[SereneBabe]

Hi all,

This is Heather's husband, Josh - she asked me to get online and give you an update. Her water broke yesterday morning around 9:45; as Althea had not yet turned and was about four weeks early, we headed to Maine Medical Center for a caesarean section. The surgery took place in the afternoon, and Althea was born at 3:38 p.m.

She had some respiratory distress, so she has been in the NICU since she was born. I am down here with her now as Heather is up in our room attempting to get some rest. There are many many other stories to tell regarding this birth, but right now we very much need your help with an evolving issue.

Heather was able to produce enough colostrum for Althea in the first few pumpings after the birth. We have convinced the staff to feed Althea the colostrum through a feeding tube, as she has shown serious inclination toward breastfeeding already but little stamina as yet. However, starting late last evening and going through until now, Heather's colostrum is almost not pumping at all. We just completed about a 30-minute session with the pump, while Heather was in the NICU room with Althea by her side and after having gotten skin-to-skin contact and some sucking from Althea, but the yield was probably not even 1 cc.

We are going to get with a lactation consultant first thing in the morning (actually, I'm e-mailing one now), but in the meantime, there is no more colostrum to feed Althea through the tube. We are looking for ANY and ALL tips for getting Heather's colostrum flowing again and for avoiding the use of formula entirely. Given that we are due for another feeding in about an hour and a half, I don't know how we're going to get around this, but we really want to very much. We have asked the staff for advice on getting Althea back on the dextrose drip she was on before we introduced colostrum, but we don't have a definitive answer on that yet and won't until feeding time.

So, please, help! We really want to get Althea out of here and want to provide her with milk. Again, any and all ideas welcome and appreciated. Thanks!

Josh Denkmire

 

[Limabean1975]

Oh my gosh, CONGRATULATIONS!!!

I know a bit about breastfeeding, but cannot speak to this particular issue. I hope someone else chimes in here, but in the meantime, I would suggest you start a thread over here in Breastfeeding and also here in Breastfeeding Challenges. Just copy & paste what you have here and note at the top of the post that you are cross-posting, with a title something like "Baby in NICU, urgently need breastfeeding advice!".

Best of luck and many warm wishes to you.

 

[~Katie~]

Colostrum can be VERY difficult to express by pumping but rest assured that she is producing it, babies only need a very small amount of it until the milk comes in. My suggestion would be to continue pumping as often as possible to encourage milk production and continue with skin-to-skin and absolutely continue with nursing attempts when she is up to it. A nursing baby is always able to express more than an electric pump can. Congratulations to both of you and many positive vibes for a speedy recovery!

 

[JD5351]

WHAT?!?!?!??!?!?!??!?!!

So this is #4 then? WOW!

Congratulations!!!!

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[scrappingmom]

Congrats first of all!

Has she tried warm compresses on her breasts, shower(if you can after a c-section?sorry no experiance on that)is she using a high grade hospital pump or one you had purchased ahead? if NOT a hospital one, see if you(she) CAN use one of those, they have more suction and options as well.

make sure she is drinking TONS of water. when you think its a good amount... drink more! is a good rule when working on milk supply(colostrum included) most maine hospitals give moms a drinking cup w/straw or water bottle, often around a pint (or is it more? i forget) she should try to drink one while pumping and another between pumping if at all possible!

thats all i can think of right now besides as much skin to skin and attempted breastfeeding as possible.

If i'd delivered already i'd offer to get some milk down to you tomorrow to help... you might ask if any donor colostrum/milk is available???? to help meet the gap until suply is established.

 

[RasJane]

Welcome, Althea! How exciting. Congrats to mom and dad and lots of hugs and well wishes.

I have induced lactation for 2 kiddos. Here's a quick rundown of some things that may help.
Drink water like its going outta style
eat all the oats you can get your hands on--oatmeal, oatmeal cookies, oat milk, whatever
See if you can find some mother's milk type supplements. It should have fenugreek and blessed thistle most importantly.
Avoid mint, sage and anything that may be drying such as cold medicine and whatnot.
Try expressing by hand as well as by pump. I couldn't get much with a pump, but could get a fair bit by hand. Have the hospital lactation consultant help her if she needs.
I second the advice to go on breastfeeding challenges. And there may just be a mama around who could help out. Good luck!

 

[russianthistle]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RasJane Welcome, Althea! How exciting. Congrats to mom and dad and lots of hugs and well wishes. Drink water like its going outta style eat all the oats you can get your hands on--oatmeal, oatmeal cookies, oat milk, whatever See if you can find some mother's milk type supplements. It should have fenugreek and blessed thistle most importantly. Avoid mint, sage and anything that may be drying such as cold medicine and whatnot. Try expressing by hand as well as by pump. I couldn't get much with a pump, but could get a fair bit by hand. Have the hospital lactation consultant help her if she needs. I second the advice to go on breastfeeding challenges. And there may just be a mama around who could help out. Good luck!

