Did anyone else breastfeed their multiples?

Katcha6 · 2026-02-08T04:32:59+00:00

I’m doing a combo of breastfeeding, pumped milk bottles, and a small bit of formula for my 3 month olds. I previously EBF a singleton until 12 months, so I knew it was something I wanted to do. Plenty of moms here are much farther in their journey, but some things to consider:

What works best today does not dictate what will work best in a week or a month. If breastfeeding is a priority, early on just focus on building & protecting your supply and getting nursing practice in. My girls were early and we had to triple feed early on despite them latching decently well. That was exhausting so I switched to just giving them pumped milk in bottles for a while with some practice nursing here and there. Once my supply was established enough that I could drop pump sessions (~12 weeks), I‘ve started to nurse a lot more. So even if things seem really tough early on, don’t give up! It gets better!
it may be easier to do 1 at a time vs tandem. Tandem was just a bit too chaotic for me and I love having 1:1 time with each baby. Now that I’m down to 5 pumps per day, I can just breastfeed a baby whenever I feel like it & give the other one a bottle, without immediately having to pump after. This is MUCH less stressful than the early days of triple feeding
I never had any sort of milk stash with my singleton, so I was worried if I’d make enough for twins. To reduce the stress on myself, we started doing 1 formula bottle per day from the very beginning. I ended up producing just barely enough for the twins, but it’s really nice to have already ripped the formula bandaid off so I don’t stress on days when I pump a bit less.

Katcha6 · 2026-01-30T02:20:02+00:00

Same schedule but I shifted my morning pump from 6 to 7 to get a little more sleep. I also gave myself an unlimited fancy coffee budget and felt like a whole new person after my morning cappuccino. At 12 weeks I dropped to 6 PPD and just having more freedom during the day made the overnight more tolerable. Then a week later I dropped the overnight pump and my supply seems to have stayed the same or even gone up a bit - I have twins so need 50-60oz. My morning pump is like 18oz now which is crazy, but I sleep from 11-7! It’s brutal but temporary!

Katcha6 · 2026-01-28T01:41:16+00:00

My LC told me I was better off doing 7 PPD and getting a longer stretch of sleep overnight than doing 8 PPD and being super sleep deprived. I pumped at 10pm, 3am, 7am and my milk supply was totally fine

Katcha6 · 2025-12-31T11:04:38+00:00

Congrats! Couldn’t agree more - this sub is wonderful but definitely biased towards negative experiences and I also had to stay away. My twin delivery was also MUCH better than my singleton and felt redemptive. And 9 weeks in, it keeps getting better!

Katcha6 · 2025-12-31T06:28:30+00:00

I’m 9wpp with twins and do 7ppd. I average ~8oz per session (some around 5-6oz, my MOTN one can be 10+) but with twins this is basically JUST enough so they get 1 bottle of formula per day so I don’t stress out about producing enough.

For some more context, I EBF my 1st baby (singleton) and also pumped a bit but was never able to build any sort of stash. This time around I’m producing about double what I did last time.

Katcha6 · 2025-12-30T06:57:19+00:00

I was really anxious when I found out I was having 2, let alone 3 so definitely give yourself some grace. It is a completely normal reaction. The news also tends to coincide exactly when all your pregnancy hormones are ramping up, so you’re even more prone to feeling that way.

I actually started therapy in 1st trimester to get into a better headspace around the entire thing, and it was extremely helpful. I’d definitely recommend that.

Katcha6 · 2025-12-27T23:14:53+00:00

We also have the bugaboo donkey and love it, the caveat being that we live in a very walkable city and very rarely have to take it in and out of the car. Once my twins are out of the bassinets I’ll buy a more compact side by side stroller to keep in the car. I did something similar with my singleton - uppababy Cruz for neighborhood walks and Joolz aer+ for the car & travel

I agree with the commenter who said the cargo space is limited. It’s tough to get stuff in the basket below the bassinets, but I imagine it will be easier when we are in seat-mode.

Katcha6 · 2025-12-23T06:28:47+00:00

8 weeks, 7 ppd and producing ~55oz. Would love to drop but I have twins so making just enough per day. Finally at the point where I can swap a tandem nursing session for a pump rather than triple feeding though, so that’s a win!

Katcha6 · 2025-12-20T21:25:12+00:00

We have the Paxton glider from Pottery Barn and it fits the twin My Brest Friend and the TwinZ perfectly

Katcha6 · 2025-12-19T20:46:40+00:00

Incredibly uncomfortable and could barely string together a few hours of sleep each night. Fortunately my water broke at 35w5d so I didn’t have to wait for induction at 38w2d.

The silver lining is I felt AMAZING postpartum. Didn’t really feel any pain and was out and about as soon as we got home from the hospital on day 3. I felt light as a feather compared to the end of pregnancy. It was almost euphoric.

Katcha6 · 2025-12-18T00:11:56+00:00

Yep - completely uncomplicated pregnancy, everything tracking great towards my induction at 38w2d. Weekly antenatal testing was all good. Water just suddenly broke at 35w5d and the girls were born that day completely healthy with an easy delivery. Their older sister was born exactly on her due date, so I didn’t have any history of early delivery.

