Newborn in neonatal care, can't breastfeed

[OstrichRunning]

I'm hoping someone can help.

My ds was born Sat night. I had gestational diabetes (on metformin) and even though it was well controlled ds had low blood sugar that night and was admitted to neonatal high dependency unit for a glucose drip. They have him on 35 mls formula every the hours and he's off drip for now as bloods stabilised, to see if hopefully they'll stay stable without it (still getting t formula). They encourage hand expressing colostrum here but umfortunately I've never gotten on well with expressing either colostrum or breastmilk (though bf dd for 1.5 years). So only getting miniscule amounts - like 0.1 mls a go. They aren't keen for me to bf as they say the energy he expends doing so could affect his blood sugar which they want to keep high. So they want the colostrum without the feeding : ((

Could anyone tell me, will my actual breast milk supply still come in, even if I've mainly been expressing over past 36 hrs since ds was born, rather than bf ing? Is there anything i can do in this situation? Desperate to breastfeed and really worried it won't happen this time. I've asked to see a lactation consultant today.

TIA

[OstrichRunning]

Thanks igotta and Ditching! What a rollercoaster that all was. Ds is feeding away here as I type, three months on.

Big congrats Bertie! Sounds like things are going really well. Enjoy those lovely early day snuggles

[BertieBotts]

Also especially hard when it's a different experience to DC1, I think.

[BertieBotts]

This was me last week! I had a very similar experience. Day 8 today and he's not had any top up but doesn't seem hungry.

I also found it really hard to be told about the energy levels and hugely emotional in general, but fingers crossed all is OK now :)

[SnuggyBuggy]

I had similar with DD in NICU, didn't get her to properly latch until she was 36 hours old, thought I'd missed the boat but managed to establish BF.

[DitchingTheDye]

Fabulous! Will done op x

[Igottastartthinkingbee]

Well done OP. It’s so hard when you’re thrown into such an alien situation. I hope it all carries on well for you and baby.

[OstrichRunning]

Sorry to resurrect an old thread but just in case anyone in the same boat comes across this thread looking for info: We got on fine with bf in the end - after ds guzzling formula the first two days of his life, my milk came in and have been ebf since he was about one week old. I hand expressed and then used pump as much as possible those first few days.

[OstrichRunning]

Thanks rockandroll, good to know about the milk. (Pumping as I type here). That sounds v tough - all you want is to bring them home.

[Rockandrollwithit]

Hi OP,

Congratulations on your baby. Please be kind to yourself whilst he is in NICU, it's unbelievably tough. I had a full term baby in there for a month and it was one of the hardest things that's ever happened to me.

I'm sure your milk will just come in. I had a CS and chose not to BF so I didn't pump or express at all. My milk still came in on day 3.

[OstrichRunning]

Sorry for only replying now and thanks so much. I just really needed all the reassurance. They're actually good in this hospital re: breastfeeding and I do accept the energy issue with ds feeding directly esp before milk comes in properly. Saw bf consultant which helped and getting a bit of colostrum every couple hours now, which he gobbles up. His blood sugars are going in the right direction so with a bit of luck I'll have him back to myself tomorrow. Also, getting hold of pump this pm.

It's good to know there's more than one route to breastfeeding - not as worried now at all. Talk about a curveball though.

Thanks again

[magpiemay]

Hi ostrich; I had DS on Wednesday after a very long induction and GD treated by metformin and he also failed his sugars. He was bottle and cup fed formula rather than a drip and couldn't latch at all so I was also had expressing- until your milk comes you can only get out a very small amount. My milk started to come in on day 3 - without any breast feeding just hand stimulation.

I now have loads of milk! He is used to bottle feeding so I have been expressing (with a hand pump) and using a very small bottle and teet, topping up with formula and also trying to breast feed with nipple shields.

Please don't be disheartened there are a lot of tricks to establish breastfeeding even with a tough feeding start.

Try to relax and keep at it,it's so easy to be disheartened - sending you lots of

[ForkIt]

My youngest was in nicu after GD, I was allowed to bf. To be honest she just patched and tended to doze off for 3/4 days, didn’t sickle until tired, it was latch- sleep. Seemed happy though. Milk came in and stopped formula about day 8 completely—still trying to wean off BF now at 2.5–

[Ratbagratty]

Yes you can still breastfeed,I had a baby too small to have the energy to feed. I pumped for 15min a side every 4 hrs from day 4 (too drugged up from emergency c section to do it earlier). We did mixed feeding until about week 5 then went fully breastfed until 14 months old. Keep handpumping as often as you can and especially at 4am, until your 48 hrs are up, then get on to a pump.

Can you ask for a Breast feeding specialist to visit you? As soon as your out find a lactation specialist at a breastfeeding support group. You Can do, it's hard work but really worth it.

[Iamnotacerealkiller]

Had exactly the same. My son was nicu for first three days and never latched. Hospital gave me a hospital grade pump the second day and by the end of day 3 he was getting 100% breast milk.

When he moved to the ward I was able to do some breast feeding too. It was exhusting as I was feeding him then expressing every 3 hours for over a week. My supply came in like crazy on day4/5 just a milky mess constantly which calmed down after a couple of weeks.

He is 3 months now and still 100% breastmilk fed but some via bottle so I can sleep! !

