Anyone bf a preemie?

[BabyMaybe917]

My preemie is home and still managing an acceptable weight gain they want 18g to 30g a day and she's currently at 20g so barely enough. She has to have 3 bottles a day of breastmilk fortified with extra calories and the rest of the time she nurses.

Well she's not the best at transferring milk. Some nursing sessions are awesome with long draws and swallows every suck and others are barely any swallowing. She falls asleep at the breast and when I lay her down she wakes right back up hungry. So I started trying to relatch her and wake her up to eat more. She still wakes up hungry sometimes immediately sometimes within 10 minutes. It's very frustrating and I don't know what to do. The worst part is I still have to pump 8 times a day so every 3 hours when she's eating (per lc recommendation) until her suck is stronger and transfer is better. So the frustrating part is she seems to be sleeping and full and won't latch to the breast because she's out! But no sooner than I turn on my double electric and she's hungry and crying. Well then I'm attached to then pump so we've been giving her bottles to top her off. And I can't give the bottle while I pump because of the position she has to to be in to drink from the bottle. I don't want to stop pumping once I start because of timing. I want there to be milk for the next time she's hungry so I don't want to push that back to

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Kelskiii]

Could you possibly stop pumping & let your LO try to latch on. If her latch is still poor she may not get a lot of milk & you can pump the milk afterwards. She is still telling your body to make milk at this point. You're better off letting her latch on when she is awake & wanting to feed than when you have to wake her. My LO really struggled with latching & sleeping constantly, it's so hard to get a sleeping baby to latch on correctly.

You are doing well & keep going! I know it's hard but it does get easier.

 

[kanga]

I've just been through this with my 35 weeker. It is so tough. You'll be topping up for a while yet, do you have a freezer stash? It's very difficult because of the strength the preemie doesn't have compared to a term baby of good weight. Stick with it, that's all you can do really. Unfortunately there's no magic formula for getting them to nurse more, if just comes with time and maturity. Xx

 

[kanga]

Also 20g a day is very good! Are you being visited by a neonatal nurse? They are obsessed with weight gain and want to see babies following lines and patterns. But not all babies are the same so try not to get sucked into their mentality (v hard I know!)

 

[TTCaWee1]

When we started bf, the lc had us use a nipple shield bc preemies have a harder time latching etc. Ellie is almost 11 weeks, 5 weeks adjusted, and still uses it. We tried it without and it just doesn't work for us.

 

[BabyMaybe917]

Freezer stash.... yes my entire deep freeze. I'm fortunate in that respect. I have several hundred ounces saved up. She started getting 2ml let feed 8x a day and progressed. I could pump between 30 and 35 ounces when I was exclusively pumping. So my stash built up quickly. After Ellie nurses I'm still pumping now and getting 2oz a session. If she doesn't nursed I get closer to 3.5 oz. So I'm still contributing to my stash.

Home health nurse comes but Monday is her last visit abd her scales are way off from ny Dr's. So is her thermometer... Ellie is gaining quite well based on her peds scale so I'm happy.

I should have said we're using a nipple shield already too. Ellie will latch and give maybe 2 sucks without it. She then gives me a horrified look and spits it out to scream.

We did make progress yesterday. I tried football hold for the first time. It went great! She seems to transfer more effectively in this position and I've noticed I pump quite a bit less from the side she nurses on compared to cross cradle position. Of course that's not the best indicator but it's something. I've also started noticing my breast become squishy and soft after she nursed compated compared to the opposite side. And finally... her diapers are getting fuller. She's having 8-10 wets and 3-6 poos.

 

[mamaduke]

With DS2, I found that it worked best if I pumped some milk off to soften the breast, making it easier for him to latch. I have some stashed milk from those times, and at the same time, I was able to establish BFing with my late term preemie.

He's past many of the late term preemie markers and no longer needs me to pump for him to latch.

Be persistent and stay strong. If it's meant to be, it'll happen.

 

[Srrme]

When my 28.6 weeker came home he went from exclusively drinking my milk from bottles to nursing. He fell asleep at the breast a lot, and would nurse for 5-10 minutes each time, but he nursed every 1-2 hours. My 35 weeker did the same.