“You can’t do this by yourself,” the midwife told me as I lay in my bed, my three-day-old twins beside me (one in each arm). I was teaching myself how to tandem nurse them, and it was a little more complicated than I had thought: cradle one in the nook of my left arm, latch her; scoop the other one up with my right arm, rest her head on her sister’s lap, support her head with my right hand and guide her to latch too. It wasn't graceful or subtle, but I knew I actually could do it by myself. I just had to find the right way.
My first daughter, 20 months old when the twins were born, had nursed exclusively for 13 months; it had been so easy and so simple. I would throw on a nursing shirt, pop her in the carrier, and away we’d go. I could nurse anywhere (literally - from a crowded streetcar in a winter rush hour, to sitting at the table, hosting a dinner party; my claim to new-mom fame was that I was very, VERY good at nursing discretely), and this made our lives remarkably practical and streamlined.
So, when the twins were born, naturally I expected to repeat that first blissful experience, right?
Wrong.
Nursing twins is not easy - nursing ONE baby is not easy, especially in the earliest months. Nursing can often feel like your business is on display for the entire world to see, but the good news is you can feel like you have some semblance of rhythm in your life.
In my case, there was also a next-level mom guilt when you have three babies in two years - because NOBODY in your life gets enough attention - and I was committed to giving my twins as much natural, connected attachment parenting as I possibly could. I needed to know they were getting the best I had to offer. To do this and meet everyone’s needs (my own included), I found myself welcoming the introduction of bottle feeding into our lives. Bottle feeding was a great addition to our feeding system because it meant that I had that break time, so when it came time to nurse again, I felt rested.
While they napped, and with my toddler reading or playing beside me, I could pump and stock up a reserve of breast milk. Then when they were awake - and if we had to go anywhere, or if a family member was visiting - I had the luscious luxury of bottle feeding while I held one baby at a time or feeding a little one in someone else’s living room without my shirt fully bunched up around my neck while two babies had dinner.
Nuk Simply Natural makes this process so easy, giving my babies the best of both worlds - nature’s original super food, and a mom who felt like she was able to have even a small break from the demands of working overtime, while feeling confident I was giving them every ounce of nourishment and love I could. Even by myself.
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