"How Can You Have Too Many Children? That's Like Saying You Have Too Many Flowers" ~ Mother Teresa

A Peek Into Our Hectic, Crazy & Loving Family of Eleven

~♥~

Friday, September 10, 2010

Yep, Still Breastfeeding!

I figured it's been awhile since I've blogged about how we are doing with breastfeeding. I've had alot of people ask me "How DO you do it?". So, now that the girls and I are very well established in our breastfeeding relationship, I can share more. And hopefully this post will help, motivate and inspire more women to breastfeed. Even and especially MoM's. I blogged here about it. And here. And here. And I'm sure in a few more places. It was all-consuming for me at one time. Determination to breastfeed these triplets became who and what I was. There was NO.FREAKING.WAY that these babies were going to get formula. I hate formula. I hate everything about it. I hate that it is so readily available and accepted as a food for our babies. I hate that it is believed among so many to be 'as good for our babies' as breastmilk (it's NOT!). I hate that I hear so many mamas' say 'my baby was on formula and he/she is just fine'. I hate that WIC, a state funded program that provides food to lower income families, offers formula to Moms as acceptable nourishment for their babies as a CHOICE and not only if absolutely necessary. I think WIC should try harder to encourage breastfeeding.

Breastfeeding is NOT easy. It takes alot of patience and hard work. On the part of the mother and the baby. It IS what is best for your baby, regardless of what anyone who uses formula wants to believe, BREASTMILK IS NORMAL. Formula is NOT. It's manufactured. Man-made. And should only be used if it is deemed absolutely necessary. This has always been my opinion and I will continue to stand by it.

Ok. Mini-rant over. Now, on to us. How are we doing? How is the breastfeeding going?

It.is.awesome. Seriously. I thank the Gods, Goddesses, and all the other higher powers that be, every single day that I am breastfeeding my babies. Yes, all 3 of them. My most favorite thing that I get asked when I am out and about?

Friendly curious person, upon seeing me NIP: Are you really nursing ALL THREE OF THEM?

Me: No, just this one. She's my favorite :)

Ok, so I'm being sarcastic but really? I know it's hard to believe but yes, I am nursing all 3 of them. No, I didn't just pick one to breastfeed. I truly do exclusively breastfeed all 3 babies. I wish it weren't so shocking. Then maybe it would be more reassuring that it happens more often than not.

So, how DO we do it? It's really very simple. The hungriest babies get to eat first. The one who ate the least and who ate first the last time, gets first choice the next time around. Yes, there are times when I have a baby fussing while waiting to eat. Luckily, they don't take a long time to eat, and if the fussing gets too bad, I will let one baby get 'satisfied' then put a fussy baby on to eat and then follow back up with the original baby. I'll try to do a basic outline with their ages. If it's too boring, skip it and read more after. This will be a 'timeline' of sorts. Please keep in mind that the 'days' are all approximate. My memory of the true days are so sketchy so I'm just estimating the time on here. I know I'm fairly close, I also don't have time to go back through all the blog posts and paper work to get exact dates and such. But this will give you a good idea. A ballpark, so to say.

Let me start by saying that before the girls were born, I had a plan. Baby A, boob a. Baby B, boob b. Baby C, bottle. Next feeding, rotate. Sounds easy enough right? Well, let's just say, (if your reading this because your pregnant with multiples) if you have a plan, and it doesn't go as planned, IT'S OK. Try something else! Better yet, ditch the planning and just adopt a carefree-come-as-you-go-wait-and-see-roll-with-the-punches-go-with-the-flow attitude. Trust me. I am the most meticulously planned person ever. In the multiples game, plans don't always work.

Birth: Babies are receiving donor milk in the NICU. I'm pumping every 2-3 hours. 24 hours a day. The babies get my milk when I get any, but it's mostly donor milk through a tube in their nose.

Day 5/6: At this time the babies are at about 50/50 donor milk, mommy milk. All through the tubes. I try every feeding to latch them on, but they are still not quite getting it. It is very discouraging. It's stressful. It's hard. Still pumping every 2-3 hours 24/7.

