i just wanted to post an update. at 9 days, my baby was released from the NICU. we were on all bottle feeds for about 2 days prior to her release, and i hadn't even tried to put her on the breast, i was so afraid of jinxing her progress! anyway, we got home and beastfeeding was going miserably... i'd put her to the breast and she'd just lie there, or start screaming when she couldn't figure it out. however, within 3 days, we were off the bottle alomst completely and are now EBF at 14 days old. I'm so proud of her!
What worked for us... I called my midwife who sent over the LC that works with their centre... she was really awesome and spent a whole morning with us helping me to use a SNS. that was our first full length feed. i paid really really close attention to her early hunger signs and offered the breast as soon as i saw any rooting or even just some alertness. i used the SNS a few times in the day time, but at night i just offered the breast first, and then moved to bottle if she was getting too frustrated. we experimented with lots of different holds too... our most successful was her sitting up on my lap and taking the nipple with my hand supporting her head, not sure why, but this was our first successful unsupplemented feed. now we do a combo of sitting up and cradle hold. she likes the sitting up best if it's been a bit too long since her last meal and she's a little agitated. she still takes A LONG TIME to settle down and eat, but it really gets better and better every day.
anyway, i just wanted to let you know there's hope for EBF even if it doesn't go well at all in the hospital. if you'd told me 4 days ago that we'd be totally off the bottle a couple days later, i would have laughed at you! now we have a bunch of bottles and pumping equipment that we just bought that we don't need!
What worked for us... I called my midwife who sent over the LC that works with their centre... she was really awesome and spent a whole morning with us helping me to use a SNS. that was our first full length feed. i paid really really close attention to her early hunger signs and offered the breast as soon as i saw any rooting or even just some alertness. i used the SNS a few times in the day time, but at night i just offered the breast first, and then moved to bottle if she was getting too frustrated. we experimented with lots of different holds too... our most successful was her sitting up on my lap and taking the nipple with my hand supporting her head, not sure why, but this was our first successful unsupplemented feed. now we do a combo of sitting up and cradle hold. she likes the sitting up best if it's been a bit too long since her last meal and she's a little agitated. she still takes A LONG TIME to settle down and eat, but it really gets better and better every day.
anyway, i just wanted to let you know there's hope for EBF even if it doesn't go well at all in the hospital. if you'd told me 4 days ago that we'd be totally off the bottle a couple days later, i would have laughed at you! now we have a bunch of bottles and pumping equipment that we just bought that we don't need!
) until the baby is ready to come home and then you're (plural "you", not anyone in particular) calling the shots and you can feed baby hanging upside down from a trapeze if you want to! 
