BF?

*Sweet pea*

Was anyone able to breastfeed there preemie or did you all have to pump for them to get breast milk?

kcswifey

My son was born at 28 weeks so i pumped until he was 33 gestational weeks...then he breastfed like a champ!

*Sweet pea*

That's the answer I was hoping for Thx

 

ijack

Mine didn't go quite as well, but she started BFing full-time around 4 months old (1.5mo adjusted) and we're still going! It was a ton of work, but so worth it

gymrat

My advice is to make sure that they don't give your child a bottle first. If you want to go from pumping to breastfeeding make sure that when your child is ready to feed orally that you exclusively BF those feedings for awhile.The LC's in our NICU suggested 3 days of just BFing before introducing the bottle.

My DH gave my DS the bottle right away (he didn't know what the LC's told me) and he had such a hard time learning how to BF. It frustrated us both so much. My daughter loved BFing but she wasn't strong enough to pull a full feed.

In the end I ended up pumping exclusively for them because it was too stressful for me to work on BFing twins and then have to pump too. You can definitely do it - it's not immpossible by any means. But, if you can't know that it's also possible to EP if you really want you baby to get your milk.

 

GOOD LUCK!

hailie

We tried BF the first few days, but never got though a full feed so DS had to supplement through his NG tube or w/ a bottle. He got better at it during his NICU stay but really seemed to catch on when he was discharged. We are still going! 

Aidge

Sam has been BFing since 33 weeks and is a champ. ?He has transitioned from bottle to breast and back very well so far. ?GL!

purplepuggles

jack nurses pretty well, but since i have to be at work part time we can't do it all the time. i am hoping that when we comes home we can work on getting to EBF. right now i just pump most of the time

Mrs. Destructo

I pumped essentially exclusively until they came home. Both of my boys took to  nursing really well - we practiced several times in the NICU, and when we got home we didn't have any big problems. I did, however, give them mostly bottles for about 1.5 months after they came home because I was super paranoid about them eating enough.

We eventually EBFed, except 1 bottle a day, and we made it to a year! I'd still be nursing the little turkies if they would let me, but they are far too interested in the world to snuggle up with mom to eat.