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[Auraji]

I dont have any advice, sorry, but congratulations to Heather and good luck with the breastfeeding! Hope you dont have to stay there much longer.

 

[PTmorgan]

Congratulations on Althea's arrival! I hope feeding starts going more smoothly.

I agree with the previous comments. My ideas:

1) Pump on one side while baby nurses. This was the only way I'd let down, especially after my C-section.

2) If Althea needs supplementing, request donor milk instead of formula. I ended up using donor milk briefly - 2 days - in addition to what I was giving DS. I found that I needed to be firm to the staff - they just wanted to give formula because "we'd need a prescription for the donor milk and there's lots of paperwork." OK, ladies, get on the phone to the doc and get out your pens - DS is hungry and the donor milk is just sitting in the freezer right there on the unit waiting.

 

[doodledoo]

First of, Congratulations on Althea's arrival

: & I hope her stay in the NICU is short!

I am no BFing expert but I did struggle to establish a milk supply after my section with DD & trying to pump enough for her to send home - they sent her home & I had to stay in hosp for post c complications (whole other story!)

Anyway, as others have said plenty of water - until you feel like you might drown! When I was in the hosp the lactation consultant there gave me domperidone for a couple of days to help - it's an anti-nausea med which has a side effect of causing lactation - it helped a little, but even being a pharmaicst and knowing that the amounts DD was getting from the milk were not harmful I would rather she had been getting none (of the drug).

Another lactation consultant then gave me a homeopathic remedy called URTICA URENS and it worked a treat for me. I can't just find the details for it now, but it was 6c and I think I took one or two three times a day (i'll try to check later).

All that said I used those from when DD was about 4 days old so not sure how they would do in the early days when still producing colostrum - although the theory would be the same.

Hope that's some help to you, just my experience - no expert opinions I'm afraid!

Kez

 

[lotus.blossom]

Oh My!! Congratulations to you and Heather!

: I love the name (have a little cousin named Althea)

I really don't know what to offer for BF'ing advice but I hope that the lactation consultant was able to offer some help. After my c/s my colostrum was pretty tapped out and they were really pushing formula. I ended up using a syringe and while he was latched on I syringed a little formula into the corner of his mouth. (Ugh, I hated that but what was I supposed to do with the hospital staff looming.....)

Congrats again and lots of growing and healing

: sent your way!

 

[Kelly1101]

Oh my god! Yay!

I don't have any BF advice, but just wanted to say congratulations!

 

[Asher]

Congratulations on baby Althea!!! Hope she's out of NICU quickly.

No advice on the bf'ing issue. Sorry!

 

[SunCB]

Congratulations!! Hope the NICU stay is short and Mama recovers quickly.

You have lots of great advice already for BF that I could not give any more.

 

[jeliphish]

HOly Moley!!! Congrats!!!!! PP is right...baby only needs a small amount until the milk comes in. Sounds like Heather is doing WONDERFUL...her body is WAY ahead of the game considering the baby is early and she had to have a C/S!!

 

[j_p_i]

Oh my gosh, congratulations!!

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Even more exciting because you guys are only a couple miles from me! Wow! Please let us know if you need anything

As a first-time mom, I don't have any advice on the breastfeeding, but I do have some numbers I could give you for lactation consultants in the area. Let me know and I'll send them your way!

 

[Amydoula]

Congrats on the birth of your baby!

 

[Smithie]

Congratulations!

I like the More Milk Plus tincture, in a blue bottle, which is very often stocked at Whole Foods. There is a Whole Foods in Portland as I'm sure you know.

It's really hard not to freak out in these first few days, but try to remember that for many (most?) new mothers who are lactating normally, the milk comes GUSHING out somewhere between 36-72 hours, after nothing much visible before that. A little formula in these first couple of days is not going to hurt the baby (although I'd ask for a dextrose drip as well, in order to keep baby's sucking urge from getting blunted).

The main thing you need to ensure is that the massive gushing thing does indeed happen. I have always experienced it as reaching sort of a physical crisis point - the new baby just sucks and sucks and sucks until a switch is flipped in my body and WHAM, the milk comes pouring out. Honestly, if my baby were in the NICU, I'd have my husband or older child sucking on my boobs at least every 2 hours, because any kind of human sucking is going to stimulate the response better than the pump. I don't know if that is totally out of your comfort zone or what - but it's what I'd be likely to try.

 

[CookAMH]

I don't have any tips as I'm having my first...but you've gotten great advice. I guess one thing I would add is if the consultant who comes seems unhelpful, get another one.

Congrats!!!

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[trauerweidchen]

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Originally Posted by CookAMH I don't have any tips as I'm having my first...but you've gotten great advice. Congrats!!! : : :

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So exciting to have another baby in our DDC already! I hope that everything goes well and that your family is home in no time.

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