Newborn breastfeeding

[chelle85]

My little boy arrived at midnight last night and took to breastfeeding really well immediately after birth but then when showing cues like rooting a couple of hours later wasn't interested when offered the nipple. Midwife that delivered him said some newborns will go up to 12hrs after first feed before feeding again so wasn't concerned that he wouldn't latch again. Since we brought him home however I have been trying to feed him 3 hourly but have to strip him right down everytime to wake him (to which he screams blue murder!) or he will not go on the nipple. It is hard to get him to latch comfortably when I have to make him cry before he will go on the nipple.

Community midwife should be out to see me at so.lme point tomorrow but in the meantime a bit of support as to whether I am doing the right thing to wake him would be great

My son was a sleepy newborn and the midwives in hospital were waking us both every 3 hours to try feeding We were home 24 hours later and I think I did wake him to feed. He soon started waking himself every 3/4 hours. Keep going. It will get easier when your milk comes in in a few days.

With my first she marched and fed in hospital fine but when we get home just couldn't get her to feed. It turned out she was exhausted and eventually (after some panicked calls to the mw) she fed after about 14 hours of trying. Just keep offering and try and stay as relaxed as possible.

*latched

I had a sleepy and latch-resistant newborn too. I found hand-expressing and syringe feeding made some difference (possibly mainly to my perception of things).

It takes a little while to hand express colostrum, but a ml at a time is fine - I was advised to try 1ml for each KG of birthweight. I did this maybe one or twice a day. After day 4, when my milk came in, I didn't need to do this anymore. I've no idea if it was really necessary for the baby's health - but it made me feel better for being proactive.

I had similar. It made me so anxious but the instinct to feed is very powerful. Even when she was drowsy I would squeeze a bit of colostrum to sit on my nip to try and tempt her.

I think you definately need to get advice from your health visitor, however I never ever woke my dd, to feed, or for any reason. If they need to sleep let them sleep. When they wake up offer the boob. Baby might just be exhausted from birth and to be honest until your milk comes in they dont need to feed much. Give it a few days and they will start cluster feeding to get your supply up (eg wanting milk every 20 mins for hours at a time). The cluster feeding stage is the hardest bit so take this time to rest after the birth. I think the feed every 3 hours thing is for babies who have lost alot of weight. They all lose some at first but have reserves to keep them going for a while. Good luck and congratulations! Check out the kellymom.com website for useful breastfeeding advice.