by Badass Colleen
My son, Colton, was born on March 21 at 32 weeks 5 days after I had been in preterm labor for weeks. He was in the NICU for 39 long days. Feeding was his biggest issue.
I remember the first day he sucked anything from a bottle. It was only 5mls, but I cried, we took pictures, I even saved the bottle. He would not latch onto the breast for anything though. Finally one of the IBCLCs gave me a nipple shield. It was like magic. He would latch, and would nurse, but never longer than about 15 min. Plus it was noisy and crowded in the nicu. I swear every time I tried to bf, 12 uncles would come visit the baby next to us, it was ridiculous! The speech therapist told me to focus on bottle feeds so we could get out of there faster, so nursing got put on the back burner. [Read more…]