Day 10ish: A nurse suggests bottling to strengthen their jaws. Telling me that it's easier for a baby to bottle feed them to breastfeed. I finally agree. I now know this to be not true. Breastfeeding is NATURAL. Bottling is not. A baby has to attempt to form his mouth to a bottle. A babys' mouth will naturally form to a breast. I was told that nursing them wore them out. Since they were preemies we had to save their energy for growing. Not true. Yes, breastfeeding is tiring, but also, if the NICU were to allow triplets to EBF, it sure would mess with their 3 and 4 hour schedules now wouldn't it? Of course a bottle is less tiring, it just drips out.

Day 16: After almost a week of bottling the babies are finally ready to go home. I am still p.u.m.p.i.n.g. All.the.time. Around the clock. Fix bottles, feed babies, pump while feeding. Start all over again in an hour. I do not, for the life of me, understand how or why a woman would pump, just to turn around and bottle it to her child. Stupid, extra steps. I haven't pumped since the babies got good at nursing.

End of Month #1Beginning of month #2:: Trying so hard to tandem nurse. It's a joke. I get all set up. Get a baby all latched on and good to go, try to latch on the other baby and baby #1 pops off. Get baby #2 on, go back to latch on baby #1, baby #2 pops off. All the while baby #3 is patiently waiting. It's usually Emilia. This goes on until I finally get them both on, and it lasts maybe 2-3 minutes before they fall asleep or pop off, or I just give up and give them bottles. And resort to the pump. This happened ALOT. It was really hard to continue at this point. I had everyone telling me that I did my best and it was time to let it go. EVERYONE. Um, do they not know me very well? Nuh-uh! No way. I'd come way too far to give up now.

Mid-month #2/End month #2: Stilllllllll pumping! And bottling. But this is where the catching on starts. This is when I got about a 2o minute feed out of Rosalie. Weigh her, only to discover she took in only 30 cc's (they were taking in 60-70 via bottle at this point). It is VERY hard to not give in to the numbers. This is also about the time that I started to really look at each baby and evaluate them as individuals. This is where the light bulb finally came on. And this is where Dr. Jack Newman and a student of his, Helen, saved us. This is the 'If I knew then, what I know now' moment. I would never had bottled. It made this process harder, although I do think it got us out of the NICU faster. I would have used a system called SNS. I believe it would have been a much easier, faster, better way than bottling. If you mention it and get blown off, PURSUE IT. It's worth a try before the bottle. I promise.

Month #3/Now: No more pumping!!! The babies get it. Now, we develop our 'system'. 2 babies nurse at a time. Always. It's time efficient. The 2 hungriest babies get first dibs. Or if a baby just needs comfort or a quick drink, it's always available. We EBF. On demand. Always. I mean, if you get thirsty, don't you get a drink? I do. I don't wait every 3-4 hours to get something to drink. Why should my baby? But, sometimes one has to wait. They are good at being patient. The way I see it, it's a good lesson to learn early on with triplets.
Nightime? Yep. They are even EBF at night. There is the occasion where all 3 wake at the same time to eat and we apply the same theory. The last one to eat has to wait. With Daddy. And it's not that long. No more than 15 minutes. I'm not saying they like it, but they do it. What choice do they have? One mama, 2 boobs, 3 babies. Simple math. And it doesn't happen alot. Maybe twice a week.
So, do you just sit around and nurse babies all day long? No. I really don't. At first, yes, it's a commitment. It does take a long time for the babies to eat and by the time you finish that 3rd baby, the first two are ready to go again. So, for 3-4 months you have to commit yourself fully to doing nothing but nursing your babies. So what? In the big scheme of things, it's a mere 3 months. 90 days. Maybe 120 days. OF THEIR LIFE. What else is more important? Nothing. I will say, if multiples are your first babies, do this. Plan to stay in bed breastfeeding babies all day every day for the first month. I kid you not. All.day.every.day. That will get you on the right path to EBF. I promise. Now, at almost 10 months, it takes me a total of 30 minutes every 4 hours or so to feed them. That's it. Soooo worth it, right?
Unless of course you would rather pack a suitcase of bottles and formula every time you leave the house.
So, I'm re-reading this and hoping that it shed some light on HOW we do this. I'm not sure it does. I HOPE it does. I'm not sure I can even tell anyone how to do what we do. For one, the first 6 months are a blur. For another, I really think it's something that you have to be in the heart of to really get it.
My best advice? DON'T GIVE UP!

