Worried about newborn

[leeds84]

Hello, just wondering if any ofyou could help please?

I gave birth on Sunday at 9.30am. All was fine and our baby was born 4.03 kg. Since we've been home she's been feeding pretty much non stop. Screaming when I unlatch her after about 90 minutes, so she's literally been attached continuously. She's also either got urates in her nappy or it's a mini period, I can't tell the difference. (They were there from 24hours post birth). She pooing loads.

The midwife has just been round and said she's already lost 7.5% weight. They checked her latch and said it seemed ok.

I'm just really worried because with my first we got re admitted on day four for 11%weight loss and got put on an extreme feeding regime with top ups of formula and constant expressing. It feels like this is just a rerun of before.

I feel really upset and don't waNt to have to go through that again because it was so hard and I also feel like the formula top ups contributed to ds's reflux (who knows).

I was just after some advice/ reassurance/ anything really that might help. Feeling a bit desperate. Thanks so much

[GoldPlatedBacon]

My dd fed non-stop for the first 3 weeks, often only a 20 minutes gap and was cluster feeding until 11 weeks. She regained her birth weight within 14 days but she dropped two centile before going back up a centile at 6 months. My hv was very supportive of dropping centile and the non stop feeding and said this was all entirely normal.

[doesntmatterwhoyouare]

have you tried hand expressing at all to see if your milk is in yet? I was advised to start things off by hand before baby latched to.help him get more milk in the early days as he was losing weight to fast.

Is she particularly sleepy so maybe falling asleep.before she is really.full, could she be a little jaundice maybe so needs waking to feed more or longer?

[leeds84]

I've tried squeezing my beasts and a small amount of thin colostrum comes out. She's not really falling asleep I don't think because as soon as I try and unlatch her she starts sucking vigorously. She seems to be eating I think, I'm just not sure she's getting anything.

We got he from hospital yesterday and they didn't mention anything about jaundice.

When did your milk come in? Last time mine took over a week I think and Then I had a supply problem.

Just feeling like bursting into tears now. I honestly felt like it might be a bit better because my body new what to do.

[leeds84]

Yikes, I mean breasts not beasts. They're definitely not beasts, think that's part of the problem

[HappyInL0nd0n]

No advice to give, but massive virtual hugs. The early weeks are so tough.

I hope it all settles down soon and you can enjoy getting to know your little one.

Good luck.

[YesterdayTomorrowToday]

Bumping for you OP as it sounds like a really tough situation when you're already feeling at your most vulnerable and hopefully others will be along with more helpful thoughts

[Coconut0il]

Congratulations on your DD OP. If her latch is ok I would just keep feeding as often as you can. My DS2 was attached almost permanently for the first few weeks, if he was taken off the breast he would cry. I just tried to go with it as much as possible. Got myself comfy and fed, fed, fed. I know this will be harder if you have another child. My DS1 is 12 so old enough to understand.
However, DS2 lost minimal weight and I'm not sure about urates so I would be keeping an eye on those.

[challengedvertically]

Hi,
For what it's worth, different hospitals have different criteria for re-admitting to hospital with regard to weight loss, so don't get too hung up on numbers. At our local hospital, the baby needs to have lost 12.5% of its birth weight before they would want to check him over again (compared to 10% at the other nearest hospital), so 7% is comparatively small. My baby had lost about 12%, possibly because anaemia caused my milk to come in very late, and we didn't do anything special to bring his weight back up apart from just feeding on demand - which turned out to be constantly for a few days. No formula top ups were needed.
You're doing great, and your baby sounds very normal, as long as there are plenty of wet nappies. Go with your instinct, cancel visitors for now and get as much rest, food and drink as you can while she cluster feeds - it will get better!