Anyone breastfed a premie?

[charlie15]

I had my baby a week ago, he came unexpectedly at 34+5 and is coming home from SCBU tomorrow

I have been pumping like a crazy woman since birth and luckily my milk has come in really well.

At the moment I have managed a couple of breast feeds, but he's a very sleepy boy, so likely that it will be bottle of EBM, breast and pumping.

Just wondering if any of you out there have any experience of breastfeeding a premie and can give me any tips, warnings and tell me what your experience was? I breastfed my daughter for 18 months and would love to do the same or longer this time, especially so as he came early. TIA x

 

[Weebles]

I know this post was a few weeks ago and I hope everything has been going smoothly. I wanted to share my success story with you as it started out very similar.

DD was born at 35 weeks and in the NICU for a week. As she was only allowed out of the incubator for short amounts of time and she was very sleepy so I could only attempt breastfeeding for 10 minutes and then she was fed what I had pumped from a bottle. I was recovering from surgery and it was exhausting but we made it.

Having a baby in the NICU (even for a short amount of time) was very traumatic for me and it didn't hit until we were home. I had a friend who went through it and talking to her about it, just someone who understood, really helped. That being said, things got much easier once we were all home too and I hope you are finding the same to be true!

I stopped supplementing with pumped milk and started storing it in the freezer immediately. She had a couple extra dr visits early on and she grew every time so I was comfortable with that. She cluster fed a lot and she slept a lot. I don't feel like she really "woke up" until she was a couple months old. My DS was also born 35 weeks (although he didn't need to be in he NICU) and he was very very sleepy too. DD still loves nursing, she's 9 months now and going strong.

 

[DobbyForever]

Hugs no experience just wanted to say that if you end up pumping that’s ok. My son wasn’t a preemie but was very small. He started out on neosure why I used a pump to build up my supply. Ultimately, my milk wasn’t enough calories for his body that was playing catch up. So he would cry 9 hours a day and wasn’t gaining when I switched to just bm. So I ended up fortifying. I recently stopped and his weight gain slowed again so dramatically i’m Back to that. So I pump as much as I can and add a couple teaspoons of formula.

Did they give you a hospital grade pump? I was given a medela symphony because of our medical need it’d Covered by my insurance just has to be renewed every 3 months

 

[charlie15]

Thanks weebles, well we have been at home 4 weeks now and he his 5 weeks today, almost at his due date! I have continued pumping and give him a bottle at night as his latch is awful at night and I worry that he's not getting enough hind milk. He is gaining well and I was now going to stop pumping as we have a fair amount in the freezer. However I changed my mind the last few days as his latch has got worse, just shallow and lazy, so will keep pumping if just to keep my supply decent. Did yours have any problem with latching? Ds is hit and miss tbh!

Thanks Dobby, yes I have got a pump, the medula symphony, the double one, we have rented it out from the company. Hope you're boy is still growing well, you have to do what you have to do. I have been lucky as my milk seems to do the job with ds, just a slight latch problem now that make worry about supply so will carry on pumping until he's about 3 months I think, I only do it twice a day alongside feeding, so not as hard as exclusively pumping.

 

[Weebles]

I wouldn't worry about hind milk, especially since he is gaining well. That is really the best indication if he is getting enough milk. DD was a little lazy when she was that young too. With her it it wasn't latching though, she just didn't want to suck. I even used to call her a lazy baby. (With love) Sometimes I hand expressed a little bit onto her lips and that would encourage her to latch/suck better. If there are no lip/longue tie issues you really might just be battleing a case of the sleepies.

 

[DobbyForever]

Awesome! I love the symphony. I had an ameda something that came with my insurance as well, and omg it was so loud and not as efficient. I'm glad you are able to just do bm. Hopefully the latch will improve. Is it to the point of meeting with a lactation consultant? I have Kaiser so LCs were covered by my insurance.

I agree with Weebles though. The best measure is weight gain. If he's gaining well and not crying inexplicably, he's doing well and so are you! And everything else Weebles said. Weebles is so knowledgable.

 

[charlie15]

Thanks girls! Well I think I have sort of sorted the latch with the help of a very good blog with some great tips. He needs a bit of support with it, but it has improved. However sometimes he has a weak suck too! Another lazy baby here I think! Oh well next weigh in on Monday, then may get him weighed a week later just to monitor it more closely.

The medula symphony is great!!