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.
One day, while bottle feeding him in the hospital, he quit breathing and turned blue. It was one of the scariest moments of my life. It made me so anxious to feed him.
He is home now and we are still working on feeds. Last week we had a rough time. He was very fussy eating, and we would both end up in tears several times a day. I could tell he was in pain, and it killed me. His doctor started him on meds for reflux. But yesterday he latched without a nipple shield for the first time! It was amazing! Today he took his first whole feed directly from me. It was a huge deal for us. He is not fussy or spitty when he breast feeds, and life his so much happier in our house.
I know it’s only been a couple days, but I wanted to share our story so that other preemie/nicu moms would know there is hope.
