I wasn't able to breast feed the girls because of a few reasons. One reason was Abigail had difficulty learning to feed, so she had to have a feeding tube placed. Elizabeth dropped her heart rate (a preemie thing) when she drank, so it was safer to monitor her feeding with a bottle.
I might not have breastfeed them, but I sure did master the art of pumping!
I pumped until the girls were a little older than 8 months. I would have liked to go longer, but trying to feed 2 babies became difficult.
I am very proud of my pumping though. During the NICU days all I could really do for them was pump. One thing that can happen to premature babies is something called Necrotizing Enterocolitis or NEC. It is extremely dangerous and it can be life threatening. NEC is an infection that causes destruction of the bowel. The one thing that has proven to help prevent it is breast milk. Liquid Gold! Once the doctors gave me that info my number one goal became to pump like crazy.
I had a pump that I kept at the Ronald McDonald House and then the hospital let me use one while I was there. The NICU nurses love breast milk and often the very first thing they would say to me before even hello was, " Do you have any fresh?" And most of the time I did.
Looking back I am proud of myself. Pumping can be hard work. I am happy to say that I feed my twins the entire time they were in the NICU. They both never got NEC and I know in my heart it is because of the breast milk.
To any NICU moms out there I really recommend trying to pump. I know it is hard work and it is difficult with everything that is going on and all the emotions you are experiencing, but it truly can make a difference.
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