[Roomba]

Yes, breastfeeding does use up all their energy when they are so tiny. I had to keep waking DS over and over even when he was bigger and could feed okay - at one pint his tube went back in as they could see he was probably using more energy than he was taking in, which obviously isn't great especially with blood sugar problems.

It's hard to know if you're being fobbed off or if there's a reason for their decisions if they don't explain it all properly. If you're unsure please ask lots of questions as to why they want you to do things in certain ways. I hated DS being tube fed formula and assumed they didn't have the time to help me BF, until they explained why they wanted to do this temporarily.

I forgot to say Congratulations before sorry

[Roomba]

I had a similar scenario with DS1 when he was born. It wasn't just that he didn't have the energy to BF, I physically couldn't get down to him (3 floors away) for a good 48 hours after he was born (and after that only with help) which was awful. I was lucky to be able to use a hospital pump which a very patient midwife showed me how to use for ages at 2am.

My milk certainly arrived in force anyway! Barely a drop of colostrum for days then on day 4 I suddenly looked like Lola Ferrari (ouch!) DS was tube fed for a few days then I just spend every second snuggling him and feeding him until he got the hang of it all. BF him for 2 years in the end so I'm so glad that midwife sat and helped me with pumping and another helped with latching later on.

Is there no available pump you can use? My hospital had a couple on the maternity ward but also a few on the neonatal unit as well. I found it SO much easier than hand expressing, that was a non starter for me.

[AgedTawnyPort]

Congratulations op .

I had a 29 weeker and started pumping 18 hours after the birth, I was in HDU at that point and hadn't even seen her.

I pumped every four hours for six months until she got the hang of bf. It is possible. Make a fuss if you have to.

[Kannet]

I had similar to this three months ago. I insisted on double pumping every few hours. We never breastfed in hospital but it took about a week to get it established once we got home abs he was nearly a month old at that point.

[TheCatFromOuterSpace]

I had a similar experience when Dc1 was born. I didn't really have the confidence to argue with the hospital staff as I was shattered and traumatised from her birth. However my milk came in at day 5 and my confidence came back and I did successfully bf her. The other thing the hospital tried to tell me was to only feed her every four hours, that is bad advice as you probably know. Also make sure that you have enough to eat and drink. The best thing for me was getting discharged so that we could get on with it by ourselves and with the support of the community midwives who were pro breastfeeding.

[OstrichRunning]

Thanks so much for the kind messages, I can't say how reassuring all that is.
His blood sugars fell a bit again once off drip so he's back on it for now - it's just a matter of how long it'll take his body to regulate its insulin production. I managed to get a tiny bit more colostrum this am though and bf him there before his formula - he latched on like a pro and I got cramping which I think is a sign something was going right.

That's interesting about the pump and the 'rule' re bf affecting energy - going to stamp my feet a little bit about the pump today for sure.

Thanks again. I feel like this might still work now

[eurochick]

I had a baby in nicu and my milk definitely came in! I hand expressed into a syringe (tiny drops at first) and then used a pump after about three days. My hospital pushed formula and told me my milk couldn't possibly have come in (I'm educated to postgraduate level - bright enough to recognise milk coming out of my own breasts you would think, but super arrogant consultant thought she knew better). I had to push quite hard for them not to use formula, even though the walls were plastered with posters about how good breast milk was for premmies🙄.

[ingenvillvetavardukoptdintroja]

I had full term baby with unexplained low blood sugars who was in NICU for 4 weeks.
He was given formula for the first couple days. I was hand expressing drops into a syringe! So frustrating but staff encouraged me to keep going. Think milk came in day 3 and I was lent an electric pump once I came home - I pumped round the clock at least 8 times a day and took milk up for him daily.
I kept trying to feed him directly but he wouldn't latch until week 2. When he did, they worried he wasn't getting enough because he only fed 5 minutes - turns out he is just super efficient feeder. He came home at 26 days and fed without issue until 22 months.
Even if he is being tube fed then surely they can use your milk instead of formula?? If he's bottle fed surely that uses same energy as breast?

[georgeisadinosaur]

My little one was born at 35 weeks and like you they said BF would drain the energy too fast and to express. I hand expressed a little colostrum but only managed tiny amounts, they gave me use of a double pump almost immediatly though and I was told to religiously express every 3/4 hours even if it was tiny amounts. I didn't often manage enough for a full feed so baby was largely formula fed.

Gradually encouraged the latch from about a week old and baby did fine. We are still BF 2 years later! Its totally possible just takes a little extra effort. Congratulations!

[Callmegeoff]

www.laleche.org.uk/hand-expression-of-breastmilk/

[Mermaid36]

Congratulations on the birth of your baby!

I had 26 weeker twins and was given a double hospital grade breast pump 24hrs after delivery.

Milk doesn't come in until day 3-5, so all isn't lost. Please ask for a pump and start expressing. I was only getting colostrum and dribbles for 5 days, then bang! Day 5, woke up like Dolly Patton and then some.

Make sure you drink loads of water/juice and try and eat properly.

I expressed for 12 weeks before getting my girls to feed direct from me (whilst still in NICU). We got the girls home at 16 weeks old.
I'm still feeding both girls at 2 years old (though thankfully just down to 2 feeds a day!)