my Daughter was born on wed night

[liz-hippymom]

i was only 31 weeks 1 day pregnant. i had chorioamnionitis and she had to come out. She did good. her APGARS were 7/8, she came out screaming and pink . She is just using nasal canula .she had to have more earlier (CPAP), but they gave her surfactant and she is improving. My poor baby i COVERED in bruises, not only from NICU but all over. they said that is normal, but holy moly! she is bruised up over on like her fingers!

I have been pumping for 15 minutes every 3 hours since birth (born about midnight the night of the 15th), and i have not gotten ONE drop of colostum. i am starting to freak out mamas! where is my colosturm? Any advice??

also, the daunting thoughts of her being here for 5 + weeks and me having to go home and try to find babysitters for my 5 kids so i can see her and pumping all the time, and trying to breastfeed a preemie are really getting me down this morning. After everything with losing Aquila i quess i just wanted a living baby in arms....trying to keep being positive, but this is something i have never thought i would be doing and here i am...

[taffywelsh]

congratulations!!!
Glad her apgars were so good! Sounds like a beautiful little thing. What is her name going to be?
I bet your colostrum will come in soon. Did you get milk instead, or just nothing? The milk you make for premature babies is supposed to be especially fatty and rich.
good luck!

[justKate]

PMing you.

[sahmmie]

I'll keep you in my prayers! The milk will come and you will do just fine taking care of your little preemie!

What was her length? (I know you said she was 4 lbs). Are you able to hold her?

[texmati]

congratulations mama! I remember your blog very well.

I don't have any advice or expertness in preemies, but I pumped!

If you want any advice on the lmk.

[Bokonon]

Congratulations on your little girl! I'm so sorry it all happened this way.

My son was born at 32 weeks. I pumped for him, and here's my advice (which may or may not be applicable or possible for you):
Use a hospital-grade pump. Try different settings. You may respond better to a lesser suction than full-strength, for example. Make sure the flanges fit well. See an IBCLC for help.

Pump every 2-2.5 hours when possible. Your baby would be nursing at least that often, so during the day at least, aim for more frequent pumpings to really help bring your milk in.

If the pump isn't doing it for you, try hand expressing.

I pumped while DS was in the NICU, and for a couple of months while I got him transitioned to breastfeeding. It took a lot of persistence, but it was well worth it and he was exclusively breastfed.


My son spent 6 weeks in the NICU. He was my first, so I didn't have to worry about having a babysitter for older kids, but can you get a mother's helper for a bit? I know you must be so disappointed and overwhelmed, but you can do this. One day at a time. One hour at a time if need be. The NICU is a long, hard road, but you've been through worse. There is a gift and a light at the end of the tunnel - your beautiful baby girl will come HOME with you.

Congratulations again, and be gentle with yourself! You've done great!

(((hugs)))

[lalemma]

Congratulations, mama!

Can you pump in the NICU, near your baby? Can the nurses give you a piece of fabric your daughter has been sleeping on? Both of those things helped my milk come in when my son was born early.

I'm sorry you feel overwhelmed - this stuff is HARD, and we only have one baby, so I wasn't even trying to deal with the needs of other children.

[Mrs.Music]

lalemma gave some good advice. My NICU had a pumping room, and then up in the special care nursery, you were allowed to pump at the bedside. Looking at a picture of baby might help too. For my 27 week daughter, I pumped 20 minutes every 2 hours. For 10 weeks. And then again with my son (33wks), for the 2 weeks he was in. I much prefered the Symphony over the Lactina btw.

ETA: Feel free to PM me with any NICU/pumping questions. I know that I would have liked a btdt mom to talk to the first time.

[liz-hippymom]

thanks ladies!

i actually got out a few ccs of milk this morning!!! i was so proud i posted pictures on my facebook-lol

[CherryBomb]

Congratulations on little Willow! It sounds like she's doing really great considering she's 9 weeks early! I agree that I'd try to increase pumping to every 2-2.5 hours for 20-25 minutes, with at least 2 pumpings at night. My dd2 wasn't a preemie but she spent 2 weeks in the NICU and I had to EP for her for 11 days, and that's the schedule I used. Don't be worried about the small amounts, newborns aren't designed to eat large quantities of colostrum. It might take longer for your milk to come because she was premature, but just keep up with the pumping! As your milk comes in, you might have a day or two where you don't pump as much colostrum as you were, that's normal, too.

