Help!!!clueless mum of non sleeping 5 day d

[apachepony]

My 5 day old won't go to sleep in his cot for me. I am breastfeeding but as he has jaundice have been told to supplement with formula. I am worried that this will prevent my milk coming in. My milk came in late and he ended up dehydrated due to really bad advice on day 2 about not waking him every 3 hours to sleep.
He is quite a windy baby (especially after formula) and I am really crap at winding him. He seems to go into his cot a lot easier for my dh.
He has just refused to go into his cot for me, crying with his legs and face screwed up, then also chewing his hand - due to this last cue, I keep on putting him to my breast but I'm worried I'm not making enough/any milk.
So do you think he sounds windy, or hungry, or just refusing to leave his mum? He is currently sleeping on my shoulder. My dh really doesn't want to co-sleep. I really don't want to feed formula but looks like I'm going to be hit with supply issues that will make bf impossible

another secret to winding I've just been told by nursery nurse who came to teach massage for colic and wind is keeping their back very straight - we find stroking down rather then patting v effective and if you keep changing positions while trying ti straighten back it really helps. keep at utterly fir a good 20 or even 30 mins - good luck!

Hey apache sorry to hear you've had a tough start. I would never go against medical advice, just wanted to share my experience.

When I came home LO became too sleepy to feed and on visit from MW next morning (day 3) she was v jaundice. Was on the line for hospitalization but when the MW called the paediatrician from my house they were basically full. Was told to initiate a feeding plan and retest in 24 hours. Luckily she had lost v little weight which may have swayed their decision for us to stay at home.

Anyway, the MW was confident enough to let us continue BF. I hand expressed a bit and syringe fed a couple of times to try and rouse her. Also stripped her off for lots of skin to skin, cool water and cotton wool on the face etc. and had to feed every 2 hours. MW phoned later that day to see if she was feeding and came for the next few days to check the bilirubin levels. Whilst they weren't actually going down, every 24 hours the baby can tolerate more I think so it stabilized.

It took longer for her jaundice to go because she was BF (maybe 4/5 weeks) but no one seemed worried (apart from me cos I thought she was orange and looked like an umpalumpa!)

My point is, you can successfully exclusively BF through jaundice in some circumstances (if you want to that is, I'm not in anyway suggesting formula is bad in case anyone thinks that) so be sure to phone the helplines as others have said if you don't want to top up longer term.

Very best of luck :)

Apache - what a dififcult start. Particularly difficult hauling a tiny baby to and from appointments :( :(

I'm not going to add anything to the stuff here - except to say talk to someone about this, on the bf helplines and/or with a midwife you trust.

There is honestly no such thing as a sleeping issue with a tiny baby (you may be tired of course and stressed....but the baby just needs to be close to you, and may well not want to sleep apart, and this is normal not something to be fixed at this stage). Frequent feeds, offering both breasts at least at each session = normal and good :)

Hi, I'm afraid I've not read the whole thread (v tired with a 3 week old baby!) but wanted to reassure you that I had a similar problem.

My baby lost 11% of his birthweight, my milk took 8 days to come in and we had to do top ups. I was distraught that this would affect supply, and yes possibly top ups delayed my milk, but it got his weight up and saved our sanity. We're now breast feeding with no probs at all.

Thanks everybody. Good news at the appointment - his bilirubin has gone down and they're not really worried any more. In fact the doctor was delayed, I spent the time bf and his levels had dropped further when doctor retested. I've bought a pump, and will try to express while phasing out the formula

That's good news apache. Have you spoken to a BFC about phasing out the top ups? You might also find this article useful