Hello,
This might be a long first post but I would appreciate any advice from anyone with the time to read my message.
My DD is 11 and a half weeks old and was born at 33+6 gestation. She was tube fed in hospital a mix of formula and my breast milk, and I wanted to breastfeed her but she had a small mouth and I have small flat nipples so was advised to use medela breast shields. She has always been a very sleepy baby and remains so and just didn't have the energy or desire to feed for long.
She came home after 3 weeks and was EBF for 10 days when she was weighed and concerns were raised as she was only gaining 11g per day and it had to be at east 20g. I was given 48 hours to improve this or she would have to go onto formula. I managed this, but was so stressed out that I began expressing and mix fed in bottles breast milk and formula until my pumped supply was good enough to feed exclusively expressed milk.
I did try to put her on the breast 1 day - but she lost 60g that day ( I had been prescribed baby weighing scales for a month to keep and eye on her weight gain) so lost all confidence and she has been on exclusively expressed breastmilk since then.
she was 2455g at birth and at 11 weeks exactly weighed 4760g so she has done really well on this regime and I should stress that I am committed to the cause if this is the best thing for her even though I must confess it is hard pumping and feeding, and I do have some ready made cartons for if we are out and about and I have no breastmilk with me.
Anyway - sorry this is long - but this afternoon she has been fussy at her last 2 bottles and was grizzling, so in desperation I took her to bed and put her mouth near my breast (no nipple shields and she seemed to start sucking!). I was very surprised but left her to it, and then burped her and switched sides when she stopped and again she started sucking.
Sooooooooooo - the though that I might be able to feed her normally has reared its head. Do any of you think that at almost 12 weeks I could manage to put her onto the breast or is it too late? Also - I was due to pump about 14.30, but as she has just fed, but may not have taken much, should I not pump and try her again in about an hour?? I have worked so hard to get my supply up - now pumping more than she eats daily, that I do not want to risk that, but it would be lovely to breastfeed at least some of the time.
I am completely out of my depth and no idea what to do - I must say that knowing how much she has eaten is a benefit of pumping - except then I know when she hasn't eaten much also.
Could any of you very experienced ladies offer some advice about what might be possible???
many thanks for any words of wisdom - I really appreciate your time if you have gotten this far!