You're doing a great job with the expressing hun!

In some ways, your story reflected the arrival of my DS1 - though he wasn't premmie (born three days before EDD). He was 2.9kg and suffered some mild jaundice for the first couple of weeks. He lost weight - more than they wanted - before we left hospital. BFing was very slow going for us to start with, and at the time of discharge I was told to get milk into him "however I could". So I ended up expressing and giving him EBM after an initial BF, where he would suck for a couple of minutes and then get crotchety and not attach properly or he'd just get drowsy.

For just over three weeks, EVERY feed was an initial BF, then EBM. It sure was a PITA to express all the time - particularly in the wee hours of the morning - but I kept at it and kept trying to BF. Sometime it would take me 10-15mins to get 150ml or more, other times it would take me 30 mins ... that's when it was hard to do.

And in those first few days it was so hard to know if I was giving him enough EBM. I finally realised he needed more when he would cry a bit within an hour or so of a feed. I recieved some advice (won't say where from - not BB though) that 20ml of EBM after a five-minute BF (not the best BF) was plenty as his "tummy is the size of his closed first". But ya know what ... it wasn't enough. He cried for more the first couple of days we got home from hospital. I upped the EBM to about 50-60ml and DS1 was finally happy and full.

Somewhere between 3-4 weeks we hit paydirt and our BFing journey took off. I continued to express for at least one bottle a day - that way DH could give him a feed - but we then BFd for over 13 months. Exclusively for the first six months.

So if you can, keep it up and keep offering your bub BFs. Hopefully, like me, it'll all gel for you both very soon. Good luck with your lc, I'm sure you'll get some great advice and encouragement.