DH and I reluctantly gave in to dr/nurse suggestions to feed our newborn breast milk through a bottle, for medical reasons (she was under phototherapy lights for bilirubin problems)--she was not peeing/pooping enough to excrete the bilirubin from her system and was losing weight. The lights made her really tired, and she never really got the hang of breastfeeding long enough before she simply sacked out (or bit my nipples in frustration). We've gone through the ringer with this, and from 6 days old until today (11 days old) we have fed her my breast milk through a bottle, then followed up with the syringe at the breast so she didn't forget what it was like to be there.
We visited our pediatrician today who told us her weight is looking good, and we can finally experiment with teaching her how to breastfeed properly. She was never really good at it even in the beginning; we had problems latching on (she's little and I have BIG and sore nipples, cracked and bled a bunch before my milk came in). Of course now she is used to the easy flow of the bottle, and my nipples just can't give her milk at the pace that she's gotten used to. I'm utterly sick and tired of the syringe, and really don't want to use it anymore... it's messy and frustrating, and requires both DH and I at every single feeding.
Anyone else out there experience something like this? Or have any tips for what we can try? The only thing I can think of is to slowly decrease what we feed her through the bottle and just keep plunking her at my breast. We've tried the breast after the bottle as well as halfway through the bottle feed, there doesn't seem to be much difference... don't know which is better. And I've tried pumping a bit right before feeding to get things flowing, but that didn't seem to work very well either.
Feeling SUPER frustrated, as I really, really, really want to breastfeed her and not deal with this bottle silliness--at least not until we have to when she goes to daycare.
We visited our pediatrician today who told us her weight is looking good, and we can finally experiment with teaching her how to breastfeed properly. She was never really good at it even in the beginning; we had problems latching on (she's little and I have BIG and sore nipples, cracked and bled a bunch before my milk came in). Of course now she is used to the easy flow of the bottle, and my nipples just can't give her milk at the pace that she's gotten used to. I'm utterly sick and tired of the syringe, and really don't want to use it anymore... it's messy and frustrating, and requires both DH and I at every single feeding.
Anyone else out there experience something like this? Or have any tips for what we can try? The only thing I can think of is to slowly decrease what we feed her through the bottle and just keep plunking her at my breast. We've tried the breast after the bottle as well as halfway through the bottle feed, there doesn't seem to be much difference... don't know which is better. And I've tried pumping a bit right before feeding to get things flowing, but that didn't seem to work very well either.
Feeling SUPER frustrated, as I really, really, really want to breastfeed her and not deal with this bottle silliness--at least not until we have to when she goes to daycare.
