I have the least hungry newborn - please help

[AlexandraPeppernose]

My little girl was born at 4am Monaday morning. Could really do with some reassurance/advice please

She has been asleep pretty much from birth only feeding for about 20 mins in total from birth to 20 hrs old. Monday night she was up all night on the boob which I was expecting and thought she was catching up.

Yesterday she slept most the time again. I tried feeding everytime she woke but she wasn't particularly interested. Midwife came yesterday afternoon and helped me improve my latch and advised I try to get her to feed every 5 hrs just so I get some sleep at night.

She had some milk at 9.30 last night and we went to bed and she didn't wake till 4.30am to feed. My milk has started coming in so she had some good gulps although she was only feeding for 10 mins. I offered the other boob at 5.15 and again at 6.45 but again she only fed for 5 or 10 mins before falling asleep again.

Also she was pooing loads at the beginning but now hasn't been since yesterday morning.

My other 2 were consistently feeding every 4 hrs 24 hrs a day so this is all new to me and I really don't know whether to be grateful for the sleep or worried.

She is quite small framed but has quite alot of fat on her and is quite baggy. Is it possible she is just using the fat stores she has already and will feed more as she grows into her skin a bit more. Or is this just wishful thinking.

Sorry for long ramble. Any words of wisdom will be gratefully received.

Thanks

Alexandra, you're right to be concerned.

New babies should be tucked up with mum, skin to skin as much as possible...that way, they don't sleep for hours and hours and then have to be woken up.

From what you say she is feeding, however, so no real worries that she is missing out on fluids or colostrum - the short feeds you describe can be normal, and you cannot judge the effectiveness of a feed by timing the length of it. Some babies do spend the first couple of days not feeding much and they're ok, but these are usually babies who are not kept close to mum....and that's not good.

Four hourly feeding is normally nowhere near enough for a new baby - and why the midwife suggested five hourly is beyond me.

Keep her close today, and my guess is she will perk up and feed normally. If she really does not start before, say, lunchtime today, then you can hand express and give it on a spoon, or in a cup.

You can also call any of the bf helplines as well.

Hope this helps.