More questions re breastfeeding/expressing

[Sophie_P]

My experience was an odd one - baby was born and in NICU for the first few days. I hand expressed colostrum for her and gave it to her when I could. Once she was able to come out of her cubicle I was then able to try and get her to latch but my milk hasn't completely come in yet. Then on day 4 she was discharged from NICU into my ward and I breastfed her for that day. Next day she was weighed and had lost 12% body weight in a single day. So before we could be discharged home I had to get her up to 10%. I had to combi feed - express, formula feed and breast feed.
At that point my milk had come in so I could use an electric pump. However I was producing small amounts -2 oz from both sides at a time. So I would give her that and if it wasn't enough if top it up with formula. Then an hour later I would get her to latch. Eventually she put on the weight, got discharged and then I moved her onto being exclusively breastfed once she surpassed birth weight 3 weeks pp.

So it was a very messy way to start off!

Therefore I would recommend getting breastfeeding established for at least the first week, maybe even two and then start expressing so your oh can help out. With regards for the feeds she can help you out with, they can be any really! I would just say that you have the best supply in the morning so it's a good time to feed baby and then express. Then use that to feed baby in the evening so she gets to do the bed time routine?

xxx

This answers all my questions. Xx