43 comments:

  1. Oh. My. Gawd. Nicole, you are my hero. No kidding.

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  2. Thanks for slamming all of us multiple mamas who bottle/formula fed. We aren't bad. We didn't do a bad thing to our babies. I tried to pump and nurse. It didn't work out but that doesn't make me a bad mother to switch exclusively to formula.

    And guess what? Remember those 3/4 hour schedules you slammed? My babies were sleeping through the night at 4 months. Can you say that about your 9 month old babies? NO! You are up and down all night feeding and still exhausted. I know you love attachment parenting and feeding on demand 24/7. I don't. My kids are perfectly fine and my kids and I got more sleep.

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  3. I didn't 'slam' anything. This is all just me. :) I hate formula. And if you like it, your choice. And I'm not exhausted. I can sleep and breastfeed at the same time. Thats the thing. Its hard but anything worth doing is not easy.

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  4. And, to be precise, this post was about the numerous emails I get EVERY month from Moms who are pregnant with multiples begging me to know how I did it. So I was trying to tell them. This wasn't about slamming anyone or making anyone feel badly. If you do, then thats on you. This was for all the Moms that asked me "How do you do it". And this is how. :)

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  5. she's not slamming anyone. I think you are doing great. You are right. Breast is best. If its best for one baby, then its best for multiples. The basic "bests" for baby don't change just cuz there is more than one.
    And it is not natural for babies to sleep through the nights at 4 months old. You are doing great, Nicole.

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  6. Thanks mommalloyd. I was looking for the info about babies sleeping through the night and how it wasn't how babies are naturally wired, but I can't find it right now. If I do find it, I'll post it here in the comments since this wasn't even about sleeping. Not sure how that even got in here.

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  7. Nicole,

    I have to tell you, I am VERY pro breastfeeding. I have done so much research since I've been pregnant and even watching my friends and with their children... It's a very easy conclusion for me that breast is best.

    My goal is for formula to never touch my baby girl's lips. I have a very strong determination, and I get what I want. I get a LOT of people telling me not to get my hopes up on anything, that breast feeding didn't work for them, that formula is fine... and I think the same thing. Do these people know me? I am no quitting!

    Anyways, thank you for being such a good role model, not just for MoMs, but for us regular Moms too! If you can EBF triplets, any woman can EBF her child if she is determined to.

    Love you!
    Amber

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  8. @Chatting IM - She wasn't slamming anyone. She was sharing what she does. You have your opinions, other people have different ones. If you are offended by attachment parenting, you are probably reading the wrong blog.

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  10. Hi Nicole,
    Thanks for posting about your journey breastfeeding the girls :-) You are doing so well!

    I was extremely pro-breastfeeding before and during my pregnancy but a traumatic birth threw all my plans off course. I lost just over 4 1/2 pints of blood and it turns out the body makes itself more blood before it makes milk :-(

    In my country we don't have donor milk and the hospital only let us use the SNS system ONE TIME cuz of some dumb policy they had- they insisted on bottle feeding *shudder* it was a horrible time

    Anyway, even though this was my first baby and I was a young mum, I soldiered on even with every single nurse, midwife, & lactation consultants we saw saying I should give up. I never had enough milk to exclusively breastfeed- I was part of that (very small percent!) of woman who have a genuine under-supply of milk.

    We spent months of that first year in hospital and and I was shocked at how many people pressured us to stop breastfeeding:
    "Hon, it's been 6 weeks, if it was going to work it would have already" (it takes time!)

