As with all twin pregnancies, mine was classed as ‘high risk’. I was told at 16 weeks by my consultant that a c-section was the only way to birth them. I was very resistant to this suggestion so early on in my pregnancy when they didn’t even allow me to see how I felt/how it was going nearer to delivery. I was told they wouldn’t let me go past 37 weeks. I hired a birth Doula to give me some direction/advice/emotional support as I felt like I was just railroaded into a medically driven birth and I really do believe in natural approaches and biology. I was scanned every 2 weeks as my twins were MCDA (one placenta to sacs). Both twins did really well, Artie fell behind at one scan size wise by approx. 13% but apart from that there was no twin-to-twin transfusion and the difference in weight was usually 2-5%. I felt healthy, albeit tired but had a really nice pregnancy. I decided that I would go with a natural birth if my body decided to do it, but if not I would have an elective c-section at 37 weeks. I got to my 36th week and it seemed both twins had fallen slightly in percentile so they said it was time for them to come out. They let me go until the Friday when I was booked in for a c-section (I had my scan on the Monday). I took good quality prenatal supplements, omega 3 fish oils and supported myself nutritionally as best as I could with a nauseas craving appetite ☺
Artie was born 2 minutes after Lennon and was born via a c-section in his caul sac. I wasn’t aware but he took a bit longer than Lennon to come round – he was basically still asleep when they pulled him out! The c-section was gentle, relaxing and he latched straight away in the operating theatre. They cut the cord quicker than I’d liked as I am aware this can have an impact on iron levels. He slept through the whole first night in hospital – he really was born asleep pretty much! He weighted 2040g / 4.9lbs.
Lennon came out kicking and screaming; he latched straight away and wanted to be close to me at all times in the hospital for the first night; I couldn’t really put him down so he slept with me in bed. He weighted 2080g / 4.9lbs.
Artie – He passed all of his assessments and blood glucose levels, etc and all 24-hour ops. We left the hospital just over 24 hours after he was born (born 14:20 Friday, we left at approx. 20:00 on Saturday). We had the midwife round daily for almost 2 weeks; he lost I think approx. 7% of his body weight.
Lennon – He passed all of his assessments and blood glucose levels, etc and all 24-hour ops. We left the hospital just over 24 hours after he was born (born 14:18 Friday, we left at approx. 20:00 on Saturday). We had the midwife round daily for almost 2 weeks; he lost I think approx. 10% of his body weight and was observed closely but seemed to make it up as he was the guzzler and loved his milk and was the better feeder.
Artie – Exclusively breastfed from birth. He struggled to have a good/deep latch in the beginning, I had him checked over at the chiropractor and he had tongue tie snipped approx. 4 weeks, this allowed a much deeper latch. He had green foamy poos and was generally windy for a while; he was really in pain some nights and we had to wind him or at least sit him up and let the wind come out. I have always given Artie the right boob when tandem feeding/feeding generally to make sure he was draining the breast fully and Lennon who was the stronger feeder at the beginning didn’t take all his goods! His wind seemed to settle when his digestive system got stronger – 5/6 months. Not sick just wind. Now I find it harder to tandem feed as they are really aware of each other so they tug at each other’s ears or Artie pulls Lennon’s hair! I didn’t cut anything out of my diet, my instinct told me it was latch issues and his wind would settle when his digestive system got a little more developed. I would say Artie is now the stronger feeder, loves his milk still.
Lennon – Exclusively breastfed from birth. He was a good feeder, very hungry but also had a tongue tie snipped approx. 4 weeks, this allowed a much deeper latch. He was sometimes sick when he drank loads but otherwise poos and wees all good. I have always given Lennon the left boob when tandem feeding/feeding generally to make sure he was draining the breast fully. I would say since starting food Lennon isn’t as interested in milk. He LOVES his food. He has been slightly constipated and crying so I calmed the foods now for a bit and increased milk to help him with that.
Since food I’ve found it hard to get him to feed in the day he seems distracted, so I’ve had Dad give him bottles to help – especially as I felt he was constipated and at times cried to go to the toilet. Seems to work sometimes but not others.
