Hi Ladies,

I gave birth to my little princess 2.5 weeks ago (at 35 weeks gestation). She is in the special care nursery but is looking to head home on Thursday (which makes her 38 weeks corrected).

I am having problems with my milk supply (or lack of!). My baby just wants to suck! and she is far outdoing my supply. I have seen a lactation consultant, and have also been prescribed Motilium by my obstetrician - but have had little results.

Do you have any tips or advice for me?!?! She is moving to all "suck" feeds tomorrow - which she has to master for 48 hours and then she will be allowed home. I dearly want to be able to breastfeed, but if my supply carries on the way it is - I will have to move her to formula once she is home.

Thanks for your assistance!

Sarah xxx

Hi Sarah

Congratulations on your little one being ready to come home soon. It is so exciting and nerve wracking once they go to all suck feeds isn't it.

Aurelia was born at almost 35 weeks and spent 3 weeks in the SCN.

I understand your supply issues. I expressed and then she was topped up with Neocate until my supply could meet her needs.

We went on to have an amazing BF relationship without using formula till she weaned herself at 16 months.

You may also find the stress of her being in the SCN is affecting your supply. Remember to drink lots of water and when you bring her home make sure you sleep when she sleep as your prolactin levels rise during sleep. This is harder said then done but it does help when boosting your supply.

I was using a hospital grade electric breast pump in the hospital next to her and then I hired one for 4 weeks when I went home.

I found this really really helpful as it is stronger than the standard breast pump. After 4 weeks I went on to use a Medela Swing.

Also once Aurelia started doing her suck feeds my supply jumped up dramatically. Lots of skin to skin time will really boost your supply as well which is hard because you won't be getting that in the SCN.

Make sure if you want to BF that you ask lots of questions and that you use people to help you. I recruited my local ABA for advice and also my health nurse who wad experienced with premmie bubs.

My Pm box is always open if you want some advice. MiniMac and Moore also had premmie bubs and are really friendly and they BF their bubs so would have good advice as well.

Congratulations on the arrival of your little one! It is great you will be able to bring her home so soon.

Chelley has given you great advice. Henry was born at 34 weeks and was in the SCN for 2.5 weeks. We had a tricky time establishing breastfeeding - my milk didn't come in until day eight. I had been expressing every three hours day and night from the day after he was born. Henry has just turned one and we are still breastfeeding.

Lots of water, eating good meals, resting when I could, and expressing were great. I would express half an hour before Henry was due for a feed, feed him and then have him topped up with the EBM. It was tiring, but thankfully I was able to stay in hospital with Henry and had plenty of opportunity to rest. If you have been discharged, maybe the hospital has a spare bed you could have a nap in, in between feeds?

Best of luck - I second the ABA for advice. Their online forum has a great section all about feeding premmie bubs. Take care x

Hi Sarah

Congratulations on being able to bring your baby home soon. It is such an exciting time in the whole premmie journey.

My daughter spent 11 weeks in hospital earlier this year and I also struggled with supply issues. I found motillium worked well for me but more frequent expressing (every two hours during the day and every four hours over night for 3 days boosted my supply considerably as well - you need to do this for about 48 hours to see an improvement). I'd suggest doing this while your bub is still in hospital as you will have extra help taking care of her that you won't at home (expressing 2 hourly is time consuming and exhausting!). I also found that Weleda Nursing Tea seemed to help a little.

As your bub is a good sucker giver her lots of access to your breasts and the extra stimulation should really help. My bub was never a good sucker (she was just too tiny and weak) and I really believe this combined with stress caused my issues. If possible, try to line up lots of help for the first few weeks you are home so you can focus on feeding and resting until your supply is established.

I second Chelly's advice about the hospital grade pump. I used a Medela Swing at home which was ok but when my daughter went back to hospital after a month for surgery I realised how much better the hospital pump was.