    "You're just making things harder for yourself" (how is feeding without having to make up formula, heat it, and wash up afterward and lug all the extra equipment around, harder?!)

    and even "You've got to put your baby's needs first not yours" (ah duh that's what I'm doing! Giving her delicious, nutritious milk from my breast!)

    Even though I have had so many people tell me I am a breastfeeding heroine with everything we went through, I often feel bad that Baby-Girl did need extra milk from a bottle...but rather than take offence or get angry (like that earlier poster), I see you as an INSPIRATION. It reinforces to me that I am not the only one who values breastfeeding so much, and gives me inspiration to try even harder and stand up for what is best for my baby when Baby-Girl-#2 comes along.

    So Thanks again for sharing, and well done to you!

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  11. YAY Nicole! I'm so happy that you're doing so great nursing those baby girls!! Once again, people come out from the woodwork to get defensive about their decisions. But those are their choices and not yours and you didn't slam anyone. I'm a huge advocate of nursing multiples (yes,it can be done - I've nursed both sets of our twins - the girls for 13+ months and the boys for 4.5 months now and going strong.) I love that you're letting MoMs know that it is possible to breastfeed exclusively. When we were first pg with twins I heard so many people say "I guess you'll give them formula, huh?" Umm - no. Breastmilk is even more important for preemies (which most multiples are) and there was no way I was going to feed it to my babies - no matter that more than one came at once.

    And @Chattin IM - My boys are exclusively breastfed ON DEMAND (no scheduling - they eat when they are hungry) and started sleeping through the night at 3 months. It's not what they eat that determines that - it's the babies. Of course formula is harder for them to digest, so it sits in their bellies longer which does tend to make them sleep a little deeper, but breastfed babies can sleep well too - IF it's their personalities. I'm sorry that nursing and pumping didn't work for you, but it was your decision to give it up. No one made you. And Nicole certainly wasn't slamming anyone. It IS possible to EBF multiples - and there's lots of us out there who do.That's all she's saying - and explaining what works for her.

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  12. I am a friend of Miranda's and Amber's and I check on your blog from time to time just to see how it's going. We met at Sling Mamas one time right before your girls were born. I seriously would be impressed if you remembered. Loved your co-sleeping blog when that came out. Wanted to share it with everyone who has ever complained about co-sleeping. Like, see... SHE does it. lol.

    Love this post too. Another one of my favorites now.

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  13. I have definitely enjoyed the last couple months of night-time feedings more than the earlier months in part because my son does all the work himself. I just sleep topless and he does the rest now that he can crawl!

    I am incredibly impressed that you've managed to nurse three babies and it's wonderful that you're sharing your techniques and mindset for the rest of us. Keep up the good work!

    One thing I wanted to point out, though... saying "Breast is best" is a formula company technique--it makes it seem less attainable (who is ever the best at anything, really?). I've found it helpful to say that breast is NORMAL so that it sounds like something anyone can do--just like it should.

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  14. Breast is not "best", that makes formula sound like an acceptable choice. Breast milk is the standard for infant feeding, formula is substandard. Formula increases risks for all sorts of nasty illnesses, etc. There is a reason the World Health Organization states that formula is the 4th choice for infant feeding, after 1. Mom nursing directly, 2. mom pumping then storing for later, 3. mom using donor milk and then 4. Commercially prepared formula.

    Since when has doing what is easiest been in the best interest of our children? It would be easier to throw them in the back of the van, no car seats, than to strap them all in, fighting with the toddler who does not like the car. It would be cheaper to skip doctor's visits and not get shots, let them stay home and play pc games rather than go to school, etc. Sometimes parents have to make the choice that is best for their children, not the easiest thing for the parents.

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  15. Thanks for posting about how your feeding journey has gone and is continuing with your 3 girls, I'm not sure that I could have written so clearly about my early days with my twins or my singles for that matter!

    I agree that establishing breastfeeding takes determination, patience and commitment and help. Without one of these, you also need a great deal of luck.

    Congratulations on achieving what you set out to do and thank you for blogging it to help spread your knowlege.

