I don't have alot of help for you, but just wanted to suggest a
different pumping routine which may be as effective, but get you a
little more sleep. What I did to build supply was every 2 hours with
a 4 hour space between pumpings at night to get sleep. Then to
maintain supply only every 3 hours with the 4 hour space at night. I
tend toward poor supply, so you may be able to build supply with the
three and four hour spacing.

I am curious what happened when you tried the nipple shield? Were you
able to cram that in her mouth successfully? and what is finger
feeding, is that feeding with a syringe?

Hang in there.

KC

(denise) wrote in message ...
OK, so here's the story. (a bit long - sorry)

Gave birth by csection (after a 20 hour labor - ugh!!) 19 days ago. At
first, DD was a great nurser but by day three when my milk wasn't
coming in, we had to go to finger feeding as she was losing too much
weight. Took me almost 8 days for my milk to come in.

After that, we could never get her to latch on much again. Not only
can we not get her to latch on, we can't get her to open her mouth to
feed. We practically have to cram a bottle or finger feeding into her
mouth. I have been religiously pumping every three hours and could
fall asleep at the drop of a hat, I'm so exhausted.

I have seen *4* lactation consultants in the hospital (there for five
days) and 2 lactation consultants on an outpatient basis after that.
I cannot for the life of me get this child to BF. No matter what I
do. In fact, the last LC - GAVE ME A BOTTLE! Even she was like "um,
here's a bottle. I don't hold out a ton of hope for you".

I'm ready to SLAP the next person who sits there and berates me when
they find out I'm pumping and can't get her on the breast. I'm
trying!! Morning, noon and night, I am trying. I try at least four
times a day if not more and yesterday I got her one once but haven't
been able to since then and I've tried six times. Even my doctor said
most women would have thrown in the towel by now and I've tried it all
and not to feel guilty if I give her formula but I really, really want
this to work.

I'm so tired of pumping, I'm crying all the time trying to get her to
bf and nothing we do works. We've tried it all - nipple shields,
feeding her a bit at first to calm her down, finger feeding, massage,
letting her get really hungry, *6* lactations consultants, books,
magazines, internet sites for advice - you name it, we've tried it. I
don't want to give up but I'm at my wit's end. Has anyone been in
this place and what the hell do I do??? I can't pump like this
forever and my breasts are ready to fall off.