Hi Trish, I'm hoping that since you had the blessings of the MOTL (mothers of the list) to "seriously come out of the closet" with your question maybe they will allow me the same blessing to answer your question. Since its been quite a while since I've posted, and I've only been able to read sporadically for several years now, due to life and home responsibilities, I will reintroduce myself. My name is Cheryl Leipold. I have been involved with helping breastfeeding moms for about 15 years. I became board certified 10 years ago (yes I will be re-sitting the exam this year). I have been involved with LACTNET almost since its beginning, mainly lurking but adding input where I could here and there over the years. May I say to the founding mothers BRAVO for such a forum. I am the mother of 11 (no that is not a typo) breastfed children. I just turned 46 this March am currently nursing a three year old and unfortunately looks like I am losing a 2 month pregnancy as we speak. The last time I had a chance to read LACTNET was about a week ago when I read your post. My heart went out to you because of a similar experience that I had with my 10th child. At that time I really had nothing to say other than what has already been said, RAH-RAH-RAH, you have already given that wonderful baby of yours everything that breastfeeding has to offer even without him actually nursing at the breast for very long, but I do understand your heartfelt desires for him to go to the breast. I will try to be brief in my explanation without leaving out too much pertinent information. We had to decide to deliver my 10th child by C-section at 27 weeks gestation November 12, 1997. The placenta had stopped functioning and we had the choice of giving her a chance to make it outside the womb or dying within a few hours. We chose to give her every chance possible. She was born and 1 lb. 6.6 oz., was in the NICU for approximately 3 months, did amazingly well considering her size and also later finding out that she was also a baby with Downs Syndrome, but might I say what a fighter!! We were very blessed that she had none of the problems that can be so common in children with Downs and only some of the problems that micro-premies have to face. With 9 other children at home my husband and I traveled 45 minutes each way to visit her every day. We did Kangaroo care with her almost every day from just a few days old, in a hospital that we had to convince that WE WERE going to do this for the benefit of our child. Her dad would Kangaroo her one day for about an hour and the next day would be my turn. Any attempts at the breast were encouraged, but she was so tiny that it was impossible for her to even think of latching onto the nipple, and my nipples are relatively small. I was nursing a three year old toddler at the time of her birth and started pumping immediately but was never able to pump more than a few ounces a day even with her sister continuing to nurse (possibly a person who lays down the alveoli cells for nursing a new child late in the pregnancy??). When it became apparent that no matter what I did I was not going to bring in a full milk supply for this baby, we convinced the neonatologist (with educated effort and firmness) that our baby would have banked human milk (thanks so much again Mary Rose Tully), the first ever at this hospital. I pumped for five months and mixed my few ounces a day with the banked milk at which time we went totally to the banked milk until she was 15 months old. Unfortunately this baby was force-fed bottles in the NICU and came home totally orally defensive. She never effectively sucked anything but her tongue to comfort herself which she still does to this day to go to sleep. We tube fed her from 3 months, introduced solids very slowly and carefully at 10 months while still tube feeding the banked milk and eventually moving to all solids at 15 months. When Miranda was 15 months old I delivered her brother (the 3 year old nursing toddler now). At first she seemed interested in what the new baby did at the breast and would climb up in by lap when he was nursing and put her mouth to the breast to lick, play or bite. After a few months the newness wore off and she would only want to put her mouth on the breast every now and then. Most of the time she acted totally non interested in what was going on. Miranda is now almost 4 1/2 yr. old. Developmentally, in a lot of ways she is the same age as her brother. Lately, although I am sure this is not the role play that she is taught in her special ed. class at school, I have noticed her nursing her baby dolls (there of course isn't anything else in the house to feed them with). About a week ago she wanted to put her mouth on the breast for the 1st time in over a year but she just laughed and got down. Now for an answer to your question which I hope will give you hope that anything is possible! Tonight as I lay down with Miranda and Jeremiah to put them to sleep, Miranda decided that she didn't like Jeremiah laying in my arms nursing while she just lay beside me. She wanted to be held too. I offered for her to climb up on my chest and lay down. Jeremiah was nursing on the right side and my left breast was slightly exposed. Miranda latched on. At that time of course her brother decided that he wanted that side so she happily switched. I figured that would be it, but no, she latched on to the right side and sucked (effectively most of the time) for about 5 minutes coming off and reattaching herself like a pro several times. When her brother was finished she went to the other breast and nursed there for about 2 or three more minutes. Will it happen again? Who knows, but I can tell you without a doubt that anything is possible. What a blessed child your son is to have you as his mom!! With love and best wishes, Cheryl Leipold BS, IBCLC *********************************************** The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html