Transitioning Back to the Breast After Pumped Bottles in Newborn

I don't know if this will help, but I'll share my story. My son is 4 weeks now. When I was in the hospital when he was first born, he wouldn't latch on to the breast. He would latch on to anything else-bottle, husbands finger, just not the breast. We ended up me holding the baby in position with one hand, holding my breast in the other hand, my husband squirting breast milk onto my nipple from a bottle with one hand and positioning my sons head onto the nipple with the other hand. It took about 3 days of this at every feeding to finally get him to latch on without my husband helping.
Good luck!

Didn't... the Doc or Lactation Consultant... check your baby's latch????
Or explain to you what you can do to assist your baby in latching on?
Or did they check his mouth positioning at breast? And suggest to you various ways in which to hold him at breast, so that he can latch on better per positioning?

I am surprised, they didn't do that.

Is it your milk, that is not coming in?
They recommended your pumping and feeding via bottle, so that he does get adequate intake and does not get dehydrated. Since he is having trouble at the breast.
Thus, to me, they should be... trouble shooting this now... him at breast and nursing.
Like, now.
Why wait? per their suggestion.

The more baby can feed at breast, that will aid your milk production/letdown etc. Because, the body produces milk per supply and demand. Of course, feeding baby on-demand.

Have they suggested why, baby is not nursing well?

The good news - you can do this, and it is worth doing!
The bad news - it may be a process, not something that happens overnight.

My little guy was a preemie, who was losing weight, after being born by c-section. We started bottle feeding him really early on - then working on getting him to nurse. He was not a fan of nursing at first - the bottle was easier. We managed to set up a supplemental system where I would get him close, then put a small tube (connected to a supply of milk) in his mouth along side my nipple, so that he would be getting something when he nursed. When I did that, then he would actually latch and try nursing. (Doing this required 2 people, as you run out of hands to make it work.)

He got the idea that nursing was a good idea. However, it took some time for him to get proficient - and we were told to nurse for ~20 minutes - and then switch back to a bottle to finish out the feeding. We did that for some time before he would be satisfied with 'just nursing'.

My suggestion is to keep offering. See if the pediatrician is OK with you offering at every feeding, but the finishing up with a bottle, if he seems still hungry. (I know this is a ROYAL pain, as you will need to be pumping to make it work... )
Also, work with the LC to see if you have the latch right- as it sounds like you have the milk, but little guy is missing the technique - or energy to make it work.

Try not to stress about this. (Easier said than done, I KNOW.) For me, the realization that I needed to do this for longer than a few days was hard on me. (My first 2 kids did fine, needing no help. The one with the problems was the 3rd - so all my practice did not do me much good.) My little guy got the hang of it, and now at 8 months old we do not need bottles (except for when he and I are separated). (That was true starting at about 6 weeks - but it was 6 weeks of nursing + bottles for each feeding. :( The hardest part of that 6 weeks was not knowing if he would ever get the hang of it... Looking back, it seems much more trivial than it was during the time that we were having problems.)

So, if you are still reading... the important parts.
You can do it.
It will get better.
You are doing a good job - his weight is caught up.
Take care of you, and try not to worry.
Keep offering, and work with the LC if possible.

Good luck, I'll be thinking about you. The first few weeks are the hardest - sleep deprivation is a killer. You sound like you are doing a great job!

I'm not going to have the best answer here, but I can tell you this: I had to bottle feed breastmilk for the first couple weeks until I could find a good lactation consultant to help me with the transition. I mainly just want to tell you that I've been there - and that it IS possible to switch back to breast!!! :) You just need a lot of determination and patience. Once your little guy latches on correctly and "gets it", it'll be a piece of cake. (For me it took 6 weeks to finally feel like we "got it".........but I made the huge mistake of using a nipple shield - seriously, DON'T USE A NIPPLE SHIELD!!! Send me a message if you'd like to talk more about this) There was a lot of crying during those 6 weeks (by me, not the baby...well, maybe him too...) :) and I wanted to switch to formula SOOOOO bad, but in the end and looking back, I am so glad that I stuck it out. It gets soooo much easier. You'll do great, especially if you have confidence and BELIEVE IN YOURSELF!!! :)

Don't have any advice for you... I just wanted to wish you good luck! You're doing a great thing!

You have some good responses so far and I just want to add that you can do it. It's harder to nurse from the breast than from the bottle so your little guy is going to have to work harder himself. Along with some of the suggestions below I suggest that you go skin to skin as much as possible. Sit somewhere watch TV, read a book, do needlepoint etc and just sit with him directly on your chest with no shirt or bra. This will help with the natural instinct to breastfeed. Get him to root for your breast and put him to the breast as often as he wants. Even if it means every 30 mintues. I have two preemies that I have successfully weaned from bottles to exclusively breastfeeding. You can do this. I also suggest you find a different lactation consultant. She should have answered your question when you asked it. Go to the La Leche website and find your local chapter and give them a call. It's free and so very helpful.