Help - home with 6 hour old - how often to feed?

[Catz]

Would be grateful for any advice. DS was born (very quickly) at 11:15 this morning. Fed for approximately an hour from 12:15 no problems. We were sent home but he is clearly exhausted and just wants to sleep. Am lying down with him now to try to get him to latch on but no luck since hospital. With DD we had a nightmare week of low blood sugar = sleepy baby = no feeding = low blood sugar etc desperate to avoid that again,

How often should he feed, what should I be doing and when should I worry,

Thanks in advance

Congratulations! I'm no expert but I remember DS feeding about every 3/4 hours the first day or two then it shot up!
Can you try feeding skin to skin which might help. So strip off, strip baby off, lay on the bed somewhere warm, propped up by cushions. Have your baby lying face down and he should try and root for your nip. Guide him by moving him gently and hopefully he'll latch. My midwife helped me do this in the hours after birth.

Although I don't think babies need much in the early days-someone with more knowledge can correct me here. Just getting to suckle first then go from there.

Congratulations

The MW told me to strip DD down to her vest every couple of hours if she was not waking enough to feed. I found once she started she didn't stop though Not sure how long you can go before getting worried though.

Feed as often as he wants, but I would try not to leave more than 3 hours between offerings at the moment if he hasn't given an indication before that that he wants any.

Did you have any pain relief that would have passed to him (epidural, morphine etc)?

He really only needs a couple of ml of colostrum this early, so it isn't a lot, but lots of sucking will obv help to stimulate your supply to come in quicker.

Do lots of skin to skin to help, which is a great excuse for cuddles anyway .

And congratulations on your new arrival.

Face down on your chest that is!

I think by day 2/3 DS all of a sudden wanted boob all the time to up my supply. So speak to a BF counsellor tomorrow perhaps who can help? Your hospital should have given you details or try NCT?

Congratulations!!

I would not assume your ds will be the same as your dd was in terms of blood sugar etc. Try to relax and let him take the lead as he will pick up on your stress.

Remember they sleep loads for the first few days. It's perfectly normal.

All the very best with your new son. xx

my two both latched on as soon as they were born, and then slept for the first 24 hours pretty much. they maybe latched on twice, perhaps 3 times in that first 24 hours. i just offered when they whimpered a bit. mostly though they seemed to want to be left to sleep. after that first day they were more wakeful and clearly rooted to latch on. i had ds 2 weeks ago. by his 10 day weigh in he'd regained birth weight plus 3 ozs.

if you're very worried about it try skin to skin as much as possible. keep baby close with just nappy on, and you wearing as little as possible.

If you're worried, try every two hours -- don't let baby go for more than 2 hours. Nurse advised me to splash a little cold water on a sleepy baby to keep them alert during feeding if falling asleep seems to be a problem. Stripping off is good.