My son was born at thirty five weeks with IUGR, so only weighed three lb six Oz and was whisked away to neonatal unit with his dad while I was given a blood transfusion. He was fed by glucose drip, cup and Ng tube and I expressed as much as possible but my milk took ages to come in. He got the colostrum though.
When we came out of hospital we seemed to be slowly figuring out breastfeeding then he had a hypoxic episode on the breast so I went back to pumping. I still only pump enough for every other feed and he's being taken off nutriprem now so we'll need to transfer to another formula, but I'd also like to establish/re establish some breastfeeding. He obviously wants to be a breastfed baby but we're struggling with my anxiety and his impatience - he will breastfeed only when not hungry now, otherwise he cries and headbutts the breast until his bottle arrives.
I also get scared when he's on the breast and keep pulling him off to check he's not blue, which is really not helping.
Any advice? He's six weeks and the loveliest baby in the world and so deserves the best. Is it too late now to start trying to establish breastfeeding again?
Before a nipple sheild helped but I was using one of these during his hypoxic episode and a doctor said it might have been the cause, so it was binned.