    Love and hugs,
    Emma

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  16. I hate formula, too. HATE it. Never want it in my house, near my kids, blech. The stuff makes me want to vomit.

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  17. Took out the 'Breast Is Best' statement :)

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  18. I'm a bit to exhausted atm to read this, but am SO glad you posted it. On 9.9.10 at my regular OB appt with no signs or symptoms she discovered I was dilated to 7 and baby A was moving into the cervix. So I had an emergency C-Section at 27w and 5d. All 3 are doing well and I'm pumping every 2-3 hours, but still not getting anything. I did skim your post and see you struggled as well so that makes me feel better to know you are doing so well now. Once I'm rested up I'll have to read this. I did have someone pick up Fenugreek for me. We aren't ready for Kangaroo Time and I'm worried I'll need some help encouraging my body to produce enough and we aren't getting that physical contact.

    Again, Thanks for sharing your journey with us!!

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  19. Christina, Congratulations on your babies! And keep pumping! As long as your stimulating you should be ok, Even if your not getting anything, PUMP. I relied on pumping alot those first few weeks. You need a hospital grade pump. Your insurance will cover it after you go home. They should cover it until the babys due date. Start to drink Mothers Milk Tea. 2-3 times a day. It will helps TONS and its all natural. Start it now, dont wait for a 'problem' to arise. Pump in the room with your babies. Just being near them will help. Does your hospital do donor milk? Oh how I wish I was close by to help you in person. Please keep me posted. Email me and I can give you my phone number. Call anytime. Any questions, support, ANYTHING. Take care mama.

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  20. And dont worry about not getting anything yet. It can take 5-7 days to get something. Remember, your body needs to rest up from surgery. Dont get discouraged! Just remember SUPPLY AND DEMAND.

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  21. OMG what an INSPIRATION! You are my new hero! ;-) I know one woman who excl. BFed twins off *one* breast (other side completely unfunctional)...it was always testament to me that we could produce milk for quads if only we had the time and hands to do everything ELSE for them...

    I know two excl. BFing twin moms, aside from that lady, but you are the first excl. BFing triplet mom I have ever come across. KUDOS to you!! :-) And thanks for normalizing it and explaining it so easily! :-)

    I will admit however, I have often joked that I would nurse twins and triplets, but if it was quadruplets one would draw straws and get excl. formula from daddy. ;-) I probably would still try to BF but it's my way of jokingly saying I get that you produce enough milk but hey, MOOO already. That and not enough time to do anything else. ;-)

    Anyhow, again, kudos to you! :-) I've excl. BF all 3 of mine, tandem nursing 2 of them...but am not a MoM. :-)

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  22. I LOVE how open you are! It is a freakin nightmare at first but SO worth it!!! My twin daughters are 5 months old and EBF. I dont even remember those first few weeks. Its such a blur. I didnt have any milk for 7 days!!! I pumped pumped pumped til I thought I would go insane. I had one who latched...one who didnt. AND a c section. I didnt give up even tho everyone pressured me to do so. I continued to pump and BF and unfortunately had to give breastmilk to the baby who didnt latch via bottle. Magically when she was 5 wks she LATCHED. It was A-mazing! Now they are both going strong. I love it. I couldnt imagine feeding them any other way.

    I work in postpartum and I actually had a nurse say "what kind of formula do you use?"
    me: "none. Breastmilk only."
    Nurse: "Really?" "They dont like formula?"

    WTHHHHHHHH!!!!People can be so backwards. If they were singletons I would have BF so just b/c they happen to be born together I dont? I admit to people that it was hell at first but now its easy. It takes a huge commitment but having a baby takes a huge commitment anyway! They are always amazed when I continue to pump at work too. I will do anything for my babies.

    Good work Nicole!

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  23. Nicole,

    Reading your story is like readying my own story except I had twins. It is great to see some breastfeeding advocates out there. More MOMs need to breastfeed and be resources to other MOMs.

