Breastfeeding Twins beyond the first year

As I sat in the yard watching my boys play, the twins starting whining and fussing. So, naturally, I grabbed my nursing cape and fed them. As I looked down at the mess of legs peeking out from under the cape I felt totally overwhelmed by the blessings sitting on my lap. 

Rewind to last April and you'd find us in the NICU. 

After the twins were born early, my milk (which has always been slow to come in) needed to be built up before it could be the sole nourishment for the boys. I was determined to nurse them exclusively, but initially, they were on about half breastmilk/half formula. We were encouraged by the NICU to "give [ourselves] a break" and let formula do what it was made to do. 

The days after I was released from the hospital Mark would drive any pumped milk to the hospital and give the twins their 5 AM feeding (all on his own mind you).

Any time I was at the hospital I'd nurse, and loved it, but the dangling thought of just switching to straight formula was oh so tempting. 

However, my extremely supportive husband and my mother, kept reminding me of the tremendous benefits the twins were getting both nutritionally and emotionally. 

We stuck it out and as they grew, and after we brought them home, we worked with our doctor on lowering their formula intake and increasing breastmilk feeds.

I was terrified of starving them. What if they lost a few ounces?! 

It took a whole weekend of crabby babies for my milk supply to finally catch up. Nursing them almost constantly, but in the long run, those two days were well worth the positive outcome. 

Today these chubby (relative to their preemie-age) boys are great nursers! 

Since then, It hasn't been all easy, but that's for another post:). 

I often wonder what would have happened if we had just given up. No one would have blamed us (It was fricken hard work to pump and nurse and take care of three older boys).

But we didn't. We pushed through and today, these monkeys are still getting the supreme benefits that milk has to offer. 

I have a tentative goal of two years, to nurse all of our children but I've always been shy of that mark since the first three were less than two years apart. But who knows! At this point, there's no sign of slowing. And, I LOVE the snuggle-time with them. Who would want to give that up?

For now I'm still lucky enough to soak up moments like these