Breastfeeding experiences

From 28weeks we knew that the chances of the girls having time in NICU was very high. Aoife was IUGR, had reduced Amniotic fluid and reduced blood flow through the placenta.
They were delivered by c-section at 35+4weeks which is further along than anyone expected. Aoife weighed 1.6kgs and Eimear 2.2kgs.
I had them at 2pm and by 8pm the Midwife was in with a syringe to help me express colostrum. I think I got a whopping 8 mils that first time but after that it was around 3-4mils each time for the first day and a half. I remember how happy I was when I was able to ask for more than one syringe to fill.
I became very focused on expressing as much as I could for Eimear and Aoife. Even though we had been prepared for NICU so well by the staff, it is still very heart wrenching to see your baby helpless in an incubator.
Expressing was the only thing I could actively do to help. I think DH was amazed with my determination and also I think it made him feel even more helpless as all he could do was sit back and wait.
I remember when the a midwife showed me how to use a breast pump, happy days I was now expressing enough (about 8-10mils, lol) that I could use one.
My milk came in on day 4, suddenly I was expressing 30, 40 , 80 mils. It kept jumping each express.
I was so happy when this happened as until then I had been playing catchup with the girls feeds. They were being tube fed and the amount they were getting was increasing each feed. Eimear did get some formula at the start as the colostrum was more important for Aoife due to her size.
By day 3 I got to have skin to skin with both girls. We tried BF but despite their best attempts they couldn't latch correctly.
A lot of it depended on the NICU nurse that was on duty that shift. I got lucky with a few nurses. One introduced me to nipple shields. Happy days , Aoife latched perfectly with these. I still remember the look in her eyes the second time I BF her. "OH! I remember what come out of there" Eimears jaundice was worse so she didn't get a good go at BF'ing for another day cos she was too tired.
Another nurse, Rose, was assigned to my girls for 3 nights in a row. I'm convinced she is the sole reason we got BF'ing established so quickly. Her opinion was if a baby was awake then attempt BF'ing , if both were awake then attempt tandem feeding. Other nurses believed that BF'ing should only be attempted once as day. I can understand this as Aoife was teeny and still in an incubator.
Thanks to Rose, I managed to get a room in NICU to sleep so that she could call on me to feed the girls at each feed. She and another nurse also suggested that we use bottle topups of EBM as the girls were still too small to have the energy to get enough off me.
So by day 10 we headed home with 2 teeny babies, engorged boobies and a chilly box full of frozen expressed milk.

mmm I might do another post for my BF experience at home cos it's a long one too.

Edited by tishy

You are a legend Tishy!

Just wanted to say from someone awaiting first baby with anticipation and no idea what to expect with regards to bf (along with lots of other things of course) that it is great to be able to read about all your experiences. I really want to bf so hope it comes easily but it's helpful to be prepared with the knowledge that it doesn't always come easily and naturally. Hope I have good people to help me when the time comes.

Hi cuppatea - just wanted to wish you all the best for your second BFing experience (see you are due soon) and hope you get the help you need to get BFing established .  Have you got in touch with a LC yet? Our local one encourages people to meet with her before the birth if they need to, and she also runs BFing antenatal classes ... not sure what happens in your area but it might be worth investigating?

Goodluck Marissa!

Im hoping to breastfeed this baby aswell, I am going to see a LC and my MW will help too, she was fantastic last time, very supportive and also supportive of my decison to formula feed in the end.

I will write up my breastfeeding story one day.

I hated breat feeding my first always been uncomortable with my boob's anyway. So I kept going till my m/w discharged then at 4 week's and by 6 week's he was on a bottle.
With Michael I feed him for about 8 week's when i had just go so depressed I could not keep going so he went on to a bottle.
Just like to add here i had no trouble with supply latching etc i jsut truely hated it so chose not to feed.
With Emily I went into it not relly fussed either way I know i had plenty of milk and she latched easy as first time mt milk came in and all went well. I was in a differnt head space this time round and i think having no expectaion's on myself really helped we had a bottle and formula in the house jsut never used it. I also discovered expressing and I think if I had known expressing was so easy I could have done it with the boy's. however we did not introduce emily to the bottle earlier enough so she has refused it.    Like Janine said I feel really sad when I think of what I missed out on with the boy's. The bond I could have had with them.
I am thinking by number 4 we will have it down and combo of expressing and booby feeding.
Oh and I can honestly say" I LOVE BREASTFEEDING"

I really do agree that more support is need for women to breastfeed succesfully. It's like birth, it's a natural process but it's damn hard work, lol and doesn't always go to plan!

I was worried that BF my DD would get off to a rocky start (which it did slightly) as I had an emergency C -section and i'd 'read' (honestly sometimes reading can make you paranoid for no reason) that bonding is harder blah blah blah and BF unlikely to be as succesful blah blah blah with a section!
I lost alot of blood so DD and DH were whisked away while surgeon and team stopped the bleeding and stiched my tummy back together. So it was a while before I got to DD. She latched really well and fed for about and hour. Then she had a huge sleep and I just thought I was so lucky.... haha.... then all she wanted to do was suck and suck and suck. So basically for the first few days she was either attached to my boob or screaming! Then when my midwife came to see me she pointed out that because of the longer difficult birth my DD was sucking so much as it was relieving the pain and pressure on her bruised head and stiff neck. So off we went to the Osteopath later that day (which I recommend every new baby goes to see within the first few days as it did wonders) and she was like a different baby. She woke every 2 to 3 hours for feed and latched really well, then I decideed I would be ok going home. I did get slightly cracked nipples but Pawpaw cream soon sorted that out. I fed her for 1 year and 2 weeks without any major hicups, most months she would want more milk and have a feeding frenzy for a couple of days then she'd settle back into a routine.
I always thought I was 'running out of milk' but as DH pointed out she just wanted more.
I think it's really important to have a supportive partner and or family as it is such hard work for a woman to cope with without support.

I do worry that I wont have it so easy this time, but knowledge is power and I have a years experience and dont think i'll take as much crap from the hospital staff in the maternity ward this time when they suggest things that I really didnt want to do.
I loved feeding and cant wait to do it again!