Early (35+3) baby. Need to BF every 3 hrs but falling asleep at the breast. Help!

[Snowboarder]

I'd forgotten how difficult this all is.

DS2 was born on Tuesday by caesarian. He had to be delivered early as my waters had broken on Monday morning and I have other issues I won't bore you with.

He was a good weight - 6lb 3oz and had no problems breathing and maintaining his temp. We also managed a feed/ skin to skin in recovery.

He only lost 6% of his weight in the first 2 days which the midwife said was very good. He fed well at first although my nipples got a little sore and we were managing a roughly 3 hr schedule of about 25 minutes suckling. My milk came in quickly (his poos went seedy/ yellow by Thursday afternoon) and I know I had an oversupply with DS1 so it's possible that DS2 is getting a lot, quickly.

I came home yesterday though and have been struggling a bit since. He seems quite sleepy and doesn't seem ready for his feed after 3 hours. I can usually get him to latch ok but he'll suckle with interest for a few minutes before dropping off to sleep. I've tried removing his baby grow, tickling his feet, blowing on his face, changing his nappy etc to wake him up which works but he just seems to drop off no matter how angry he'd been.

Last night during the night I struggled and let him just have as much as he wanted (10 mins) and then let him sleep. He went 4 hours but then had a big feed. The next feed he didn't seem interested and only did 10 minutes again.

If he was a big bruiser i'd be less worried about him feeding on time and for a decent stretch but he is just a littley and I'm worried he wont thrive.

I don't know what to do. Help!

Who has told you to only bf every 3 hours? If he is sleepy he may need to feed far more frequently than that.

Could you keep baby skin to skin with you today and see if that improves his feeding frequency - that way you will be able to respond to him as quickly as possible (some babies 'ask' but if it's not done quickly they can go back to sleep to conserve energy).

Is the MW coming today to check up on you both?

DS was on time but had to feed every 3 hours for at least 20 mins because of jaundice, unfortunately due to that he was also very sleepy and we had the same probs you seem to be having

not gonna be popular here but as GF advises feeding every 3 hours she also has tips about how to GET them to feed (and have good big feeds) every 3 hours if they aren't interested, can't remember if the baby whisperer had some too as their routine is the same?

we got there in the end, hope it falls into place for you soon

If second upping the feeds to 2 hours if poss..

Congratulations on your DS!

I agree with all the others, on more frequent feeds and skin to skin. Once he is awake and feeding, there are also some tips here on Kellymom for feeding a sleepy baby. This should give you some ideas for getting as much milk as possible into him at each feed.

Maybe he is done after ten mins? my babies only ever really fed actively for 5 mins right from the start and i had oversupply like you.

how are his happiest now?

How are his nappies now that should read....

My DD was term but only weighed 5lb13. she only ever fed for 5-10 mins at a time. I think she was just superefficient. If you are getting lots of wet and dirty nappies and he is not jaundiced I suspect 10 mins is filling his tummy

I had two premmie babies who took a while to get strong enough to wake up for feeds all the time. One at 34 and the other at 36 weeks.

I didn't let them go longer than 3 hours to begin with. However, if they needed feeding before I would have obviously fed them, So maybe that is where the 3 hours is coming from. But think once they got larger and more alert I just let them dictate the schedule.

I was told 20 minutes was a good time to feed for as a minimum but think I might have not followed this after I was discharged. I was horribly paranoid about DC1's weight and had him weighed loads. He put on loads of weight so something must have gone right.

I used to also strip them to the nappy and tickle feet etc to keep them going (but think this was more with 34 weeker).

The advice I got was from a breast feeding counsellor / midwife who was awesome. With DC1 I used to feed them with the rugby hold but can't remember if that was because he was premmie. I didn't feed DC2 like that.

DC1 fed until nearly 14 months and DC2 is now 14 months and still fed on demand with no sign of losing interest and am going to feed her for a while longer.

We never followed any routine as such and still don't apart from bed time.

Not sire of that helped.

Thank you so much for all your responses, they have been incredibly helpful. I read them yesterday but didn't get chance to reply.

I spent hours yesterday doing skin to skin and offering DS2 the breast at the slightest inclination that he might accept it. He started feeding better and since then we have been feeding between 2.5 and 3hrs for roughly 15 minutes a time on one breast a time. Doesn't sound a lot but like others have said, I suspect that that us filling him. I have vastly full breasts at the start of each feed and they are much softer (and I can hear and see him taking big gulps) so I know he is getting a decent amount. Also having about 6 dirty/ wet nappies too.

I haven't had a visit from the midwife yet (can anyone tell me how soon this should be after discharge from hospital?) but I hope when he's weighed that I'll be able to put my mind at rest.

Thanks for the Kellymom link btw. I read on there that babies have to work harder for the colostrum than after your milk has come in which might explain why he was feeding for 25+ mins at hospital and only feeding for 15 minutes at home.

I also had to wake ds to feed at the start (I would also try 2 hourly rather than 3) - swapping sides every time he fell asleep helped.