Artie – Artie definitely prefers to feed himself, I’ve done a mixture of BLW and puree to make sure I actually get some iron rich foods in him. He gets bored when being fed. I’ve fed them a nutrient rich iron rich diet, I try to feed at least one iron rich food a day/meal if I can. I have introduced him to some allergenic foods with no issues. I’ve included egg yolks and a little bit of white; they have a baby bread I make with avocado, hummus, nut butter bananas etc on top. I do this baked banana dish with tahini and hemp seeds; porridge with banana chia coconut milk and nut butters/coconut kefir. Lunch sometimes I have out with them so it’s usually avocado and some chicken off my salad. I also make bars that have dates oats spirulina etc in them. They have water at every meal and love drinking out of a straw I have the EZPZ cups. Dinners I try to make what we have baby friendly. Chicken thighs, courgettes, lamb koftas, lamb with broccoli and butternut. I often make a BLW meal and then whizz up leftovers in bone broth for next few days meals. Smoothies I have tried but they were so messy! I’ll try again now they can drink from straws! I started feeding them from about 7 months as I wanted to wait until they were sitting well so their digestive system was ready. I roast a lot of my food in ghee and am big on healthy fats. I’ve also done smashed sardines, avocado on toast.
I found it hard to get into a 3-meal pattern and have only started giving them three meals about a week ago as I literally couldn’t do both on different schedules although I’m aware they are two different babies!
Lennon – The same as Artie. Lennon is massive on his food – he loves it all and would rather food than milk is the feeling I get. Nothing he doesn’t like.
This ones really hard for me as it varies so much depending on how the night went… I’ll use today!
Artie:
0720 – wake; I breastfeed in sleep space as it’s dark and calm then take sleep bag off change nappy and take him downstairs to play or in our bed to play/see Daddy; we wait for Lennon to wake if he hasn’t already
0830 – breakfast; today the boys had gluten free oats in coconut milk with almond butter banana chia seed and hemp seeds with some coconut kefir + water
1040 – breastfeed then took him out for a nap walk
1045 – slept in pram for about an hour
1145/1200 – woke and I fed them some avocado as we were out for breakfast + water
Then we went home to play
1330/1400 – fed a bit more as I felt like they didn’t have enough at lunch so I fed them ‘dinosaur bars’ which consists of dates, oats, hemp seeds, coconut oil, chia seeds, spirulina
1500/1515 – nap in the pram prob about 45 mins
1615/30 – play
1700-1730 dinner: lamb, butternut squash bone broth and spinach puree + water
1800-1830 bath (every night), sing twinkle little star whilst getting dressed which we do in our bedroom as bed is big enough for both to be dressed on
1830 – took them into their room/sleep space which is dark with white noise on and fed to sleep; transferred to cot asleep – rocked a bit if he wakes whilst I’m transferring
He has woken up twice for a resettle and it’s now 2045!
Generally he can go 4-5 hours; the other night I didn’t feed him in the night until 4/5am. I do find if I top them up at their waking between 3-5am they make it until 7isham – if I don’t I find they wake at 6ish sometimes just before (between 0530am-0600am).
I try really hard not to get him out of sleep space before 0600!
Lennon: Please refer to Artie’s schedule as they are generally on very similar ones. I felt like Lennon wanted 3 naps for longer than Artie and struggled if I didn’t give it to him, I tried to force him into Artie’s schedule for a day and he didn’t react well.
Again, generally he can go 4-5 hours; the other night I didn’t feed him in the night until 4/5am. I do find if I top them up at their waking between 3-5am they make it until 7isham – if I don’t I find they wake at 6ish sometimes just before (between 0530am-0600am).
I try really hard not to get him out of sleep space before 0600!
