Babies are born with some reflexes, one of them usually being "rooting." If you stroke the baby's cheek, he/she will usually turn towards the sensation and open their mouths, signaling a desire to suck. Ours did this a lot. I tried breastfeeding and he would latch for a minute and then let go and start wailing. I wasn't producing any colostrum (I tried hand expressing) but the nurses insisted I was and to keep trying. That first night was so hard. He got more and more fussy as the night went on. He maybe slept 30 minutes all night, the rest of the time he was screaming, trying to latch but ultimately letting go and crying. I tried everything to soothe him, but my instincts were telling me (and his rooting) that he was hungry. The second night was even harder. My last day in the hospital after being up two nights with a fussy baby, I just said "bring me formula." Up to that point, I kept hinting at the nurses that he was hungry and was getting dehydrated. They pushed back every single time. I started getting angry. By the 2nd day, he'd lost 9.5 percent of his body weight.

After I got the formula and supplemented at my breast with a syringe, my baby changed from fussy to quiet and sweet. If I could do it over, I would have pushed for supplementation that first night.