>>Baby was 24-hr. old, term, and had never breastfeed.  He had been bottlefed
at least 3 times.  However, the nurses reported that he bottlefed poorly.
 The baby never opened her mouth wide enough to latch on.  She cried whenever
we tried to latch her onto the breast. <<

Bonnie,
I take the compressibility issue very seriously, but I think that the worst
problem is the other one that you mentioned, that the baby won't open wide
and seems to suck poorly.  You might consider screening this baby's birth
history thoroughly for any type of unusual strain or trauma; sounds like a
possible pinched nerve or related. I realize that we are then tredding in the
territory of sacral-cranial specialist or chiropractor, but my primary focus
would be a mechanical obstacle for this poor little one.

As for mom's breasts, maybe the labor history has something to explain, maybe
not. I also just saw a mom with very firm areolar tissue that was not
terribly protractile. Baby *almost* latched on, and probably would have if I
had tried pumping the breast down some first (baby was 7 days old, milk in).
A mom with colostrum really doesn't have anything to "pump down", but I would
still massage the areola to soften it.  Again, I see this as the second
issue, and if we don't figure out the first, the second may be irrelevant.

My 2 cents, for whatever it is worth!  Don't you love armchair LCing? ;-)

-Lisa Marasco, BA, LLLL, IBCLC