Something new to celebrate
I spoke to my LC about the issues I've been having with the nicu director & the questions I have regarding what he's said. She's got a lot of resources for me regarding helping Sean latch properly if he has low muscle tone or a hard time sucking.
She's also giving me some references for LC's at the hosp I'm delivering at to help me navigate bfing while he's in the nicu and to be my advocate.
I have been so apprehensive about what the nicu director has said about him not waiting until my milk comes in and making sure Sean is able to eat 30cc's of something before he's released to come home. He also said if it's bm, he needs to be getting 30cc's of bm. Um..... my milk didn't come for 5 days last time and I'm pretty sure I wasn't able to pump 30cc's of colostrum. Although I didn't try.
Anyway, just one more thing to celebrate.
Re: Something new to celebrate
I'm sure you've already thought about it, but I would recommend renting a hospital grade pump to have with you right from the start. My milk never came in fully with DD but having tried 3 different pumps, the hospital grade one was heads and tails better than the others. I was told repeatedly by different LCs that the better the pump, the better and faster the milk would come in.
GL through everything and yay for good news!
Seriously, your Neonatologist was way out of line in my opinion. They never even fed my boy until a few days after surgery, and he was 6 days old at the time of surgery. They did give him TPN for nutrition, but still. Sean will be just fine and just make sure you are firm with them. The ICU is a bit intimidating, but after being there as long as we were, I got my way pretty easily. I learned that tears work too!
I wasn't trying...but it did get me my way.
We had pumping rooms in the NICU that were very convenient for pumping. Our hospital really encouraged pumping and LC's always came to visit and gave you everything you needed to be successful at BF-ing or pumping. I remember getting colostrum the first night...only a few CC's, but by the next day I think I did get 30 cc's total. I think I tried pumping every 3 hours. Your body might surprise you! We only used the colostrum for mouth cares as he was not able to eat due to his airway issues and probable upcoming surgery. They also gave us labels with Carter's name to fill out the date and time of pumping and there was a huge room with a freezer that you were assigned a number to store your milk in. I hope your experience with BF-ing or pumping in the NICU is as good as ours. You probably won't be there for very long either at birth, an even more important reason to make sure he gets the breast milk since that what he will be getting at home.