Newborn - am I doing it right?!

[BethLatimer]

Our beautiful baby daughter was born last week and we took her home on Friday I had a c section and I'm quite a bit of pain and discomfort. DH has been doing a lot of running around after us since we got home, he has been brilliant.

She is the sleepiest little being I've ever come across. She sleeps like 21 hours per day. She is also nocturnal. Her awake time tends to be between the hours of 2am and 4am.

She will fall asleep mid-feed, making her very difficult to feed and wind (she is formula fed) as she will often fall asleep after 30 ml then will be unsettled and looking for food an hour later.

Also, during her little periods of awakeness - should we be doing anything with her?? We'll cuddle her, chat to her, sing to her, she will happily lie on her changing mat kicking and looking around with her big eyes. Is that ok??

I just feel like her life is sleeping in her Moses basket (downstairs in the living room with us), lying on our knees, or on her mat. Is this normal?

For the first few weeks, yes.

Yes! Enjoy it while it lasts...!

And congratulations!

Sounds about right for a week old. As long as she is putting on weight has some time of being awake she sounds grand. Don't stress yourself out, enjoy the lovely cuddles and keep doing what you're doing. Congratulations

Sounds perfect to me. Enjoy your baby and stop worrying. Congratulations!

Totes normal. Google the fourth trimester for more info on newborn behaviour. Congrats on your little bubba!

Totally normal. She'll "wake up" in a few weeks and become more active. That's when the fun starts and potentially the sleepless nights

sounds pretty spot on!

Sounds about right to me. Enjoy all those lovely snuggly cuddles!

Well now that you mention it, she isn't gaining weight. The midwife weighed her today and she has lost 7% of her birthweight. This didn't seem to phase the midwife but I'm a little worried.

Mine was exactly like this for about three months aha ! If you're very worried talk to your HV, they'll make sure your little one is okay.

That's normal again. DD lost 10%. She'll gain it back. They don't tend to worry unless they've lost 12% or more iirc.

Totally normal. Holding her, talking to her and lots of kisses are really important. Congrats!

Congratulations she sounds adorable.

Babies do sleep a lot. Some more than others. She sounds very content.

If you're concerned mention to your midwife the amount she's sleeping as some babies with jaundice can be very sleepy.

Make the most of the peace!

Also, all babies loose weight after birth it's 'water weight' and normal

Sounds about right, I took my nearly 5 month old grandson out today and he spent most of the time awake, so you have a few more weeks. Newborns are boring

If she's FF and falls asleep, you can try to dream feed her a bit more formula?

She has very mild jaundice.

Don't worry OP it's all normal. Ooh
I loved the baby days! Just brilliant! Cuddle, cuddle, cuddle and you won't go wrong!

Sounds totally normal to me, little tip I always changed their nappy half way through a feed as it helped to wake them up and was easier then getting wind up too :)

If she's falling asleep during feeds, she might be a bit warm, try taking off a layer of clothes or blanket and not cuddling her too much while she has her bottle (just guessing-obviously I don't know how warm you keep her or how you hold her!). Congratulations on your little bundle of joy.

All sooooo normal! And also completely normal to be paranoid that nothing is normal

Sounds as if you're doing brilliantly congratulations! Everything you've described sounds normal to me. Enjoy your delicious little bundle of squish.

They tend to wake up after a couple of weeks. Sleeping mostly is very normal as is losing birth weight. Nature gives them a bit of weight to survive on for the first week so they can learn to feed properly. You dont need to do anything at all other than cuddle and feed her.!

I was so jealous of my NCT pal who had a baby that slept all the time. Make the most of it, so long as she is feeding regularly. I remember constantly trying to "entertain" DC1 as a newborn, singing her nursery rhymes, waving toys in her face. Looking back, I wish I'd just cuddled her and settled down with a good box set. There will be many years of entertaining to come.....

Yes normal. I remember well worrying about my firstborn sleeping all the time, how could they sleep through the night when they had already been asleep much of the afternoon? But that is all they do at that age and for a good few weeks from now. They also tend to wake in the night and want feeding then, or sleep for ten mins then wake again throughout the night. Try and go with the flow, feed when she wants it, try not to stress and remember it won't always be like this!