Newborn sleeping too much / timing of breast feeds

[moominmaiden]

Cross-posted (and edited for exhausted-new-mum ramble factor) from the parenting board.

DS is less than two days old. Midwife visited today and I explained his sleeping patterns so far:

He slept a lot at the hospital while I waiting to be stitched up, then refused to settle after we were discharged (at about 2pm). At about midnight after 36 hours without sleep and feeling a bit spaced out / paranoid, I came downstairs to make up a bottle of emergency formula, thinking that he was not sleeping because my breasts had no milk and he was hungry.

When I came back with the formula DS was fast asleep.

I settled down for a nap and the next thing I knew it was five hours later and DS was still sleeping soundly. He woke up a few minutes later and breast fed every hour for the next four hours, then fell asleep and had been sleeping for two hours when the midwife arrived.

Midwife explained that the most he should go between feeds is three hours, so an hour after she left I woke him up for a feed. He latched on after a bit of encouragement but immediately fell asleep at the breast. This went on for over an hour before he had woken up properly to feed.

A short time later he fed again and then fell asleep for another three hours (he will only sleep when someone is holding him and refuses to settle in his crib / the pram - the only other place he will sleep is the car seat which I know he shouldn't sleep in). Again he would not wake up for over an hour and I began to worry seriously about him sleeping too much because he was dehydrated - I have tried to express but nothing comes out.

I gave him a bottle of formula, about which I feel incredibly guilty, and he immediately fell back to sleep.

I want to continue breastfeeding and feel awful about giving him the formula, but am finding his sleepiness very worrying and stressful. I wondered if anyone else had experience of such a sleepy newborn and how I can ensure he is being fed often enough?

Sorry. It is still a bit rambly...

I'm definitely no expert - my DS is only 15 weeks old - but I think it's pretty common for newborns to have a sleepy first couple of days.

My DS spent first 48 hours largely asleep - I was so proud thinking I had an amazing sleeping baby! Feeding was of no discernible pattern and not that frequent. On the third night however he had an insane cluster feed and I ended up all night breastfeeding him every hour!

In my limited experience I would say don't lose confidence in your milk supply. It will be there and your LO will work with you to get it established. With me that's what the cluster feed was about - he was getting my supply up to the level he needed IYSWIM. I never woke up my LO to get him to feed, and just fed him when he stirred but if he hadn't stirred I would probably have gone along with waking him every 3 hours or doing a sleepy dream feed if possible.

Please don't worry about the fact that you are not expressing - it's such early days that your supply is only just getting established. Your LO is much more efficient at extracting milk than any pump and will be reaching milk the pump cannot get to. Even now I pump disappointingly small amounts, but my DS is clearly getting lots out as he is an exclusively BF'ed 98th centile giant! His suck is much more powerful than the weedy Medela pump!

I'm sure someone more experienced will be along soon with more advice - but your situation sounds just like mine was if that helps at all.

Congrats, and enjoy your lovely new baby!

Again, not very experiencedas my DS is only 4 weeks, but he also slept loads and loads in the first 48 hours. i didn't quite get the concept of 4 hours without food max and midwives at hospital were pretty clear that if he hasn't fed for 4 hours - wake him. I would possibly try a dream feed if he is still asleep after this. also remember how tiny his little tummy is - the size of a marble! so don't expect him to have masses of milk anyway.

please, please don't feel guilty about the formula. one bottle does not make him formula fed, he is still getting the nutrients from the breast milk and you have to do what you have to do. I beat myself up so much the first time I gave him formula as I think I had been subliminally brainwashed into thinking it was poison! haha...

Remeber - you are doing a GREAT JOB. congratulations xxx

Hi my second was very sleepy, I found that climbing into bed for a few hours skin to skin really helped. He fed really well and it seemed to help my milk come in and wasn't so sleepy afterwards.

Congratulations on your new wee one.

I agree it's too early to worry about expressing, just try to fed as much as you can to establish your supply. If you can avoid the formula do, just because its one less feed telling your body to make milk. (not because of the formula itself).

my daughter is 9 days old & her first 2 days were very sleepy - she was getting over her birth, I think that is quite normal. my milk came in on day 3 and she fed pretty much constantly and now we've managed to settle into a bit of a nightime pattern of 10pm, 1am, 4am which allows me to get a with OH doing expressed bottle feeds for for 10pm&1pm. I go to bed at around 9pm and then sleep generally until the 4am feed then take over from that point. This is only our 2nd night of doing this, but it has worked so far - was instructed to do this after midwife saw me on Mon and I was nearly losing my mind from sleep deprivation.

Your midwife should be doing a weighing visit soon (they weighed my DD on her 3rd day) and will work our how much weight she has lost since birth - that will be a good indication of if there is any problem. but I believe that sometimes milk is a little bit slow to come in so baby might be a bit hungry - but careful with replacing with formula right now in case it affects/delays your supply coming in. can you try expressing alongside formula to keep the 'need' there?

At less than two days old your milk won't have come in yet, and you'll still be making colostrum, which only comes out in tiny amounts.

If your baby is sleepy, then unfortunately you do need to keep waking him to feed and if he falls asleep at the breast, you need to do your best to wake him up again. If he doesn't feed often enough, he may lose too much weight and the midwives may request that you return to hospital for help with feeding.

You need to try to feed him at least every three hours, every two hours would be better - set alarms on your phone to remind you. Strip him down to his nappy to wake him, if he falls asleep on the breast, try tickling his feet or stroking his head in a circular manner to try to keep him awake. Nappy changes mid-feed also help. Feed skin to skin.

I had this with my DD and it was really hard work for the first couple of weeks, but she eventually woke up!

The first week my DD also needing waking to be fed. I used to set an alarm for every 3 hours. After about a week she started beating the alarm and hasn't needed waking since.

DD was exactly the same in refusing to sleep anywhere but on people. Total nightmare! I was in the hospital for 5 days so the MWs used to take her off me so we could both sleep. At home I found putting a warm top smelling of us under her and she did (and still has to be at 14 weeks!) fast off before she goes down. The fisher price swinging chair was our saving grace - it's the best way to settle her, certainly in the day!

Keep persevering with feeding. Stroke her cheek or tickle her feet to keep her awake and jaggy is right - as much skin to skin as possible.

It's really normal for newborns to sleep a lot. This can be perfectly fine, or it can be a sign they are too hungry to wake up.

The easy way to tell the difference is by how much they are pooing - colostrum is a laxative, so a baby that is getting colostrum will be clearing the meconium.

And as others have said, skin to skin is a big help.