Please give me some hope. Week old baby won't breast feed yet.

[IamnotwhouthinkIam]

He latches but won't suck - well has one strong pull and then it just feels like he's mouthing the nipple and eventually falls asleep/detaches despite ticking feet/hands, undressing him so he's slightly chilly and wakes up etc. I never see any milk on his mouth despite putting him to breast for about 10 mins each side before I pump breast milk and bottle feed him formula or the expressed milk (combi feeding as I don't get enough milk to only give him what I expressed).

He was a c section delivery at 38 weeks - he needed extra oxygen at first. So we have only been home for a few days as he had to stay in due to some fluid on the lungs (I had polyhydramnios), possible antibiotics needed, probable jaundice - but after 4 days they said they were satisfied he was safe to come home.

They insisted he was bottle feed from day 1 in the hospital as I had gestational diabetes and so they wanted to keep an eye on his weight in case of low blood sugars- donor milk at first, then formula when we were due to come home.

So I pump for at least 20 mins every 3 hours but only get about 25 mls total each time so far. I think increasing it will make my nipples even sorer and he was losing weight so they said to increase the formula instead.

So any hope please? I would love to be able to just feed him from my breasts alone. But I think he will never really learn to suckle (and thus naturally increase my milk production?) unless he stops having the bottle which is obviously easier to drink to drink from and takes less effort for him. But catch 22 I can't halt the bottles in case he loses more weight (they are coming to weigh him again today as he has already lost 8% of his birth weight .)

@IamnotwhouthinkIam can I ask how you went about reducing the bottles? I'm really hoping to do the same!

@IamnotwhouthinkIam incredible achievement, well done! I also went from having a baby who had never latched at 4 weeks to exclusively breastfeeding so I know what an emotional rollercoaster and labour of love it is. I'm so pleased for you :)

Thank you @pbdr Well done to you too - at the time it feels like it will never happen, doesn't it? I really wanted to give up. Everyone else seems to make breastfeeding look so easy!

@leavingoutthesidedoor - From what I remember I swopped out one formula/pumped breast milk bottle for a breast feed roughly each week. (So for example the first week he would have 4 bottles and 4 breast feeds each day, then the next week he would have 3 bottles and 5 breast feeds daily and so on - with me still pumping while my birth partner give him his bottle). I had him weighed weekly or fortnightly at a "drop in" HV clinic - if he dropped in weight, I didn't swop out any more bottles for another week till I had him weighed him again (and if he stayed the same or gained weight then I continued swopping). It was difficult letting go of the psychological "safety" of bottles, as that way you see exactly how much they are getting - but he was so much happier solely on the breast (less wind, more comfort- he's still boob obsessed even now😂)

Thanks so much! I haven't seen any info on how to actually get off the top ups so that's really helpful. Midwife was very vague.