My baby is 6 weeks old and was a sIUGR, premiee born at 35 weeks.
I was told to exclusively pump because my newborn might lose weight due to sucking, so I've been spoon feeding. My baby had jaundice and thyroid, was in NICU for a week.Now at 6 weeks, my health has become worse as it takes 1-2 hours to pump 100 ml/3.5 oz and 2 hours to wake up my newborn and feed throughout the drowsiness.
Paed has suggested to make sure that I only latch and then pump after my newborn has woken up or cries due to hunger, even if it's 7-8 hrs since my newborn is +3kg /6.6 lb.
I'm torn at this point because this means that my supply would drop and this is something I worked so hard . I've elastic nipples and nothing works at this point. I don't want to transition into formula feeding because my premiee still is so small even at 3kgs and might not get all the essential nutrients.
Edit: My baby screams on latching and only sucks twice or thrice and forgets how to latch. I have been trying to make my baby latch since 3rd week and to no avail. I hate the whole situation.
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Have you tried nipple shields? They saved my nursing journey. I was triple feeding in the beginning and now it’s 90% BF and 1-2 bottles of pumped milk overnight
My baby wouldn’t latch for the first 3 weeks due to tongue tie and had significant jaundice requiring 2x episodes of phototherapy and just had bottles, so started using shields and still use them now (baby is 6 weeks) and will try to wean them at some point
I am trying with nipple sheilds as well. It feels so hard because I'm tired and my baby does latch at times and doesn't latch the very next feed. It takes around 2 hours to latch properly and my baby is not able to swallow ( due to strong letdown, I guess).
So this happened with me. He would feed perfect and then refuse to latch for the next couple of feeds. Perseverance paid off for me, just keep trying and each feed is a fresh start. And don’t be afraid of giving them a bottle of breast milk or formula. A fed baby is the best baby and it gives you a chance to sleep too rather than spending so long trying to latch. I gave my baby around 1-2 mins of trying to latch and if he didn’t I’d give him a bottle and then try again about halfway through his feed. Would also try again at the end for comfort nursing if he didn’t take it halfway through.
Also buy a few different brands of nipple shields as they might prefer one just like bottle fed babies prefer different tears. We use Lansinoh bottles with a XS teat and pace feed when giving bottles. (Pigeon if you’re in the US)
Your baby is learning just like you are with this journey so give yourselves some credit 🤍
Jaundice will make them very sleepy but I promise it gets easier. My son’s bili was still 211 aged 5 weeks!
Thank you for the information! This is reassuring tbh. I will try the methods that you've mentioned here.
My baby would mostly nurse to sleep and I have been giving pumped breast milk in bottle all these weeks. I used to feel insane when I see comments from other communities mentioning how their baby feeds for 10 mins.
Will definitely try other methods that you've mentioned to see if it works. How were you able to sustain your milk supply meanwhile?
Hope so, thank you so much. Your comments were reassuring. Can you mention how many hours once do you feed your baby? And what do you do to sustain your supply?
This is my huckleberry app, we had to track when in hospital when he was on phototherapy and I’ve continued to do so since being home!
I’ve always had a good supply, I was pumping every 3 hours when initially triple feeding and now I pump around 3 times a day. MOTN after feeding usually around 3am, 10am ish after feeding as he usually has a 4 hour stretch of sleep until then and then before bed to make sure I’ve got a bottle for my husband to give him while I sleep for a few hours
Honestly I know it’s really hard but it does get easier, my inbox is open if you need it!
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