Worried- newborn, what counts as awake?

[Junosmum]

I'm getting really worried. I have 5day old son. He is really sleepy. I've been reading up on awake time/ sleep schedules etc and most sources say baby should be awake for around 40mins at a time.

No way does my son do that, he doesn't open his eyes for more than 5mins, when feeding he falls asleep with in 3-5mins and suckles whilst asleep. He's hard to wake.

He's feeding well but has lost 9% body weight. He has lot's of poppy nappies.

Does time suckling with eyes closed count as awake or is it just eyes open, bring alert time?

Midwife has checked for jaundice, and he's ok. She didn't ask about periods of time awake, only feeding so I didn't think anything of it until she'd gone.

Was he born early or small? Any signs of an illness like a cold/cough?

DD was veeery sleepy and hard to wake for her first few weeks, but she was born early. She "woke up" about a week after her due date.

38 weeks by drs dates, 37 weeks by mine, so a little early.

DD was such a sleepy newborn that we used to have to strip her naked and tickle her feet to get her to feed. The midwives found it all perfectly normal. Neither of mine stayed awake for as long as 40 minutes till they were a couple of months old!

I had to set a 3h alarm to feed DS1, I don't have a pic of him with his eyes open til he was around a month old. I had a loooong latent phase of labour (contractions every 5 mins for 3 days) so I think he was just knackered . Still loves his bed now at 2 years old.

My dc1 was like that.
Are you.bf? Are you sure he is actually getting enough milk and not just falling asleep from effort of sucking.for very little milk. That can be a downwards spiral as they sleep.to.conserve energy and feed less.
I was advised to.hand express a little before the feed so he didn't have to work to get let down.
When is he being weighed again?

Neither of mine were awake for 40 minutes until at least 2 months old.

9% weight loss is still ok. I found switching sides frequently helped to keep them feeding in the early days.

dd1 was very very sleepy newborn baby. We couldn't see what colour eyes she had until when was 2 weeks old, because we had never really seen them open.

She had cycles of fast asleep, sleepy, and feeding and that was it. I did lots of feet tickling and undressing her to get her to feed. Each feed took 40 minutes as she ate for 20 minutes and then had a rest and then ate for 10 minutes more. She was born at 38 weeks (induced) and 'woke up' much more around her due date.

massive contrast to ds and dd2 who were both born wide awake and lay all night long looking at me with big eyes, both born late.

As long as he is feeding, weeing and pooing, don't worry.

If he's feeding regular whilst asleep /eyes closed with plenty of wet nappies then I wouldn't worry

Thanks everyone for your replies. Turns out he just needed to cook for a bit longer. He's 'woken up' much more the last couple of days and is feeding a bit better.