Finally if you do need to introduce formula don't be upset. I cried and cried when I had to give the first bottle of formula and in retrospect I was way too hard on myself. While I would dearly have loved for it to be different, my bub is now 100% FF and she is thriving.

Good luck and enjoy having your bub home.

xxx

Congratulations on the arrival of your bub!

The other girls basically said exactly what I was going to say. My boys were born at 36 weeks and spent 3 1/2 weeks in SCN. Like SEA, my milk didn't come in until day 8 (I was home by then). You will find that once the baby is sucking that your supply will increase, but I found that double pumping (with the hospital pump) worked really well, as did swapping sides - doing 5 mins left, 5 mins, 5 mins left, 5 mins right for up to 1/2 hour. By doing this I was able to get my supply up really quickly.

Make sure you are eating frequently and don't forget to drink a glass of water every time you feed/pump. Go outside at least once a day and have a wander. I did this while the boys were asleep and I would go in to the shops or get food and a few times I had a massage. It's really important to be kind to yourself.

Enjoy your baby when you all go home together. I really think that going home with your baby is even more special for those of us who had to wait to do so. Have fun!

Thankyou so much for all your wonderful advice Ladies. It can feel like such an isolating experience having a premmie baby - so it is nice to know that there are others that have "been there, done that". I appreciate all your encouragement!

I will continue with my expressing and persevere with the motilium and fenugreek. Hopefully, like you said, having her home and having more contact with her will increase my supply. The whole SCN experience is very artificial so it really isn't helping the whole stress/supply issue!!

I can't wait to bring baby Charlotte home! It has certainly been a long 3 weeks!

How are you going Sarah? Is baby Charlotte home yet?

Hi there

Just wondering how baby charlotte is going? Hope she is home with you now and you are all settling in

Awe! Thanks for thinking of us, ladies!

Charlotte came home from the special care nursery on Thursday morning (after 23 days). It was the most exciting day!! We had a rough day of grizzling etc...obviously it was new surrounds and noises to get used to...but she was an absolute angel that night and last night...so fingers crossed!

I have been expressing milk as she seems to have grazed my nipples - so I am going to have a lactation consultant visit me at home next week.

Other than that, I guess I will just take it day by day...I feel very protective of her and I suppose that has a lot to do with her being so tiny. Am trying to keep the visitors away for a while so they don't disrupt her or compromise her immune system!

Once again, thank you so much for all your advice...I will be sure to pop back with any other thoughts, questions I have - you are all a wealth of knowledge and it is so nice to have advice from mums that have been through the same ordeal.

Sarah xoxo

So glad to hear that everything is going well and Charlotte is settling in well at home. Thinking of you guys, and if you have any more questions let us know

Wonderful news that she is settling in well.

Just let me share some advice with you that I wish I had heard earlier on when Raya came home.

People assume that you have bonded and had a lot of time with bubs when they are in the SCN so as soon as you bring them home people think this is their time to come around and finally get that cuddle they have been waiting for which can be huge when the stress of the SCN experience sometimes kicks in a little while after getting home - a delayed reaction.

What they don't understand is that mum has been waiting for those cuddles as well, waiting for lots of skin to skin time to bond with the baby without people telling you what you can and can't do and without cords and wires attached to bubs.

This feeling protective is VERY normal and a reaction to the SCN experience.

Advice I wished I had followed was to say to people that bubs should still be doing the growing on the inside - not the outside. Wear bubs in a sling close to you will help with too many people wanting to hold her and pass her around.

Then when she has reached her due date then have a celebration. The nurses advised this and in hindsight they were right. It gives mum and dad extra time up their sleeve for just that extra bonding that we would have had in the last few weeks of pregnancy

That is really good advice Chelley...and on that topic of baby still meant to be on the inside...as her due date looms closer, i am finding i am very sentimental about my whole pregnancy. Whilst i absolutely adore Charlotte - i feel like it all happened so quickly and I wasn't quite ready to have her. I wasn't big and uncomfortable like I am sure I would have been if I had the chance to carry to full term.

