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My two preemies – Anjii’s story

Posted on May 31, 2009
Filed under: Breastfeeding beyond infancy (2 years +), Caesarean/cesarean birth, Expressing, Latch problems, Nipple shields, Oversupply, Premature baby, Tube feeding

My first son was born 5 weeks early, after my water broke spontaneously, and weighed in at 5 lbs 6 oz. After a night in the NICU for observation, they let him room in with me for the second night. We were still waiting for my milk to come in, but meanwhile, I thought we were nursing fine with the colostrum. They were getting us ready to discharge, but when they weighed him, and discovered he had dropped to 4 lbs 11 oz, the put him back in the NICU. We started doing pre and post-feed weighs, and discovered he was only taking in a few milliliters per feed. I was pumping and my milk had come in FULL FORCE, so we knew that wasn’t the problem. His latch was the problem, most likely due to his tiny mouth. So I kept pumping and we bottlefed him while we worked on the latch. After a couple days of no progress, one of the nurses suggested a nipple shield. I was willing to try anything that meant I could breastfeed AND take my baby home, but one of my midwives (the one I didn’t really like, of course) fought me HARD on using one, and we ended up having a huge fight about it. I understood the risk for decreasing milk supply, due to lack of nipple stimulation, but I was prepared to watch it very closely and discontinue use as soon as possible. Well, the first feed with a nipple shield, he took in about 3 oz!!! We were home within the next couple days. At home, I continued to pump, to keep up my oversupply, in case my supply did start to go down. And I gradually weaned us from the nipple shield. It took about 3 months to stop using it completely, and then I gradually weaned myself from pumping and overproducing… by the end, I had tons of milk in the freezer, which was great, because then I could leave him with hubby and other family members, and know that we would never have to use formula. We weaned from breastfeeding, fairly peacefully, after talking about it and preparing for a few months, about 2 months after his 2nd birthday.

My second son was a normal pregancy until, at 33 1/2 weeks we discovered that my fundus had shrunk 2 cm over a 2 week period. After a Non-Stress Test and High-level Ultrasound, we discovered that the amniotic fluid was almost gone, the cord wasn’t feeding him anymore (it had a backflow), and he was tiny. They did an emergency C-section within 45 minutes. He was born 2 lbs 10 oz. I started pumping right away, and saved up tons of colostrum for when he was ready for his first feeds. After a few days of ventilators, a shot of liquid surfactant for his lungs, etc. we started focusing on his food situation. From the beginning, his only source of food was sugar water through an IV, and he lost 10 oz, dropping to just 2 lbs. When he was ready, they introduced a gavage tube (naso-gastric) and started with 1 ml at a time of colostrum. After some setbacks and tummy troubles, we worked our way up to the point where we could take out the IV and just keep increasing the tube feeds, a little at a time. We also finally got to start practicing breastfeeding! At first we just let him suckle and explore, but once he started trying to actually eat at the breast, it was pretty obvious that we’d be needing the shield again. We could only breastfeed a couple times a day, because it wore him out a lot more, but at least I knew that all his bottles were my milk. For awhile they had to add HMF (Human Milk Fortifier) to his bottles, to bulk up on the particular nutrients that he needed extra of, and to add calories. We finally got to take him home at 5 weeks old, still weighing less than 4 lbs. At home, I just kept pumping, nursing, and gradually reducing our bottle usage, and within weeks, he was all breast. We also used the nipple shield till about 3 months, just like with my first. He’s still very happily nursing at 20 months old, and he’s still tiny (almost 19 lbs), but his growth curve is steady and normal… just way below the charts, since he hasn’t done a “catch up” growth spurt yet. But he’s thrived on my milk, and is developing wonderfully.

Filed under: Breastfeeding beyond infancy (2 years +), Caesarean/cesarean birth, Expressing, Latch problems, Nipple shields, Oversupply, Premature baby, Tube feeding

Comments

2 Responses to “My two preemies – Anjii’s story”

Charndra at Part Time EC! on June 3rd, 2009 2:33 pm

Hi Anjii,
what an inspiring positive story! As a 12 week premmie myself, I sooo appreciate my mothers milk I was given, though sadly in the early 70’s she was told I wouldn’t be able to breastfeed.

Nevertheless I had her pumped milk for 9 months. When I was in the hospital for three months, her milk was used to feed the other babies, too. I must have a lot of milk brothers and sisters out there!

Charndra
Anjii on June 6th, 2009 11:55 am

I wish I could’ve donated some of the oversupply I had with Wyatt, but we don’t have a breastmilk bank near enough. That’s wonderful that your mom was allowed to help the other babies as well :)