Tuesday, May 25, 2010

No one ever said how hard breast feeding is

especially breast feeding a preemie. I have been pumping since she was born and I have about 1500 ozs in the freezer. Since she got so used to bottles in the hospital I have had problems getting her to latch on and eat an entire feeding at the breast. She has a great latch but shes lazy and gives up before she eats enough. So we try at least once a day on the breast and when she cries an hour later I give her breast milk in a bottle. She is getting better and going longer before she screams for her bottle so I guess we are making progress. Once she can go 2 hours before her bottle I will add in another feeding at the breast since she usually only goes 2 hours between bottles anyway. With her still being so small I have to make sure she is getting enough to eat so I have to continue with bottles instead of forcing her on the breast, but I am hopeful she will get it as she gets bigger and gains more stamina. I am sick of pumping every 3 hours!

3 comments:

  1. True story, it took my friend's daughter a long time to figure it out (4 or 5 months I think), but eventually, she was able to stop pumping, and EBF. Hang in there!

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  2. I agree with you! NOBODY tells you how hard it is! I had a horrible time at the beginning with breastfeeding. It was a lot of WORK to get them to eat. Lily is still tiny like you said, and smaller/younger babies to take more time to figure things out. I'd say it took Jack a good month to figure things out. The LC and nurses kept telling me...he's small, he was born almost a month early, give him time. I kept working at it and eventually he caught on. I am amazed that you have 1500 oz of milk frozen! That is wonderful! You are doing an amazing job Mama! Keep up the great work!

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  3. I can't imagine how hard it must be! Ours only spent 2 days in the NICU and was not a preemie, but we are still having trouble getting her to breastfeed because she also gets lazy after being fed bottles, so I am pumping around the clock too and I am already tired of it after a week! Huge kudos to you for keeping up with it for so long! I'm sure a lot of people would have given up by now. I hope Lily continues to become better and better at nursing!

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