NICU can be really hard, my advice is to try to just deal with one day at a time

[loveneverfails]

Congratulations, Liz!!!!

In terms of expressing colostrum, I had *way* more luck doing it with manual expression compared to the pump. Once my milk was in, the pump was better, but with just colostrum manual expression was much much easier. Definitely try to express after doing kangaroo care, as well.

How are *you* feeling? Being sick, giving birth and then dealing with NICU with a premature infant is an awful lot for a mom to handle.

[aikigypsy]

I have a son in the NICU now. He was born at 34 weeks, almost 5 weeks ago, and it took a few days for my milk to come in, too, but my supply has been good/excessive since about 5-6 days after he was born. I took a different approach to the pumping schedule, and did 8+ times in 24 hours. I would do every 2 hours durring the day and go longer at night. Getting some decent sleep really helped my milk supply (not to mention everything else).

We live a long way (3.5 or more hours each way) from the hospital with the nicu, and I have a 2.9 year old. It is hell being away from her for the days I go up to visit the baby, so hard to have to choose between the kids, even if it's just temporarily. Your older kids need you, too. A lot of people have basically said that I should just leave him in the hospital and take care of my older daughter and "bond when he comes home," but that doesn't feel right to me, so I split my time. I don't know what more I should be doing to "take care of myself," as other people tell me to do, but I do know that I'm getting pretty run down.

You should be able to step down your pumping schedule in a week or two when your supply gets established.

I have no advice, because I'm still pretty much in the same place, but I do have the reassurance that my baby is growing well and has no major problems, just some immaturity that the people at the hospital want him to outgrow before he comes home.

s

[ShanaV]

I have to respond bc my babies were born at a similar gestational age-- 30 w 5 d, and Aquila's story left such an impression on me, so I hope my experience can help you in some way. My guys were 3#2 and 3#5 at birth. They spent 6 weeks in the NICU. One came home after 42 days (6 wks exactly) and the other at 45 days. They were on cpap for a day, nasal cannula for a day, and then breathing room air. They were in isolettes for 3 weeks, and open cribs for 3 weeks. They could start eating orally at around 34 weeks gestational age, and waiting for them to be able to eat with no apneas, bradys or desats was excruciatingly long. I'm telling you this so that your expectations might be realistic based on my experience. I hope, hope, hope that your little girl will be robust and strong to come home sooner than mine did!

I'm so glad your milk is starting to appear! For me, it took FIVE DAYS to get anything. Prior to that I sort of made the flanges wet when I pumped, but that's all. Pretty pathetic. The good thing is that as young as the boys were, they couldn't eat at this point anyway! They had to get nutrition thru an umbilical IV line. Also, the baby will eat so little at the beginning, like 3, 6, or 12 cc's per feeding, that even if you only get a tiny bit of milk per session, it's ok! You have plenty of time to build up all the milk you need, and a freezer stash. I have a bucket full of frozen milk in the freezer, mostly from all the time in the nicu when I could pump more than the boys could eat. (Now they eat more, of course, so I don't add to the freezer stash too often.) So, make room in your freezer! As you of course know, your milk is the best thing you can give your baby at this time. Your milk is more calorie dense than it would be if she was born at term, because your body knows she was born early, so your boobs will compensate with richer milk.

Other things. My nicu gave me a lovey doll for each baby that I would tuck in my shirt and then leave in their isolettes with them for them to have my smell. And I kangaroo'd them every chance I got. I hope you will be able to do the same.

Simply put, it is devastating to be separated from your baby. I went sort of crazy like Claire in Lost while they were in the nicu - I got a comfort animal that I have and would wrap it up and cradle it like a baby and cry. Ugh. Just an awful feeling. It's so horrible to have to pump and not be able to be with her. A pump is such a poor substitute for a baby when you're separated.

I don't have any other kids, so I don't have any words of wisdom on that front. I don't know what I would have done if I did. I was at the nicu for 7-12 hours per day as it was.

Oh, and people do always say "take time for yourself" and all that bs. I'm like Hell, No, I'm spending time with my babies, and if I'm not with them, I'm doing something for the benefit of the babies. I ate, slept, showered and NICU'd. That's it. So it's normal to not indulge in many things for yourself.

Best of luck to you and Willow, and I hope to hear more updates!

[justKate]

Liz, so glad to hear you've got milk. Knew you would.

I think there's something about the stress of the NICU experience that delays some mama's milk for a couple of days. Hope all is well with little Willow.