Reassurance with feeding / weight gain

[Gracessecret]

Hi all, I've been exclusively breastfeeding my 3 week old since birth, and I'd like some advice with my current feeding patterns, please. I'm receiving some conflicting advice by midwives so just wanted to see what everyone thinks.

My baby was slightly jaundice at birth (levels not high enough for treatment) and midwife doesn't seem too worried. Baby is still filtering it out and also lost 10% of his birthweight in the first week. He's since been slowly gaining it back but only by 1-2 ounces a week. He has 8 ounces to go to reach birth weight again. I'm a bit baffled by the slow weight gain because I feel confident I have enough milk, and we have lots of wet and dirty nappies (around 10-12 a day).

We currently cluster feed/feed on demand during the day, and if he doesn't ask for milk I make sure I offer a feed every 2 hours. On midwife advice, we also feed every 3-3.5 hours at night, but in all honesty I've been really struggling with the sleep deprivation because baby rarely naps in the day. This means I have once or twice slept through my alarm (meaning the feed is delayed by 1-1.5 hours), which makes me feel awful. Baby sleeps soundly and also doesn't wake me for feeds, so I am conscious that I need to be more on the ball with this.

Does this feeding pattern sound ok? Am I doing something right if he's gaining, even though it's at a very slow rate? Should I increase feeds at all during day/night to speed things up? Has anyone else been in this position?

Also, if anyone has any tips to stay awake enough to not accidentally delay night feeds I would be really grateful; as mentioned, this makes me feel terrible, and I keep beating myself up when it happens.

Thank you in advance xx

I exclusively bf and was very lucky to have a very understanding midwife. Her focus was not on weight but on the baby herself. The amount of wet and dirty nappies, the colour of the dirty nappies, the baby's want to feed, seeming satisfied with the feed, my feeding positions - she watched me feed every visit to check for correct/optimal latch - the length of the feed, the cluster feeding, amount of wake times etc.

When you focus purely on the target of returning to birth weight you ignore many things such as: did you have a lot of drugs during the labour and was baby weighed straight away? If so the birth weight won't be the true weight as baby would be affected by the drugs too. Many people opt for delayed weigh ins to help with this issue. Was baby overdue? Then he will have been in there packing on the pounds before coming out. 10% loss for a 10lb baby is far less worrying than a 10% loss for a 4lb baby. Is baby's weight in proportion to length and head? Finally, stress is the number one reason people have milk production issues. Reducing stress is so important in those newborn days.

My daughter was in the 2nd centile but she was for all three measurements so my midwife wasn't concerned. My daughter was never one of those stocky babies with their cute fat rolls. She was always lean, like me!

I joined LLL but there are lots of bf support groups. They have phone lines too. Talking to someone who specialises in bf might give you more peace of mind?