I had also been at work the morning I gave birth to her - so I hadn't even started maternity leave yet! Her nursery wasn't even finished! And i never got to do the nesting I planned to!

I just feel a little sad that I didn't get to finish my pregnancy - I didn't get to the point of wishing it away. Is this normal? Her due date is next Friday and I am just feeling a little overwhelmed I suppose!

Thank you for being great sounding boards ladies.

Sarah xoxo

Sarah, I really grieved the weeks of my pregnancy that I 'lost'. I spoke to the hospital social worker about my feelings and she said it was completely normal to feel that way, particularly for first time mums. Evie was still in hospital at her due date and I remember crying in the hospital parking lot when I saw a couple obviously arriving to give birth. I felt awful but I was so jealous of the fact that this women I didn't even know was doing what I wish I'd been able to at the 'right' time. I think if it was just an early arrival it wouldn't be so bad, but it's also the fact that the experience that you have when bub is in the NICU or SCN is so different from what you anticipated you'd experience of those first weeks of motherhood.

Even nine months along (can't believe that my darling girl arrived exactly nine months ago today?!?!) I still look at heavily pregnant women wistfully.

Sorry I'm late to this thread!

Welcome home Charlotte! I hope you're all settling in together and getting to cuddle her whenever you want without having to ask the nurses for permission! How good does that feel!

Harrison was born at 32 weeks and spent a month in NICU and SCN. We were fortunate that he was healthy when he was born, he was just small and had to grow.

I had such a hard time with my milk supply but I persevered and I breastfed him until he was 13 months! I do feel really proud that I was able to nourish a premmie baby for that long. It's a hard road, but with lots of support you can do it!

I always find lots of info on these websites:

Kellymom - http://www.kellymom.com
La Leche League - http://www.llli.org/nb.html

I agree that hiring a hospital grade pump was probably the best thing that I could do. I used it every three hours around the clock and I double pumped. I hired it from a chemist.

I was on Motillium which I think helped, but once baby starts sucking at the breast, that's the best way for your milk to start flowing! I remember expressing TINY amounts (at the hospital we were given the specimen jars as they fit on the pumps and I would only get up to the bottom of the label on a specimen jar - what's that, like 5mm?!)

Now that you've got Charlotte at home, the best thing you can do is to have her always at the breast. I'd probably limit dummy use - let her fulfill all her sucking needs at the breast. Feed her at least every 3 hours during the day and perhaps 4 hourly at night.

She might be very sleepy - I know Harrison was. When you feed her, get her up, put her on one side let her feed for a while (I'd say at least 20 minutes), give her a burp and then change her nappy to wake her up. Pop her back on that same breast to make sure she's gotten lots of the hindmilk and then swap her over to the other side.

I think kellymom suggests to keep swapping side to side, to keep her awake and actively sucking.

When Harrison was in hospital one of the nurses in NICU took a photo of him in his little crib and printed it out for me and she told me to look at the picture when I was expressing in my hospital room. I even would sit by his crib at the hospital and put up his picture and look at him and the picture and express. Then when I came home I always had his picture there with me and sometimes I even had a piece of his clothing. This can help with your letdown.



I had all these feelings too! I wanted to get the nesting bug (tupperware cupboard could have done with a cleanout! ) and I too hadn't started mat leave, I had left work for the Christmas break and then was going back in the middle of Jan after holidays but I was admitted to hospital on the 3rd Jan (Harrison was due 13 March). I still didn't have a replacement for my job and I had to go in when Harrison was in hospital to train another secretary!

I missed that I never got "really big" (even though I was massive at 30 weeks) and never got to spend those last weeks of pregnancy with my husband (my waters broke at 30 weeks and I had to stay in hospital until the baby was born).

So I totally understand all of your feelings.

Sarah - just wondering how you and Miss Charlotte are going?