u/t1nydancaa

I’m in need of any advice. My baby was born early (not premie) and my milk came in late so we started off with formula and gradually cut that down to only once in the night and breastmilk otherwise through pumping. I’ve been trying to feed with a shield but only once or twice a day per the lactation consultant’s advice. They told me he’s too small to latch without it still and I have to just wait till he’s bigger for it to click.

That’s all fine and I’m mostly sharing for context.

The issue I’m having is that he goes from sleepy/starting to wake up to screaming and inconsolable within the span of five minutes. If I try to feed, he’s either too tired and disinterested or he’s screaming and nothing I do can calm him to get him to latch. I’ve tried feeding him an ounce or so first then trying to latch, have tried going between bottle and shield, have tried expressing into the shield, have tried a syringe alongside the shield—none of it is working. It’s like as soon as I lay him on the breastfeeding pillow he knows what’s coming and screams. I’ve mostly done football hold and cradle hold.

Is there anything else I can try? Fwiw he does sometimes latch and feed but it’s random and I never know what I’ve done right so I can try and replicate it (maybe that’s part of the issue and there is no pattern lol).

Pls help feeds make me feel so stressed and anxious 😭

Ok so my journey has been all over the place lol my milk came in late bc my baby was born early so he started on bottles and formula. Once I got home from the hospital, I started producing milk and would pump every three hours while continuing to mostly feed formula until I produced more. I’m finally producing enough that we only need to do one or two formula feeds in the night (if that, but we do just to be safe). Yay!

I had previously decided on exclusively pumping bc he couldn’t latch from being so small. I made a lactation appointment anyway but had to wait almost a month, so now I’m trying to pump and breastfeed using a nipple shield (also stressful ahh). I like having a stash so my husband and others can do feedings, so I wanna keep on pumping.

But here’s where I’m confused. I was pumping every three or four hours, so do I continue on that schedule or do I now only pump after trying to breastfeed? And sometimes he only wants a small feed so do I pump after every single one or just the big feeds?

Also, separately, he was latching on the shield for a bit but now he’s fussing like crazy so he just cries and screams at the breast and only settles for a bottle. He isn’t really latching at all, and if he does, he falls asleep almost instantly (like laughably quick). Any tips on how to settle him in for a feed or how to better use my shield? I can’t get an appointment again for another two weeks so I’m stressing ugh.