Breastfeeding preemies - what to expect?

My girls were born at 34+2 due to preeclampsia and HELLP. They had a five-day Nicu stay. I have pumped since the day they were born. I only got to try breast-feeding minimally in the hospital because my recovery from the preeclampsia and magnesium was hard, and I had severe pitting edema (about 25 pounds of extra fluid in my body). Now we are home and they are 12 days old. I've worked with a lactation consultant. My next goal is to get each of them to do a feeding per day at the breast. They are currently drinking exclusively breast milk from a bottle. Bottlefeeding both of them and then pumping take so much time and I sometimes lose momentum for practicing breast-feeding. They also get tired so easily. I just can't wait to make that transition to be able to do the feeding at the breast. Has anyone dealt with a similar situation and found success breast-feeding? Thank you!

 

My girls arrived spontaneously at 34+1 and spent 13 days in the NICU. The breastfeeding/pumping/supplementing regimen was EXHAUSTING! Has your LC mentioned an SNS (supplemental nursing system)? They can take some getting used to but the benefit is that it allows lots of time for babies to practice at the breast WHILE receiving any supplement they need. We did have a rough go of it at first. Somewhere between 8-10 weeks things really started to improve and by 3 months we were breastfeeding exclusively. We went on to breastfeed for two years. It was a huge investment in the beginning but worth it by the end. Rally the troops! Having support to take care of everything else while you focus on establishing breastfeeding can make a huge difference.

 

Thank you! It's great to hear a success story. Things are going to little better. My supply is way up. Pumping and feeding expressed breastmilk only leaves me time to practice actual breast-feeding a couple times per day. But I'm 14 days postpartum today so I am thinking establishing supply is the most important. I will look into the system you mentioned. Sounds interesting!