Hi all
I had a lovely little girl a week ago after a very difficult and stressful birth which involved diamorphine and an epidural (the complete opposite of what I wanted). She is healthy but had to have a little help clearing out her lungs after inhaling some meconium.
We brought her home the day after and she screamed all night - I couldn't get baby to latch and couldn't express any colostrum. She was so distressed and so we gave her some formula from a cup to get her through the night. Since then we have been finger feeding using a syringe to keep baby hydrated. She is creeping back towards her birth weight and doing plenty of wees and poos so there doesn't seem to be a problem with her development.
I've been working with a lactation consultant to get her to latch - but she screams hysterically whenever I try to get her to latch. On the odd occasion that she succeeds, she sucks once or twice and then stops, either falling asleep or pulling away.
Tongue tie has been discounted. I'm expressing regularly and feeding her breast milk only now so there is seemingly no issue with my milk supply. It's exhausting and making night feeds even harder. I'm offering my breast at the start of every feed but she has only successfully fed once for no more than 30 seconds.
I'm finding it really quite upsetting that I can't feed from my breast. I know it takes time but am worried that the longer we finger feed for, the less likely we are to succeed. Would really appreciate some positive stories and other tips that I could try? I'm desperate to make it work for us!