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  24. Don't forget fenugreek (do not take if you have a peanut allergy. I found that out the hard way), fennel, and the hard core motillium, which can be bought on line from http://www.inhousepharmacy.com/digestive/motilium.html It is over the counter in Canada and Europe, a digestive aid that moves contents through the digestive system faster. The side effect of more milk is why breastfeeding mom's buy it.

    See Dr Newmans website http://www.drjacknewman.com/ for more information

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  25. Nicole, thought I had posted this but guess I didn't finish. I don't see your email on here, but mine is schro_98 at yahoo dot com

    I'm getting milk!! Got about 10mm combined last night and then around 20mm from each this morning. Didn't get to pump again until this evening as we were surprised with our first kangaroo times with two of the boys today. Tonight I had about 4oz. Hooray!!

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  26. Yay!! Just remember...Supply & Demand. Pump as if your babies are eating. That often and that long. Just like they are latched on. You gotta trick your body into thinking babies are nursing :) Pump even a few mins after your not getting anything so that your body will be tricked into thinking it needs to step up the production.

    I'll email you my phone number later tonight/tomorrow :)

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  27. This is amazing! I love the determination that you had to keep going and giving your babies what's best. Hopefully your story will show other moms of multiples that you still can breastfeed! Congrats mama!

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  28. Awesome for you!!! I just felt the need to tell you that. I wasn't going to comment until I read what Chattin wrote. She praises that her child sleeps the night through at 4 months. That's not a good thing! Research is showing that deeper sleep is showing links towards SIDS. You want your child to wake frequently and nurse. You don't want a child full of formula and unable to rouse themselves.
    You are an inspiration. Don't listen to crazy people!

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  29. Thanks Michelle. :) I know there is a study somewhere that explains the sleep habits of babies well, I just need to find it. I think I linked it before so I'll go back and look. I knew it was to do with SIDS. My babies should be just fine then. They stir/awaken all night long to latch on. Yes, I do have to wake up momentarily to switch a baby out but I unlatch her, lay her down next to me and latch the next baby on and go back to sleep. So yes, my sleep is interupted a few times a night. But such is the life of a Mommy :)

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  30. Good for you! Breastfeeding IS hard, but it's so worth it. Best thing I've ever done, and I've only ever had singles. Kudos to you and your lucky children.

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  31. I am honored to have read your post! You are a dedicated and loving mother who wants to give your babies the best! So many momma's would have found excuses but you didn't!! Keep up the great work!

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  32. So proud of you Mama, The love and dedication you have is so beautiful. I have nursed all of my 4 children, 2 of them sometimes at once. I'm still nursing my almost 2 y.o. pretty much on demand. I know the time involved in just nursing 1 baby, so I cannot even imagine the time involved in 3. Thank you so much for sharing and shedding some light into your world. You are proof it is possible. You are an inspiration.

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  33. WOW! I think it is amazing that you have EBF your triplets. I have BF 5, but the first two were only for a few months. I was discouraged very much. I'm so thankful that I got my strong legs before the 3rd child was born. BF'ing is awesome. While I was reading your story, I cried because I know that without strong determination, you could not have made it through those first few months (of BF'ing). I also laughed a little at the "trying to tandem nurse" part. I'm wondering if you are to the point that you can look back and laugh at that. I know you just see what you are doing as right. I just commend you for working very hard to do things right. I have the same feelings as you about formula, although I am not bold enough to tell people. I just say that it's each mother's choice to decide which form of feeding is right for them.
    Felicia

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  34. Great to read your post, so inspirational.

    I just wanted to add that some people genuinely do need to feed their babies formula - either short term or long term because of low supply or other issues. I'm in that boat, I have chronic low supply. But I have kept breastfeeding and use a supplementary nursing system to top up with formula. I don't like formula either but it does have its place. I would have loved to use donor milk but we don't have a milk bank in my town.

    I firmly believe that 99% of women can breastfeed even if it's only partially. There's a culture out there of breast vs formula. If women are struggling I think it's far better to go for breast AND formula rather than give up entirely and switch to formula. And with hard work and persistance, in most cases mum's supply will increase and she can fully breastfeed.

    You've done an amazing job, well done!