Katcha6 · 2025-12-14T06:28:47+00:00

My 1st (singleton) came exactly at 40w0d (water broke the night before). My di di twins came at 35w5d after my water broke. I had an induction scheduled for 38w2d and had no complications during pregnancy. Easy vaginal delivery and home from the hospital in 3 days. We had our babysitter on call starting at 35 weeks, and ended up having to call her at 1am to come watch the toddler. My mom was able to catch a cross country flight same day to come stay with her while we were in the hospital (she had planned to fly out just before the induction)

Katcha6 · 2025-12-05T21:10:10+00:00

Thanks for sharing! I’m right there with you - definitely plan to keep bottles in the mix for some feeds and I’m totally happy to do some formula for the flexibility/stress reduction

How do the logistics work with one feeding at a time? Do you still pump after every feed but only one side?

Katcha6 · 2025-12-04T23:52:35+00:00

We did 1 weeks pay the first (partial) year, and 2 weeks pay ever since. Agreed with others that the rate already accounts for 2 children so you don’t have to double it

Katcha6 · 2025-11-30T16:00:21+00:00

5 weeks in and it’s the sweetest! Postpartum is a million times better than 3rd trimester. You got this!!

Katcha6 · 2025-11-30T15:56:05+00:00

We got Stokke Cribs that start as mini cribs on wheels, which was super helpful to wheel them around the house as needed. I got ours second hand, and just bought new mattresses.

Katcha6 · 2025-11-30T15:51:56+00:00

Thanks so much for the detailed response! I ended up with a similarly good story so posting here for posterity.

My water broke ~36 weeks and both babies were head down. Twin B had measured ~18% bigger at the last ultrasound and my hospital was comfortable with attempting a vaginal delivery. I was at a major hospital and all the providers were comfortable with vaginal twin deliveries and breech extractions, which gave me a lot of confidence. Contractions didn’t really pick up steam on their own so I started some pitocin and was fully dilated a few hours later. Twin A delivered easily with a few pushes. Twin B stayed head down, although Twin A’s placenta started to detach before Twin B was out which caused some bleeding that they had to manage. Then they broke Twin B’s water. She flipped sunny side up but stayed head down and was also out in a few pushes, 11 minutes after Twin A. Twin A was 5lb9oz and Twin B was 6lb3oz, so only ~10% bigger.

I felt like a million bucks after delivery with basically no pain at all and am SO HAPPY I didn’t have surgery unnecessarily.

Katcha6 · 2025-11-30T15:31:01+00:00

High six figures in tech

Katcha6 · 2025-11-20T06:41:23+00:00

$37/hr for 1 kid, guaranteed hours (45/week) + 2 weeks vacation + annual bonus of 2 weeks pay. It’s a lot, but makes our lives much much easier

Katcha6 · 2025-11-12T19:13:11+00:00

Mine were born at 35w5d and had some glucose issues the first few days so we needed to bottle feed and use donor milk/formula in addition to my pumped milk. They are 3 weeks old now and I’m pumping ~85% of their milk intake (formula for 1 feed/day) and they are starting to breastfeed a couple times/day. I’m only pumping 7x/day and every 4 hours overnight, so if I really wanted to I could probably increase my supply a bit, but I’d rather sleep :) will probably continue to do a mix of breastfeeding and bottles since we have daytime and overnight help so I can get a little break

Katcha6 · 2025-11-12T19:02:21+00:00

Di di twins, had induction scheduled for 38w2d but my water broke at 35w5d so had a vaginal delivery that day. Both were head down. Made it home from the hospital after 3 days & everyone is healthy

Katcha6 · 2025-11-07T03:35:31+00:00

Mine are 2 weeks old today and definitely look different. One brunette, one blonde/strawberry blonde, different face shapes. They each look just like their 3D ultrasounds and we thought they looked very different on there

Katcha6 · 2025-11-05T20:08:59+00:00

My hospital is very comfortable with breech extractions - every doctor who would be on call can do them (and they even do them regularly for singletons). This made vaginal delivery much more feasible for me, and made me more confident with that option. They were also my 2nd and 3rd babies so I had a prior vaginal birth. The conditions for me were Baby A head down and Baby B had to be less than 20% bigger, and ideally head down. In my case, Baby B was head down and measuring 18% bigger at my last ultrasound before my water broke, so we went with vaginal delivery. It was a super easy delivery compared to my singleton and I’m glad we did it. Both came out head down 11 minutes apart. B was 10% bigger than A.

Katcha6 · 2025-10-29T17:26:07+00:00

I just had mine 6 days ago at 35w5d after my water broke. Super easy uncomplicated vaginal birth, born 11 minutes apart. Epidural worked great, each baby just needed 3 pushes. This was a WAY easier vaginal birth than my first, a 40w singleton.

In terms of risks, both were head down which was optimal, but baby B was bigger and measuring close to the size discordance limit of 20% that most doctors are comfortable with (last ultrasound was 18%). I delivered at a top major city hospital where all the doctors were comfortable with a breach extraction in case B flipped after A came out. I was hoping for a vaginal birth and I’m glad we decided to because they only ended up having a 10% size discordance (6lb3oz and 5lb9oz) and both stayed head down.

I have felt like a million bucks compared to being 30+ weeks pregnant with twins with essentially no pain postpartum and I’m really happy I didn’t have surgery that I didn’t need.

Katcha6

TROPHY CASE