time I have ever considered exclusively pumping or not breastfeeding; this is when I needed the most help from La Leche League. With the local La Leche group-I worked with Jennifer and Debbie-and the La Leche Facebook group for moms of multiples, I was provided support and resources that gave me the encouragement to push through.

After about 3 weeks, we tried a nursing shield again (I had tried in the hospital but the girls didn’t like it). At this point I really needed them to nurse more and drop the pumping and finger feeding for my own well-being. I was absolutely exhausted at this point and really needed the feeds to take less time. The shields helped me keep them at the breast more and re-latch if needed-I was so sore from them being tiny trying to nurse and from pumping, I had become hesitant to re-latch over and over because I was in pain, but the shield helped with that.

I also monitored their intake by purchasing a scale and doing weighted feeds a couple times a days. Per their pediatrician I still had to wake them to eat every 2-3 hours at this point because they were still so tiny even though they had reached their birthweight at their 2 week weight check, but after about a week of no triple feeds they had their 1 months appointment and we were cleared to nurse on demand which was one of the greatest things I had ever heard!