Paranoid 2nd timer - is this ok for a newborn??

[withorwithoutyou]

DD2 was born on Tuesday at 39 weeks by cs.

She fed for about 8 hours straight the first night, milk came in yesterday. Yesterday afternoon she went for abour 7 hours without a feed as she was fast asleep - I tried to wake her after 4 and 6 hours but she wasn't interested. When she did wake she fed for about 1.5 hours straight then slept again.

She's fed for a good few hours this morning then has been asleep since, with maybe two ten minute feeds just now and an hour ago.

She is alert, a good colour, absolutely tons of dirty nappies and also had some just wet ones.

I just need reassurance I think that she's going so long without feeding as DD1 was a ninja feeder and it was literally all she did for the first 4 months.

Just wondering if I should be waking to feed more and how on earth to get her interested if so - have tried expressing milk onto her lips but she just wants to sleep. When she does feed she seems very efficient, can see her jaw working and hear gulping.

I think it's probably normal for a baby to sleep a lot in the first day or two, but I wouldn't expect her to go 7 hours between feeds from now on really. Just going on what DD did, I'm not a health professional. Are her poos yellow yet? I guess you're seeing a midwife tomorrow anyway (day 3?) so wouldn't worry about it until then and you can talk to the midwife if you're worried.

Thanks appple, 7 hours does seem a long time to me now. Wondering if it was because she was a bit early too. Just paranoid about milk supply and wondering if I should express between feeds.

Her poos are sort of transitioning from meconium to yellow at the moment.

appleandblackberry is right, it's fine for them to do this for the first 24-48 hours, but you'd really expect a newborn to be feeding at LEAST 8-12 times per day

so if she doesn't perk up from now on I would be waking her at least every 3 hours and trying to feed her. might also be worth spending some time in bed with her and having some skin to skin and just offer the breast as often as possible

she is most likely absolutely fine and will surprise you tonight by feeding loads! but it can be a problem whereby they don't feed much which makes them just get tired and sleepy then because they're sleepy the feed less, and it's a vicious circle

to be honest this happened with my dd2. is she jaundiced at all as mine was. anyway in the end i realised that no amount of waking would make her feed and i gave her access to lots of natural light and let her feed when she wanted to.....

Thanks all, I'm paranoid as DD1 lost 20% of her birthweight in the first week and that was despite her feeding loads and loads and loads.

Am doing a feeding chart and she seems to do really long feeds - 3 hours, followed by long sleeps.

Any ideas on how to keep her awake to feed her? SHe's been in front of the window all day today just in case of jaundice but seems ok in that dept really.

Ok, I've just checked my feeding chart.

She fed from 08:00 til 9:30 then 11.15 til 1.

She's been asleep since then, apart from a feed of about 15 minutes at 5. Is 15 minutes long enough? I don't really know what a normal amount of time to feed for is.

personally i would want her to feed a bit more than that yes
you're reliant on her suckling lots in the early days to build and maintain a good supply and she, of course, needs lots of milk cos she's a little baby!

if she last fed at 5 then i think i'd wake her within the next hour and attempt to feed again

Ok, thanks this is yesterday. I will try to get her up again soon.

She fed for about 20 minutes then went back to sleep. Been asleep pretty much all day now, I hope that's normal.

yeah i think so, they sleep a lot the first few days

Don't know if this is relevant for you, but I was having problems with ds2 (now 3 wks) falling asleep on the breast and therefore having marathon feeding sessions with me constantly trying to keep him awake. He regularly slept for 5 or 6 hrs at night during the first week. His weight gain was a little slow tho he
s now just over birthweight. I went to a bf support group on Monday where a peer support worker checked our latch, which seemed fine . She suggested I try switch feeding, ie 5 mins or so on 1 breast, or until his sucking became lethargic, then swap to other breast and carry on like that til he's obviously comfort sucking. Contrary to most advice I'd received, but it seems to be working a treat. feeds are now 30-40 mins max and he's waking naturally every 4 hrs at night. Plus his weight's been going up and he's finally started doing 2 poos a day as of this week. Switch feeding just seems to keep up the motivation of a sleepy baby. might be worth a try? Good luck

All sounds normal, they do sleep a lot at first and I think my DD fed for something between 20 and 40 minutes in the first few weeks.

Woofie, that's great advice, thanks I will try it.

She didn't feed much last night once at 5 and then from 6.30 after going to bed at 11.30ish. But she fed all morning and a lot at lunchtime and seems to be feeding 3 hourly now so I think she's woken up a little bit, although she is snoozing away again right now!

How's she getting on now withorwithoutyou?

re the short feeds, apart from maybe half a dozen times, my LO has never fed for more than 20mins. After 6weeks that went down to less than 10mins

I was told to feed at least every 3 hours, and wake to feed at night (I did sometimes wait 4 hrs to wake the DTs at night though ).

To wake her enough to feed, try changing her nappy first, light on, out in the fresh air briefly if you can, babygro off so you can tickle her etc.

I had a sleepy baby too - but he didn't feed for long stretches like your DD.