My daughter was born at 33 weeks. She didn't have the sucking reflex yet and had to practice on pacifiers and then was able to take bottles. She was mostly tube fed my pumped milk and formula for the first week and weaned off the tube onto bottles by 3 weeks. She would do well at taking a few bottle feedings in a row, but then be too tired and have to get a tube feeding. I started pumping within a few hours of her birth. I pumped 6-8 times a day until she was two months old and fed her the breast milk bottles. Thanks to nipple shields I was able to begin just breastfeeding at two months and now at 4 1/2 months she is mostly breastfeeding without the shields. It is a lot of work, but it can be done. Try not to get discouraged if your baby doesn't do it right away. They are catching up on so many things.