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6.11.2012

MOMs of Mulitples- Feeding Schedule

Hello All! It's that time again!  Another MOMs Monday! Today our topic is feeding schedules and our wonderful host is the fabulous Jennifer from The Vanzant Family! Hop on over here and link up to share your feeding schedule!


When my twins came home from the hospital they are were already on a schedule from being in the nicu. Their feeding was required every three hours because of their small size so we were advised to not let them sleep more than four hours tops at night. 

We tried our best to keep the environment quiet and calm since they were used to mainly sleeping in the NICU.  In the Nicu they ate at 8,11,2, and 5 around the clock. We tried to stick with this but once you let them sleep for 4 hours at night the times got off. We basically stuck to a three hour schedule during the day and then did one four hour stretch at night. 

Once they got a little bigger we were able to stretch to four hours during the day.  We basically did 8, 12, 4 then in the in evening we cluster fed them.  So we would feed every 2- 21/2 hours.  So if their last feeding for the day was at 4 we then fed them at 6,8, 10 and then tried to do a long stretch. They would typically wake up between 5-6 in the morning. We would feed them and put them back down until around 8.  Eventually they dropped the middle of the night feeding.  And once they got even bigger we dropped the 10 pm feeding. You can read more about cluster feeding here.

Once we introduced solid food I would feed them their solid about an hour after their bottle.  Here is what our schedule looks like now including naps*.  (we are working on dropping bottles and moving down to one nap so this schedule is very flexible)

8- Wake up change diaper, have morning bottle
9- Breakfast of solids
10- nap
11-change diaper and change clothes for the day
12- Lunch
12:30-2 Play time
2-nap
4- snack
5:30-dinner
7- Bath
7:30- bottle and bed


That's what our schedule looks like now. We are pretty flexible but we try to stay with in thirty minutes. I believe that babies thrive on knowing what is coming next.  It took us a while to get here and once you get used to a schedule of course they change it up on you! You got to just go with the flow!  I read many books about schedules and pulled from them all to create something that works for our family! Some of my favorites are The Baby Whisperer, Moms On Call, and Twins,Triplets and Quads!

Next week we will be answering any questions that you have. Please leave a comment with any questions that you may have so that we can answer them. Again, click on over here and link up! 



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