Feeding baby anxiety

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Baby was breast fed by expressed milk for first 4 days of life but is now formula fed.

He was born exactly at 37 weeks and had a little NICU stay. He’s now 10 days old and came home 4 days ago.

Yesterday he drank two 90ml bottles (alongside his smaller feeds of about 70ml) however from about 10pm last night, we are struggling to get even 60ml down for the past several feeds.

We got a bit paranoid about his health yesterday, as he’s sleeping constantly and not waking up for feeds.. so we took him back to hospital where they did full observations, checked over his whole body, as well as checked his jaundice levels, which all came back absolutely great. He’s gained a very small amount of weight since discharge, which is a tad worrying but at least he hasn’t lost any. (He’s just under 7lb currently) Wee and poo all fine, going frequently.

Is it normal for newborns to have “hungrier”
days? And more sleepy days? I’m getting myself so worked up and convinced something must be wrong. Google tells me he shouldn’t be sleeping this much and should be waking up for his feeds (which he does on the odd occasion but not always.)

I’m in constant contact with midwives etc.. but I feel like I get no solid answers. Another midwife said he should be on 120mls by 2 weeks! Thats 4 days and I can’t see him eating that much by then. Health visitor is out on Tuesday but I’m terrified for that too incase he’s lost a bunch of weight.

First time Mum absolutely winging it in terror!!

My babies never drank more than 150mls in one go even aged 12 months, so I think 120mls by 2 weeks is ridiculous. Even 90mls is a huge feed for a new born.

The biological norm for babies is around 30ml per hour, their stomach capacity is tiny. Absolutely normal to have more and less hungry days too just like children and adults do.

My babies were sleepy for about 6 weeks and they were born at 40-41 weeks. A baby born on the earlier side I would expect to be sleepy. I'd keep waking every 2-3 hours for a feed.

As a rough guide, babies take 75ml of formula per lb of body weight in 24 hours, so a 7lb baby would be expected to take around 525ml of formula - some will take more, some less. If your baby has 8-12 feeds a day, that's going to be around 45-65ml per bottle.

Good weight gain is to be back up to birth weight by 2 weeks of age. They lose weight in the first few days before they start gaining.

From what you’ve said there are some very good points. Baby is gaining weight and producing plenty of wet and dirty nappies.

120 ml of formula at two weeks does seem like a huge amount.

Like a PP has said they are programmed to take more like 30 ml an hour, not even that really at 2 weeks so I wouldn’t be expecting 120 ml in one go.

If they did take 120 mls at each feed, you’d only need to give them 4 feeds plus one small bottle in 24 hours and that’s almost unheard of at this point.

Are you currently doing paced feeding and has anyone told you about feeding to your baby’s cues?