My Precious Baby
Juanita H.
VA USA
From NEW BEGINNINGS, Vol. 19 No. 3, May-June 2002, p. 91
Drew was our third baby,
and because of problems in my previous pregnancies, I expected him to
be early, but not 11 weeks early! My water broke at 28 weeks, and he
was delivered vaginally a week later, when I contracted an infection.
He was three pounds, three ounces (twice the size of most babies at
29 weeks). I started pumping five hours after he was born. The first
time I pumped, I got only about 15 cc. I was so disappointed. I wondered
how I would ever be able to keep up with his needs.
I continued pumping while
I was in the hospital but never got much milk. I wanted to nurse Drew
so badly and knew he needed all the extra antibodies that mothers of
premature babies make. So I decided to wait until my milk came in before
getting too stressed. I had breastfed my two older children, so I felt
things would work out. When my milk increased two days later, I was
able to pump 16 to 24 ounces at a time, so I always had more than enough
milk for Drew. My doctor and lactation consultant advised a rigid pumping
schedule, but I just pumped when my breasts felt full, which was at
least six times a day. I didn't know until later that being able to
pump so much milk each time was unusual.
When Drew reached 31 weeks
gestational age, I finally talked his doctor into letting me feed him
at my breast, although they said he wouldn't be able to suck, swallow,
and breathe at the same time until 32 or 34 weeks gestation. He was
being fed via a tube at the time. His little head was the size of my
fist and only twice the size of my areola. Trying to hold such a tiny
thing so gently and correctly because of all his needles and wires was
scary. I settled on the football hold because of his size and the support
his head needed. The little tiger latched on immediately and nursed
for 20 minutes.
About two weeks later, we
were up to three feedings at my breast a day. Drew was weighed on a
very accurate scale before and after he breastfed to measure the amount
of milk he was getting. One day, I arrived for an evening feeding only
to be told the doctors had revoked nursing privileges because he hadn't
been gaining enough weight. I cried all the way home. This was my baby
and breastfeeding was the only thing I felt I could do to really help
him at this point. The doctors were concerned that he wasn't getting
enough nourishment from breast-feeding to grow properly. He would breastfeed
for only five minutes and the doctors wanted him to nurse for 20. There
was no convincing them that his breastfeeding was not the problem. They
insisted on more bottle-feeding, which infuriated and isolated me.
Drew came home at 50 days.
My doctors advised me to pump my milk and feed it to him in a bottle
with a fortifier added. After just a week of this routine, my milk supply
dropped to the point where I was only pumping two to four ounces each
time. I am thankful for my LLL Leader, who suggested I feed Drew at
the breast exclusively to rebuild my milk supply, which returned quickly.
Drew has never had anything except my milk since then and now weighs
16 pounds at six months. We found out later that he also had allergies
to the protein in cow's milk and to red sauces, so I am especially thankful
to be fully breastfeeding him now. In retrospect, I feel that he was
having a difficult time sucking from the bottle nipple, not at my breast.
He took seven weeks to gain two pounds in the hospital, but when he
got home, he gained a pound and a half in three weeks. Way to grow,
my precious baby!
Last updated Friday, October 27, 2006 by njb.
Page last edited Sun Oct 14 09:30:57 UTC 2007.
