Hellobee Boards

Even though you're not producing lots and lots of milk you're producing droplets of colostrum. My LO has been a nursing pro so she latched on pretty quickly, there was a little fumbling but it didn't last long, and just suckled away. I really have no clue about the timing but I know at the hospital they recommended 15-30 min on each breast every 2-3 hours, so that's probably what we did. I think she got sleepy on the second breast so we didn't force the issue. It was over an hour after she was born that she finally got weighed. Everyone kept texting my husband and he's like 'I don't know!'.

Yeah, there may not be milk yet but you are producing colostrum! You actually start producing it at 14 weeks! I only know that because I started leaking SUPER early so did a bunch of research.

Also, newborn bellies are smaller than a marble; they don't even need a tablespoon every few hours. If you aren't able to breastfeed for whatever reason but you don't want the baby given formula you could PROBABLY hand-express enough for a feeding at a time, you just have to let the hospital know.

I have been attending La Leche League meetings and they have been SO helpful in easing my mind. Maybe that's something you could look into before the baby is born? Also, most hospitals have a dedicated lactation consultant. As a first time Mom they should be able to schedule a visit with her soon after birth!

Oh gosh I can't remember anymore but I got to breastfeed once she was done getting all cleaned up, weighed, measured, etc. I think they took her away again while I was transferred to a recovery room so I don't think the initial feeding was very long. But once you're in the recovery room, you'll be breastfeeding pretty much around the clock so you'll get lots of practice!

My LO wasnt interested when she was first born but maybe an hour later she got hungry and latched like an ol time pro

I tried right away and she latched perfectly. I didn't have the wherewithal to actually do it myself, the nurse was the one to initiate it. She wasn't there for long, I would say about 20 minutes. They cleaned her a bit while in that position. Then they took her for the more thorough cleaning and to do all the measurements. It wasn't until a couple hours later that we tried again, once we were brought to the maternity floor.

@Mrsbells: they put the baby between me and my gown so she was covered.

The baby was immediately placed on my chest but was wrapped up and I still had a gown on. The helped rub her clean and they finished up on my. Once they were done with that we had a few minutes alone and so we tried to latch we on. She suckled for about 15 minutes on one side. This wa just our best guess about what was supposed to happen. She was on my chest for about an hour before they came to bath her and measure her.