Newborn lost 10.9% weight, need a plan so I don't lose it.

[TimeWasting]

I had a really awful time with DS weight as a newborn and with DD so far felt really confident as there's no pain, I can see and hear her feeding, my milk came in last night at 2.5 days, she's been well and happy etc.
Yet she's gone from 7lb 3 to 6lb 7 in 3 days. She slept all night and woke up a touch jaundiced too.

She appears to be feeding well, but nappies don't appear very wet, yet we've had plenty poopy ones.

I'm feeling a bit blue, didn't manage to get out for a walk today and DS is very trying and I need a plan for this baby weight.
Midwife will be here after 11.30 on Wednesday and we need a weight gain.
I've just lost all confidence this afternoon.

My DD (now 4 weeks) dropped from 8lb 7oz to 7lb 14oz in the first 10 days. She too was doing lots of poos, not so many wees at first, but she's now doing wet nappies too and she was 9lb 2oz at today's weigh-in. Don't focus too much on the numbers, sounds like you are are doing really well. Oh, read this too! It's by a friend of mine who is a doula. Weight gain

My ds dropped 12% in the first few days. The midwife wasn't bothered.

As long as you know that she is feeding then it's fine.

You know what you are doing. Hopefully the midwife will reassure you.

TimeWasting, sorry you are feeling so sad about this.

It seems to me from what you say that your dd is doing well. The slightly larger than normal weight loss is 100 per cent explicable: she slept a lot yesterday and has a touch of jaundice.

But - she is overcoming that by feeding well, and you are motivated and determined, so you will simply ensure she gets loads of chances to feed by keeping her skin to skin to make it easy to respond to every feeding cue.

That's your plan :)

Those around you need to give you lots of support and help to make the plan a reality.

My midwife said she refused to weigh any babies in their first week as it just made the parents anxious. They all lose weight. They all put it back on. In fact, she might have said that she waited 2 weeks to weigh them again after they were first born.

Also, different scales can give slightly different readings which can also make weight loss look more dramatic than it really is.

Ds1's weight dropped by 10% midwife said anymore and we would be sent back to hospital, but he was feeding really well and alert with wet and pooey nappies (didn't sleep so couldn't have been too starved!). He'd gained an oz when they weighed him the next day and within a couple of weeks was putting on 1lb a week (he was bf).

The only plan you need is to feed often. With ds2 who was quite severely jaundiced (again not far off having to go back under the lights) I was told not to let him go more than 3hrs between feeds and to wake him to feed him if necessary.

As long as your baby is alert at times and weeing and pooing then the weight loss will be temporary and should quickly start to reverse.

Thank you all so much. I'm feeling a bit better.
Day 3 baby blues is possibly the worst day they could come and do weigh-in!

I found this which is reassuring.

I need to respond to cues immediately, wake her after 3 hours if she doesn't wake herself and not attempt to do anything other than feed her and get out for a walk in daylight hours for the forseeable.

Tiktok is obviously the expert on a plan, but I'd just concur regarding the weight loss and scales. You are talking such tiny margins in newborns that the scales, the surface they are placed on, whether they've just done a massive poo/wee, whether they've just had a feed, etc can all tweak the weight slightly. (It works on adults too. I know when I've been a bit depressed at my lack of weight loss post baby, giving her a big feed and then shifting about a bit on the scales can usually shave off a pound )

My midwife was another who refused to weigh for at least a week unless there was an actual cause for concern. She said it freaked people out too much.

Feed feed feed as much as possible. Lots of cuddles with baby too. My DD lost 12% and I had to stay in hospital for a week as she was born at 36 weeks.

She gained rapidly after the initial drop and is still fully breastfed at 3.5 months.

My DD dropped from 6lb 10 to 5 lb 15 in three days - like yours she was mildly jaundiced and very sleepy (she was a C section and I don't think she had got with the picture that it was time to be out!). The MW muttered darkly about readmitting her and I cried. I did loads of skin to skin over the next couple of days and within a week she was slightly over her birth weight. She's now 11 weeks and has nearly doubled her birth weight .

It's completely understandable that you are worried but please try not to be, given what you have said about the nappies it doesn't sound like there is serious cause for concern. When I had DS 4 years ago they didn't weigh at 3 days, his first weigh in after birth was at 5 days so I'm sure by then he had already lost weight and started to regain it.

Agree - feed feed feed. My baby lost nearly 14% I think (although she was pretty big to start off with) and I was threatened with readmittance to hospital etc etc unless I formula fed. I carried on breastfeeding her all the time and she is now (at three months) on the 98th centile.

I'm sure she will be fine.

I have a complicated story about being sent to outpatients after too much weight loss and putting their plan into action. It's pretty specific, but I just wanted to say that the outcome has been successful BF until 16 months and counting.

Update - I've been waking her every two hours in day and after four hours at night, her wees and poos were spot on and the jaundice went off quick...
and she's put 3oz on.

Yay to you - well done.

Great stuff!

:)