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]

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

[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]

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.

[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.

[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.

[DitchingTheDye]

Fabulous! Will done op x

[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.

[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 :)

[BertieBotts]

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

[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