5 days old, too sleepy and not taking boob

[Greenstone]

Feel a bit frantic. Day 5 and my milk only came in today but dd has lost all interest in boob and just wants to sleep.( I had been putting her to the boob loads, skin to skin etc in the hope of getting milk in ASAP but no joy. She has lost over 10% of birth weight and will be weighed again tomorrow. Nappies had been just about ok but today I wasn't happy with them, tried to pump and only got a tiny bit which she took from a bottle, then she went and got formula and she took about 2 ounces straight away. But can't get her back on boob since. She will latch but not suck. Am engorged and a bit hormonal - has anyone been in this position and bf worked out ok?

I fed no.1 for over a year, thought I knew the drill

My DD was similar, lost a lot of weight and we had to feed her up with formula and expressed milk. She was very sleepy and would latch but not suck. Midwife mentioned nipple shields - this was like a lightbulb moment! DD sucked immediately as it was like a bottle teat and we BF since. Took a few days of trying without the shield before giving in and using the shield for her to understand and 6 weeks later we are ebf without the shields. Also, she is happy to take a bottle from DH at night. Good luck!

I agree with firsttime! Try nipple shield. I have flat nipples and with my first I cried because he had problems latching on! He lost over 8% weight! I asked for a nipple shield but in the hospital they forced me to breast feed my son without a shield! Once I got home the first thing I did I bought a shield and DS gained over night 200 gramms!
Now I have a 7 day old DD and have started without a shield (but had one in my hospital bag) for some reason once we where home she wouldn't latch on really good on my left breast so I used the nipple shield on that side but she got so used to it she only wants to suck when I use the shield!
But I know that once she is couple weeks old and stronger she will latch on without the shield!

The plus side with nipple shield is that they take the bottle without a problem so you can pump and DH can feed the baby too.

Does she have jaundice? This can make babies sleepy. DS needed feeding every 2 hours as he was also sleepy and not feeding. If there is jaundice speak to midwife, but feeding is the way to flush out the bilirubin that causes the yellow appearance.

greenstone how are you getting on?

It's all a bit shit to be honest. Yes she has some jaundice. My first baby was slow to gain and I've been really careful about putting dd 2 to the boob at least every 2 hours day and night but there is now a perfect storm of milk late to come in, jaundice and a head cold yesterday just couldn't get her to feed (because she can't breathe properly on boob) but she took formula. She breastfed much better last night and this morn but is now just dozing on my boob making a horrible bunged up whistle. My breast pump seems to be less than useless. Dd hadn't gained any weight at today's weigh in..

Was going to say about jaundice, she sounds similar to my dd who was very yellow!

I think keep putting her to boob as much as poss as well as skin to skin where poss. Don't worry to much about the weight, if she hasn't gained weight but not lost much I would say that is good going

Have you tried lying against a load of pillows so that you're semi-reclined and popping baby under your shirt so that her head is lying on your chest. Skin to skin is so useful in stimulating the BFing process for both of you. From this position baby should be able to crawl her way to your boobs if she fancies a feed and she'll hopefully find a position that is comfy for her sniffly nose. Look up laid back feeding on YouTube.
If you have a sleepy baby you need to be careful that they are feeding regularly as I'm sure you know. Our lactation consultants sometimes advise mums with very sleepy babies to give a little bit of formula or EBM followed by a feed until baby gains enough energy to fully BF.

In answer to the question, yes I did go on to bf successfully. We used a cup to feed a combination of formula and expressed milk for a couple of weeks. We were told that a cup would preserve the babies' skills for breastfeeding while a the same time getting more calories in when she was clearly just a bit under strength to get them herself. It was not fun at all, no opportunity to sleep because of expressing and then cup feeding at regular intervals. Also, the first time you approach a newborn with a "cup" (the lid of a bottle is good) you realise that you have no idea how you're going to go about getting the milk into them, you do need some tips on this. But, bf thereafter was everything I wanted it to be.

with our jaundiced ds, we were encouraged to strip him to his nappy so he would be cold, then feed so he would snuggle in.

Also, "sunbathing" in a patch of sunlight with as few clothes as possible.

We were recommended Saline drops for snuffly noses....dont know if this is still recommended.

Thanks for all your replies dd is currently feeding and making an ok job of it ( we're doing skin to skin laid back). We definitely need to supplement until she gets stronger. Am reluctant to make her too cold because she has a cold already! Going to get saline drops soon.