A last note on a schedule – I’ve stuck to wake windows quite religiously and always base it on the twin that wakes first to try and prevent over tiredness – some days this doesn’t work out and for a while Artie wanted 2 naps in the day and Lennon wanted 3 naps for literally 4 weeks – it was so hard and I was all over the place! I felt like Artie needed less sleep to Lennon for a while…
Artie – The boys literally slept ON ME for the first 3-4 months of life, it was the only way I could feed both by breast and sleep, it worked well whilst they were young, I often contact napped with them for months in the day and then took them on pram walks. I’ve never been able to get them to nap in cots that successfully in the day. About 3-4 months I started moving him off me and slept next to me, then we co-slept with him in the cot at the end of the bed (separate cot to his brother) until about 7 months when we transferred him to his own room (with his brother). I bought a sofa bed so that I could stay in sleep space and settle or sleep with them in there and try and save sleep; because I am on my own a lot of the time settling both the only way to get it done was to get them on me and feed them to sleep which often resulted in me falling asleep too. From when I transferred Artie to his room I have tried very hard not to let him back in my bed, but he is usually always boob’ed to sleep. He screams when waking sometimes as if he has had a nightmare or is in pain – usually wind or teething. Now he has started to teeth and uses me as his dummy this week we tried giving him a dummy – he took it on a really bad teething night but didn’t take it last night. I would say he needs a suckle of something to settle but he has never had a dummy apart from the last couple of nights and even then he only took it once. I’ve tried to give a muslin with some booby milk on it in his cot but he doesn’t seem to have taken to it. He LOVES these flannels I use to wash them after eating, he chews on them when they are wet they seem to help his teeth. No other soothers. To summarise he has only ever really settled to sleep on me, in the pram or in a bed I’ve been feeding him on and I’ve just left him there rather than transferring him.
Overall I would say – the pram is a sleep association as is me! Fed to sleep and rocked. Also when I sing twinkle star it really settles him he calms straight down if he is upset due to teething or wind. I’ve noticed this week he seems to have some separation anxiety during the first few hours of the night it seems he wakes regularly because he knows what’s coming.
I’ve never left him to cry, always got up quite quickly to settle and have used boob a lot to get the job done as it’s the quickest way to settle and soothe.
He went through a few weeks of really fighting his afternoon nap, I slinged him I tried a lot but it didn’t work and I often gave up which meant an overtired bedtime. I’ve never had him really settle in his cot, I’ve had him settle in my bed or the sofa bed where I’ve fed him to sleep and slipped off/out.
From 7 months I’ve tried really hard not to bed share, but he sometimes ended up with me if I’m really tired and just need them to sleep at like 4am! He has never slept through a whole night – the best he has done is 2100-0500!
Sleep space is a completely black room with black out blinds, white noise. I sing them twinkle twinkle little star as I’m feeding them and they feed to sleep then me and my partner transfer them both to the cot whilst tapping bums, rocking just before they go in to make sure they are totally gone!
Oh and lastly, Artie seems to hate the car when overtired or I try to get him to nap in it for his last nap!
Lennon: I have treated Lennon exactly the same as Artie so please see Artie case study for full info. I would say Lennon can self-settle – he sucks his fingers and he doesn’t scream so much he just whimpers but as soon as you pick him up he goes straight back off, I’ve tried before to give him boob and he refuses it in the night just wants to be close.
Same associations as Artie really, boob’ed to sleep, rocked and sssh’d, patted bum, etc. Sleeps well in the pram.
Artie: Very varied; can have a few resettles in the first few hours of sleep but often goes back off as soon as he is cuddled/rocked. Had sometimes in the night when he wakes up wanting to play if I’m persistent I can get him back down but on some occasions at like 5/530am I’ve just got up and given up. I try really hard to keep them in their sleep space from 6-6 or 7-7 depending on when bedtime was but if I feel they aren’t going down and will wake the other twin I take them out. He has done one night of 2100-0500 without a feed or resettle. I’ve noticed just this week as I’ve made an active effort not to feed him back to sleep he has started to use his thumb (he did this a little bit at the beginning but stopped maybe because I just gave boob!). He took a dummy but only once!
Lennon: Same as Artie very varied. This week I have tried to just settle in the cot by patting bum and sssshing which has worked and I feel like he is easier than Artie to settle – my partner finds him easier to get off without me for sure. Dad finds Lennon easier to settle.
