A couple more things

Things I've been thinking about since I wrote earlier this morning.

She doesn't latch on at all laying down. The only way I can get her to latch on is if I am sitting straight up, even hunched over a bit. I know, not the greatest position but it's the only one that works. I'm wondering if someone has a boppy type nursing pillow that I could try to see if the will help things a bit.

I've been pondering why night nursing is so much worse at night than during the day. I think it's partly because she is a typical newborn with her nights and days mixed up. During the day she would much rather fall asleep than continue trying to get something to eat. At night, she fusses until she gets something.

Another reason I suspect that I have never had enough milk is there was one night, I think it was day 4, she slept really, really good for me. I told dh I would feel like a new woman if she slept like that every night. She slept from 1:00 until 5:00 and then from 5:30 until 7:30. I should have woken up very full and swollen because my milk had just come in that morning but I wasn't.

I mentioned a motor oral issue is a possibility but it could be just preemie issues that we need to be patient with, which is what I've suspected all along. I only brought up the oral issues because I know several people that struggled with nursing because of it. I need to contact my LC friend but I don't know how much she charges for consultation and we don't have any money right now.

Other things I've tried.... One days 4 and 5 when I originally started wondering if I had enough milk I stayed in my room and did nothing except sleep and nurse. Dh was home and 2yo JZ was not here. That first night was the night that she slept really well and I thought "great, thats all we needed", but the next day it was just as bad as ever and that night, night 5, was the first night I gave her a binkie. I've tried every position I can think of (even a few creative ones! LOL) and read every bfeeding book I have to get more ideas. Tonight I'm going to get dh to take me to get a finger feeder and I try to not give her the binkie during the day because I'd rather have her try to latch but at night is when I'm usually the most desperate for relief. Today is actually the first day I've had any stress at all and it's only because JZ is home, dh had to work, we have an extra little guy that my 14yo is watching, my 16yo broke his shoulder so he can't help and my 11yo is vacationing with a friend. I do plan on closing myself into my room again just as soon as dh is home. Also, sometime today, Grandma is coming to get the three younger ones so I won't have JZ around and I can get some rest.

This morning we took a bath together so we can both be very relaxed and maybe work on it but, unfortunately, she thought it was a little too close to heaven! LOL I couldn't get her to wake up for anything! I have a nice pump that is hands free so I've been pumping on one side while I try to get her latched onto the other. It works pretty good except I am almost out of bags and it looks like they have discontinued this pump and I can't find any more bags. I'm very sad about this. I do have an avent one that works ok but it's too hard to nurse and pump at the same time.

Ok, those are all the things I could think of at the moment. Thanks, Brandi, for your comments. I know that I need to work on my nutrition but we don't have a lot of food in the house at the moment. Hopefully dh can go shopping tomorrow. I also know I need to work on my water intake. I thought of also trying that Mothers Milk tea to see if that helps.