N4 days old, given bottles in SCBU 1st 2 days, wont latch on. Help!

[BBWBabeLisa]

Hiya
I'm just after any pieces of advice that may be out there. I'm diabetic and dd's blood sugars were low after birth so she was taken to SCBU and bottle fed while having hourly blood sugar checks. Despite asking several times I wasn't brought a pump to start stimulating/expressing and mw's kept reassuring me there'd be no problem bf'ing after her being on bottles.
She came out of SCBU at 2 days old and wasn't able to get a drop from my breasts (at which point I burst into tears and the mw's got me a pump), altho she's trying to suck a few times before getting grizzly I've been too scared of letting her blood sugars drop again so kept giving bottles. We came home from hospital yesterday (3 days post cs) and I've been trying to pump as often as I can to stimulate production and finally this morning I got about 10 mls (in total from both) to come out (which I gave her in addition to her bottles). I've been putting her to my breast before every feed but I can't get her to suck more than 3 or 4 times before she gives up and screams til she gets a bottle. It probably doesn't help that I have quite flat nipples. I'm determined not to give up on this but I do believe in not trying to re-invent the wheel so would welcome any ideas that have worked for you.

It doesn't sound as if you have had the greatest support in hospital, but it is early days and you can certainly turn things round

You should have been expressing (by hand - no need for a pump and hand expressing is usually more effective in the early days...but you should have been told that ) right from the very start. Even now, hand expressing may be better for you - ask the community midwife to show you what to do, or have a look on the web.

Skin to skin contact with your baby, co-bathing, and lots and lots of holding so she can snuggle up to you and 'remember' what a lovely place the breast really is....all that will help.

She may be feeling a bit cross (hourly blood sugar checks are not pleasant) and both of you missed out on early closeness, so feel free to make up for it now! Think more in terms of her being with you and feeding and licking a bit at every opportunity, than a big production number of 'feed time'.

Yes....continue expressing at least 8 times a day until things get sorted. And give one of the helplines a call. Good luck and check back here

Oh, sorry.....she still needs to feed to make sure her sugar and hydration levels are ok, so you may need to give formula/ebm alongside all this 'repair work' for the bf

Thanks for the advice Tiktok.
I'm still persevering with this, altho it's getting so frustrating. I discussed it with my midwife yesterday and asked if nipple shields might help as I have quite flat nipples (she reckons that's quite common with very big mums like me) which probably aren't helping. She said they might so we tried them last night, with no success. Once again DD gave 2 or 3 sucks (which wasnt even enough to pull my nipple fully into the shield never mind get any milk out) then gave up and got herself upset. Am still expressing as much as I can, and was really chuffed to get almost 40ml this morning. It amazes me what makes me proud right now, I've gone from someone whose proudest moments were hitting targets and getting promotions to getting tearful with joy at 40ml of watery looking milk in the bottom of a pump. I find it really hard to envisage ever getting enough out to keep her fully fed, but I guess I'll keep getting a wee bit more each day. Theres a bf clinic in our maternity unit on Mondays which I think I'll drop into next week if things haven't improved.
Once again, thanks for the advice and support, my mum's here for a couple of weeks and while her help has been a godsend she's not terribly pro-bf so getting vibes from her that she's just waiting for it to fail and for me to give up on it.

Lisa, great to hear from you.

You have quadrupled your output from your breasts - that's worth celebrating!

Keep it up.

Nipple shields can sometimes help, but they have their drawbacks.

Skin to skin and lots of cuddles, and the at least 8 times a day expressing is already helping, so keep it up

hi bbw... tiktok has given you all the best advice already, so just wanted to say that you're doing fab and that it CAN work!
my ds refused to feed after birth and I ended up expressing and bottle feeding him. By the time he was about 10 days old I was producing enough milk to feed him fully with no need for formula top-ups. And one morning i put him to the breast and he just took it!!!
He was then exclusively breastfed until around 4 months when i started mixed feeding for various other reasons.

So, just wanted to say that it is definitely possible to get a baby onto the breast after a difficult start, and that you're doing all the right things! keep offering breast first.. i think ds finally took it because he realised that actually it was coming out and it was the same as his bottle! lol

It might be worth expressing a tiny bit just before putting your DD to the breast. This will draw your nipples up more, making them less flat, and will also make the milk easier to get out (you will also smell more like milk, which may help).

You're making good progress, and with good determination, you can sort this. (Oh, and nipple shields are a real faff. I used them with DS1, because of latch problems, and flattish nipples, and they did help, but they don't help with supply.)