Newborn who would rather sleep than eat?

[kwaker5]

DD is almost a week old now (2nd child) and I have had to start waking her for feeds during the day since I left hospital. I BF my first so I know her latch is good and she's taking it onboard, but she is just so hard to rouse for a feed and loses interest quite quickly. Last night she went from 10pm to 7am+ and still wasn't crying to be fed!

The MW will be here today so I will have her weighed. She was 9.3lbs at birth - do bigger babies feed less?

My DS was 7.11 at birth but he used to suck the living daylights out of me regularly (every 2-3 hours) during the day but do longer stretches at night.

She is doing pooey nappies but nowhere in the same league as DS. Maybe 3-4 a day, whereas DS was about 8 a day (every feed basically).

I know all babies are different but I'm quite worried about it.

Thanks

No advice, I'm afraid, but wanted to reply to your post. Congratulations, btw

I guess the best thing is to speak to the mw today, and get her weighed... if she's gaining weight and producing wet and dirty nappies then hopefully this means she's doing well?

I can only speak of my personal experience with my dc, but both of mine only fed for short periods of time, from one breast only per feed, from pretty much the first week, IIRC. And they were both big babies that gained rapidly (neither lost any weight after birth either). Neither slept for that long though, so yes, I would speak to the mw for reassurance on this

Shit, I've just googled codeine in breastmilk (I had a C-section) so am going to stop it today (was only on 3x30mg tablets a day). It obviously had no effect on DS so never occurred to me until today that it might be causing a problem.

Hmmm, I'd be inclined to wake her to feed. See how her weight is, but I'd be worried, too.

It might be worth looking into breast compression, which is a trick you can do during a feed, to help keep her interested.

Other things which might help (particularly if she's losing weight, or not gaining):

• make sure she's a bit underdressed, even a bit cold, while feeding, to keep her awake
• try to feed her every four hours or so at least

OK, she has been weighed and the loss is within limits (about half a pound). She took a massive feed after her heel prick and I've just been advised to keep waking every 4 hours during the day. MW seemed to think 3-4 dirty nappies a day was fine (probably more normal than the 8 or 9 DS used to produce!).

Hopefully if the codeine is/was making her drowsy, then I'll know in the next day or two.

Sounds like you're reassured a bit

Glad she's doing well

I'm glad the weigh in went ok, only just seen this thread.

I had similar probs with my daughter, she slept through the night for the first 9 days, very odd!! and was hard to wake for feeds in the day. I was about to suggest the same as notquitecockney re the getting her undressed/cold to keep her awake. The other thing you can try to get her interested initially is to hand express a few drops of milk onto your finger and feed it to your baby. May sound odd but at this very early age they may only need a few drops just to a) get them interested and b) give them enough energy to feed. My m/w advised this with my daughter at about 5 days old and it def worked.

HTH & good luck.

PS, codeine can def make baby drowsy, although not harm them. I took this when my son was about 4m old and it def made him sleep loads. Dr said was normal but I didn't like the thought of it so I stopped it too.

Massivebump -sorry to contradict you, but in a newborn, codeine can be a problem. It's rare, but has been linked to cases of apnoea (stopping breathing), so the OP is right to take it seriously and seek alternative pain medication if needed. More info here.

I've come across one case where codeine made a baby drowsy, and it was quite alarming.

I hope things pick up quickly for you now kwaker5 and congratulations on your dd .

It is quite worrying that it is given routinely after a C-section regardless of feeding plans. I was offered morphine initially, which you do need, then switched onto codeine the following day. At that point the baby is feeding minimally though. The dose of codeine was 2x30mg 4 times a day. It made me feel spaced out and wierd, plus I know it can constipate you so after 2 days I asked for just half the dose and once I got home I knocked it back to just 3 times a day for 2 days then stopped.

Nothing regarding BF was mentioned and they gave me enough tablets to keep me going on the max dose 4 times a day for at least 4 days.

I can't tolerate Diclofenac, which is the other drug offered. It works in a different way (more like ibuprofen) but may have lessened the need for codeine for pain relief.

Anyway, I woke her for a feed at 3pm and she woke herself at about 7pm for another. She seems much more interested now even though she still doesn't scream for it like DS did.