    Thanks,
    Marie

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  35. Just found your blog via a link on MDC. Congratulations on nursing your trio! You rock! I only have twins, but I have two sets of them that were all nursing at once so I can somewhat understand the difficulties in nursing HOM-not that my experience compares! It's so nice to see MOMs who don't buy into the myth that you can't breastfeed multiples. :)

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  36. just found your blog (someone linked it on Twitter) and i am in AWE!! you are phenomenal - i'm tandem nursing my 1 and 3 year old - i can't imagine nursing triplets - but i know i would do everything i could to make it happen

    oh, and go easy on us "you're nursing all of them?" dummies - it's totally something i would say - but if i had time to think about it, i would obviously know that if you're nursing one, you're nursing all of them - i'd just be to blown away by your nursing greatness to think it through! congrats!

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  37. Heather, WOW! Nursing 4 toddlers at once? You are MY hero! Toddler nursing is not fun. :/

    Dianthe, lol. I just find it funny that someone might think I was picking just one. I would probably say it too. :)

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  38. Wow, you are my inspiration!! I am pregnant with quadruplets and I am SO happy to have found this blog and post!! I had an amazing breastfeeding relationship with my daughter and can not imagine doing anything less for these babies, even though I know it will be an extreme challenge. I now feel more confident just by reading this post!! You did it with 3 babies and 2 breasts so why can't I do it with 4 babies and 2 breasts? What's one extra baby? Haha thank you again!

    Ashley
    www.themartins5.blogspot.com

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  39. Just found your blog and you rock! I tandem nursed my kids who are almost 6 and almost 4. My kindergartener weaned herself 10 days before her first day of school and my almost 4 year old is nursing once or twice a day. My sister is 12 weeks pregnant with twins so I can't wait to introduce her to your blog. She bf her first for 10 months and is pretty determined to do the same for the new babies. I have to say that I am humbled, I thought tandem nursing was pretty cool, but triplets???? you have me beat :)

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  40. http://cosleeping.nd.edu/frequently-asked-questions/

    That is a link to the mother baby sleep lab. Lots of good info about babies and safe sleep:)

    Really loved reading your post but the decorative black lines block a lot of the text for me:) hard to read on an I phone.

    LD

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  41. Wow, wow and wow! I am breastfeading my twins day and nigt, babywearing them and I use cloth dipers and sometimes I think I wont survive the first few years, but you have just made my day! Thanks :)

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  42. I came across to your blog after seeing your photograph in Facebook, breastfeeding two of your triplets and babywearing the other one. And after spending the whole evening reading it I must say I love it! Congratulations for your effort!

    I am a spanish mother of 14 months old fraternal twins, and I am still breastfeeding them. Although my twins were preemies and I didn't recieve too much help in the hospital I managed to achieve EBF with both of them. My daughter stayed 2 months in NICU, as her birth weight was only 1 kg, and she was feed with bottles all that time. It was very hard at first but definitely worth it! I achieved EBF with both of them when they were nearly three months old (my son came home with me from the hospital and was nursed on demand from the beginning, and I pumped until my daughter came home so she was also fed with my milk).

    As I told you before, I started writing a blog when my twins were born. As I am a lactivist, I try to encourage other mums to nurse their twins or al least try it, as when you are pregnant with multiples everybody tries to discourage you. Little by little I managed to create a community of mothers with multiples, and lately I have been asked a few times about breastfeeding with triolets. At this point, I really don't feel confortable giving my advice as I am not a mother of triplets.

    Therefore, I have been checking a few blogs looking for a successfull experiences with triplets breastfeeding and I think that this is a wonderfull post which could help a lot other mothers as you have explained, step by step, how can you achieve EBF with triplets. So the question is... do you mind if I translate this post and publish it in my blog? Of course, I would link to the original post in your blog. So do you mind if I do it? Thanks.

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  43. Wow! I can't believe that you were breastfeeding triplets. and you had time to write in your blog! You must had a lot of people helping you doing this otherwise i don't think you could have it done. Congratulations.

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