When my son was born at 33 weeks, they told me to plan on exclusively pumping. I was so upset because I’ve always HATED pumping. I was determined though and insisted on trying to breastfeed him when he was just a day old.

They told me he wouldn’t latch, he might lick the nipple, but that’s it. “33 weekers have no suck swallow breathe reflex yet”

They were wrong. My baby and I knew exactly what to do!

I won’t pretend there weren’t struggles. The first 12 days almost all his feedings were still through a tube.

When I got him home, it would sometimes take over an hour to get him latched properly to eat. And then keeping him awake was so difficult.

I sometimes gave up and pumped and bottle fed him.

I cried a lot.

But I powered through it!!!

Despite both a lip and tongue tie, he was exclusively breastfed until 6 months old!

We just started solids the other day and I hope to breastfeed him for at least another year 🥰

I went from having no expectations of being able to nurse to getting to the point we’re at now and I’m so proud of us both for figuring it out!