Welcome back to another instalment of The Baby Feeding Series, where we spotlight real stories from real parents navigating the messy, emotional, and often confusing journey of feeding their babies. My hope is that this space becomes a comforting corner where others who feel lost or overwhelmed can read these experiences and feel a little less alone. Parenthood is hands-down the toughest role out there, but it’s also the most beautiful. Through these stories, I want to honour both the struggle and the joys.
I’m thrilled to share that this week in The Baby Feeding Series, we’re joined by the lovely Haley from The Foxfairies. I was over the moon when Haley reached out, offering to share her breastfeeding journey—and I’m so glad she did. Her experience as a breastfeeding mama to beautiful twins is raw, honest, and refreshingly straightforward. I think many mums will find comfort and familiarity in her story, recognising their own emotions and experiences reflected in her words. A huge thank you to Haley for generously sharing her voice with us.
HOW TO FEED TWINS
Before the babies blessed us with their presence, I did an ample amount of research around feeding. In theory it should have been simple: baby hungry. Adult feed baby. Baby full. Baby happy. But alas! When you have twins, it’s not quite as easy as A, B, C…
As soon as it was common knowledge that I was expecting twins, people would immediately comment on how it would be impossible to breastfeed two babies. Now, I am not suggesting that this would not have been a hard, even gruelling task, but not technically impossible. I wanted to keep an open, realistic mind. I said to myself: I would like to try and express to feed our babies so that my husband Pete could help, whilst giving the babies the best nutrition. If it doesn’t work out, for whatever reason, then formula it is. A fed baby is best, right?
Once I had accepted that I would not put pressure on myself to feed in one particular way, I felt quite calm about it all. Being the organised fairy that I am, I wanted to purchase all of the products that I needed for expressing, as well as formula, quite early on in my pregnancy. I bought a second-hand double breast pump from eBay (have you SEEN how much they are brand new??), MAM baby bottles (these have been fab! Will talk more about these in another post) as well as formula powder and breastmilk storage bags. I was equipped and ready for every eventuality.
However, one thing I wasn’t organised with and severely regretted not doing during my pregnancy was not reading the instructions on how to actually use the breast pump or how to sterilise the baby bottles. Now imagine, post emergency C-section, 10.30pm finally discharged from hospital and stumbling through our front door with two screaming, ravenous babies…and I needed to sit down and read an instruction manual on how to make this sucking contraption work before my boobs exploded…terrific. Don’t do this at home people. Learn from this. READ INSTRUCTIONS IN ADVANCE. You will not have the energy or mental capacity to do this straight after birth. My bad.
Feeding Twins Simultaneously
The one thing that really stuck in my mind when researching the most effective ways to feed twins was to feed them at the same time. This enables both babies to be on the same schedule, thus helping you to avoid becoming a feeding conveyor belt. So from day one that was what we did. If one baby woke up for their feed, the other one would get fed. It didn’t take long for the twins to become in sync with each other and wanting to be fed at the same time. I was lucky that Pete had three weeks with us at home, as well as my in-laws staying for two weeks, so I had support to feed the twins at the same time. But what was I to do when I was on my own with two hungry little humans?
I needed an item that would help keep the babies in position so that I could feed them both on my own. That was when I stumbled across these fantastic curved pillows (or doughnuts as Pete and I call them, see in photograph). These enabled us to independently and simultaneously feed our twins. The first time I did this successfully, I honestly felt like I was winning at life (can I get an applause and a gold sticker please?) I felt so proud that we had cracked how to single-handedly feed baby twins. Now all I had to do was master how to express to feed two babies at the same time. Piece of cake…?
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About Haley
Originally from Devon, Haley and her husband Pete relocated to London four years ago. Having worked in Education for over ten years, a stickler for organisation and now a twin mama, Haley blogs to capture their Foxfairy adventures.
You can find Haley over at The Foxfairies
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