Help - I am BF my twins in NICU but the drs still want to make me bottle feed them

[Homeschooling Mom]

My babies have been in the NICU for 9 days after being born @34weeks. They are fine except that the drs want them to eat more (they are bottle and breast feeding - no feeding tube). The only thing they are hooked up to is the heart monitor and the pulse monitor. They sometimes drop from 100 down to 79 on the pulse if they eat too fast, but it goes right back up as soon as you take the breast or bottle out of their mouth.

I am breastfeeding them for about 15 minutes - when I pump for 10-15 minutes I get between 4oz to 8oz per breast. Then the drs want them to have a bottle with 40ml, but they only drink 20-30ml. I think that they are just full. I forced Elijah to eat more one time and he just spit it up - it was too much for him. They drink the full 40ml if I am not there to BF them. I want to take them home, but I also don't want to go against dr orders. They are either staying the same on weight each day or else gaining between 1oz to 3oz per day.

What is your opinion do you think I should ask to take them home???? I am not an inexperienced mom, I have a 5 year old and a 3 year old and I was a nanny for over 13 years before I had my kids - several years as a nanny to twins infants.

Thanks...

[marasam1210]

Originally Posted by Homeschooling Mom

My babies have been in the NICU for 9 days after being born @34weeks. They are fine except that the drs want them to eat more (they are bottle and breast feeding - no feeding tube). The only thing they are hooked up to is the heart monitor and the pulse monitor. They sometimes drop from 100 down to 79 on the pulse if they eat too fast, but it goes right back up as soon as you take the breast or bottle out of their mouth...
What is your opinion do you think I should ask to take them home????

I'm sorry you're feeling pressured into bottle feeds. My girls were extremely premature, so we didn't have a choice about breastfeeding from the beginning (they received breast milk by ng/og tube, and then by bottle because my girls had difficulty latching), but I followed our doctors' suggestions and I am happy with our choices in the NICU. Are your babies gaining weight?

I have no experience with 34 weekers, but I would worry about taking them home before the doctors advise it. You may be an experienced mom, but premature twins might be a different ballgame. You mentioned that your twins have As&Bs during feeds. Do they get A&Bs at any other time? Do they maintain their temperatures well? Would they need to come home on apnea monitors? Our NICU rarely discharged babies before 37 weeks adjusted age, which is when my girls came home. I've heard that babies could be discharged earlier but only if they have no As&Bs, feed well, and maintain their temps.

[MelJ]

although our 34 weekers weren't in the nicu, they were bf but was told by the neonatologist they HAD to be on neosure because of their sizes/weights.
They were on neosure for 6-8 months as well as breastfed. Honestly, I think doing what the doctors wanted helped tremendously. Our oldest and smallest twin is still a bit small for her age..but she is healthy!
I had NO intentions of bottle feeding them until they were born prematurely.
Are your babies on neosure or another high cal formula?
My recommendation is do what the neonatologist feels is best to get the babies weights up so they can go home happy and healthy. The formula will only be around for a short time!
Congrats & good luck

[Sunshine]

I think it really is just they want know the exactly amount how much they eat (drink). Our twins are born at 30 weeks and for one month in the nicu - i would BF them anytime when i was in but they want me to pump and to bring it in for freezing because they would know the exactly amount. So they get BM in the NICU all the time but only with the bottle. After they came home i never get them really back to BF, it was a big stressy thing anytime and i had to stay with my pump, what is such more time if you going after any feeding with twins to your pump ... time is our biggest treasure, i think they don't know *lol*

[Homeschooling Mom]

I just wanted to write an update. My twins are now 6 months old (they were born @ 34 weeks), and very healthy - Baby A - Leah - (born @ 4lbs.7oz.) is now 25 inches long and almost 15 lbs - Baby B - Elijah- (born @ 4lbs.10oz.) is now 25 1/4 inches long and almost 16 lbs. Both babies lost weight the first day as ALL babies do, they dropped down to just over 3lbs. If I had to do it all over again I would not have let them keep my babies in the NICU for more than 5 days - which was how long I was in the hospital - I would have taken them home when I went home. My babies were perfectly healthy and gaining weight, no breathing problems - other than when they were made to eat too much for their tiny tummies. Just an fyi - breastfed babies need to eat every 2 to 3 hours as breast milk is digested much faster than formula - so don't let NICU schedule make you wait 4 hours to feed your exclusively breastfed baby. Most breastfed babies eat less at each feeding, but eat more often.

Leah was in the NICU for almost 2 weeks, because doctors just kept wanting her to eat more and they only allowed me to breast feed for 10 to 15 minutes, well then she would eat too fast and then choke (they were never happy) - no breathing problems. Elijah was in NICU for almost 4 weeks for taking too long to eat and not eating what they thought was a correct amount - even though he was eating at least 6 to 8 ounces at every feeding that I nursed him, and his breathing would slow down when he would eat (only time he had breathing problems was when they were forcing him to eat too much or too fast), but that was because they were stuffing too much into him at one feeding. I wish now that I had just taken Elijah home with me when we took Leah home, or just took them both home the first week. They would have been fine. I know the hospital just needed more $$$$ out of us.

