babies are fed there is an hour and a half of non-feeding time before the
cycle starts again. If there are two feeders in your home, you could
always have two babies eating at the same time.
With more help, all babies in a home with triplets or twins can be on
approximately the same schedule. With two helpers, three babies can eat
at the same time. Because babies eat at different speeds, there will be a
fast eater and a slow eater. Once you figure out who eats slowest and who
fastest, you can establish a system whereby one helper feeds the slow
eater while the second helper feeds the fastest eater and the in-between
eater. A breast-feeding mom can feed two babies at the same time while
someone gives a bottle to the third baby.
Older bottle-fed babies can be propped up and fed two at a time or
even three at a time, but you can’t prop up bottles for premature babies or
small babies who are having difficulty learning to suck.
Waketime
You won’t need to focus on waketime during the first weeks your babies
are home, but soon they will stay awake for the whole feeding and begin
to take an interest in the world around them. A reclining upright seat is
the perfect place to put a baby for these early wake-time periods. The seat
allows the baby to look around and wave arms and legs while still
upright, while at the same time discouraging them from spitting up—a
common occurrence in babies who are lying horizontally. Reclining seats
are useful later for feeding with a propped-up bottle or for beginning
solids when the babies are still too small for high chairs. A word of
caution: never leave a baby unattended in a seat.
Waketime activity for multiples doesn’t require that you have three of
everything. Babies tire of most activities after ten to twenty minutes, so
you can set up rotating “stations.” One baby is in the wind-up swing
while another plays with a rattle in the playpen; the third is in the bouncy
seat playing with a different rattle or sitting with mommy singing a song
and playing one on one. At fifteen-minute intervals, you rotate the babies
to the next activity.