I didn't like how they made you feed the babies on their schedule and not on your children's schedule. They are children NOT machines. Every baby eats differently. The nurses would try to hurry the feedings because they had other babies to deal with, and other stuff to do. My breast milk comes out in great quantities even at first 6 to 8 oz at a feed, so my babies were getting fed enough (my first 3 days of pumping I got over 400 ounces of breast milk AND I was also nursing BOTH babies 3 to 4 feeding per day - after the first week I was pumping 400 ounces per DAY - they were amazed at the quantity of milk I produced) - most of the time they were gaining around 3 ounces per day. But they made me pump milk and give them 2 oz extra AFTER I had already breastfed them 6 to 8 oz or more, and they wondered why the babies wouldn't drink the bottle - BECAUSE THEY WEREN'T HUNGRY!! They would dump the rest in their tummies through a tube and then the babies would throw it up because it was WAAAY too much for their tiny tummies. Breast fed babies normally eat every 2 to 3 hours, but they were making me wait 4 hours to feed them - WHY??? Just so that it was easier on their schedule *&%#@%#. As you can tell, I am still a little bitter. I wanted my children home. I would go out to my car every night, after spending hours at the NICU, when I had just had major surgery, c-section, and I was exhausted, just sobbing my heart out that I had to leave my babies. Then they said they they didn't normally send home new premature twin babies, because they were afraid that the parents wouldn't want to get up with them through the night (WHAT??? DID THEY THINK THAT I WOULD STARVE MY BABIES - I DON'T THINK SO!!!). I didn't feel and still don't feel that it was the right thing to do. My children were well enough to go home and if I had been at a hospital without a NICU they would have gone home right away - they were perfectly healthy, and gaining a lot of weight (they were over 4lbs after 4 days, after dropping down to 3lbs after birth). I KNOW that they just needed the bodies in the NICU to hold jobs - I heard the nurses talking while I was there, about how a lot of them kept having to be sent home because their weren't enough babies for all the nurses to care for, so they needed to start making sure that the babies stayed longer, just until new ones we born and brought to the NICU.

Just an fyi to all you new Moms in the NICU you CAN breastfeed your babies and they can tell how much they are eating by weighing them before a feed and then after a feed. Don't let them tell you that you have to bottle feed*** your babies. ***As long as your babies are gaining weight, then they are getting enough milk. The nurses in the NICU would make me feed my babies so much that my son would start throwing up.

The day I brought my babies home from the hospital, I put them on a feed every 2 to 3 hour schedule and they ate just fine and were gaining the perfect amount of weight - according to my pediatrician. I wish that I had brought my own pediatrician into the NICU to see how my babies were doing, that I had gotten an outside second opinion and not just listened to the doctors and nurses there (I talked to the doctors several times about my children and they just acted rushed to get on with what they were doing).

PLEASE get a second opinion from your own pediatrician if you think that your babies should be allowed to go home. A mother knows best!! Babies usually thrive much better at home under a families love then being mostly ignored in the NICU. My nurse in a level 3 NICU had 3 babies in her care - sometimes 4 or more (when other nurses were on lunch or break) - that is just ridiculous. She didn't have time to snuggle my babies, or take time feeding them - it has been proven time and again that babies thrive when they are held and loved. I thought the NICU was suppose to be a place where your babies got specialized care???? NOT 1 nurse for 3 premature infants......

I just got the hospital bill for the NICU $50,000, luckily my insurance paid for all but $5000. But $50,000 for 1 nurse to care for 3 babies at one time???? WHERE IS THE SPECIALIZED CARE???? At my house we had 4 people looking after 2 babies - much better care then they were getting at the hospital. My daughter's heart scan was $5000, which was ridiculous as I was there for it and all they did was use an ultrasound to scan her chest for 10minutes, and then have another doctor look at the scan (perfectly healthy by-the-way).

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, if you think your babies should be able to go home, but the doctor won't ok it, get a second opinion from an OUTSIDE the hospital doctor, I wish that I had and would have saved myself a lot of anguish.

[Kimberly0205]

My B/G twins were in the NICU 14 days after being born at 34 weeks. My daughter didn't know how to latch on, my son did pretty well, but we supplemented with formula too. They both had apnea and my daughter had some breathing issues so I'm glad they stayed in the NICU for that amount of time. I do agree that the neonatologists and nurses wanted them to eat more than they were ready for. My daughter choked several times and my son puked up often after a feeding. My pediatrician was surprised at how much they were taking during feedings at our first visit. I did B/F and supplementation, but I wish I would have lowered the amount taken at each feeding when we got home for the sake of their little tummies!

[heatherak]

I am counting my blessings with my NICU experience. My girls were born at 34w3d and weighed similar weights...4lbs6oz and 4lbs13oz. They went to the NICU and were there for 6 days. The staff was phenomenal. I have run into the nurse that took care of them most days at the grocery store since then (the girls are almost 5 years old) and she still remembers me and talks to them by name.
I have never doubted that they needed those 6 days. They were there to increase their feeds, no other reason, and the staff was phenomenal. The neonatologists consulted with the staff, consulted with my pediatrician (who went in every morning before going to the office to check on their babies in the NICU) and most important, consulted with my husband and I.
Yes, our babies were fed on a schedule (every 3 hours...I cannot believe that yours had to wait for 4 years). I could not imagine, in our busy NICU, the nurses not feeding on a schedule...imagine all 3 of the babies you were in charge of screaming or crying to be fed at the same time. And, yes, NICU nurses are in charge of feeding the babies, as well as dealing with the little ones that need extra. The 2nd day my girls were in the NICU, I saw a little 24 weeker brought in. I cried and cried and cried and felt selfish for being sad that my babies were in the NICU and I was leaving that day. I couldn't imagine what that baby's family was going through. My nurse was put in charge of that baby and I watched her doing 100 different things at once. That baby didn't make it, and not because the nurse didn't do enough. She put her heart and soul into that baby and he didn't even make it.
If you are still on these boards, have you ever thought about notifying the hospital of your concerns instead of just venting on here? Bringing it up to the admin that 4 hours isn't an acceptable wait time for feeding for any newborn, let alone a NICU newborn. Seems like nothing will change if you don't have communication with the hospital.
Again, I feel blessed for my NICU experience. I know the bills were astronomical, but I would spend every penny of it again if I had to...the money covers much more than the nursing staff.