Very sleepy newborn

[Oceansinourway]

Hello, I’m largely just seeking reassurance. Dd was born on Tuesday afternoon, via elective section. She’s barely been awake - sleeps around 20 out of 24 hours!

I honestly don’t remember DS being this snoozy. It’s hard to establish feeding as she won’t wake so I’m having to express milk to keep my supply up. Is this normal? The midwives don’t seem concerned so I guess I shouldn’t be but the early days are a stress.

I had a baby like this, she had tounge tie. It was picked up by the hospital but it re grew and had to be cut twice. Breast feeding was exhausing for her.
After getting the tounge tie cut she was still a naturally very sleepy and needed to be woken for feeds for weeks but she did grow out of it and learn to do it after a few weeks

Hmm well I hope she's ok. Just watch carefully. I think it was my son's eyes that started to go yellow first.

Congratulations on your little bundle :)

My second was like this and as he was born via elective c section I always wondered if he wasn’t quite ready to be born. He did wake for feeds though so I’d be just watching for this and weight gain

My eldest was like this. So sleepy right from being born. I used to have to put ice cubes on her tummy to wake her enough to latch on! It was our party trick 🤣 nothing wrong she was just a kid who liked sleep. Never missed a minute! She slept through from 6 weeks and missed all the sleep regressions. Was doing 7pm-9am by a couple of months and if she missed a nap the day before would add on the exact amount of sleep she'd missed. Now she's 11 and still has to be dragged out of bed in the mornings!

NICU nurse here. Please get her checked out. A quick jaundice check and blood test will check to see if she is dehydrated or needs jaundice treatment. Please don't leave it. A baby shouldn't be too sleepy to feed. It's a natural instinct.

I’ll get her checked tomorrow. She briefly fed from the breast but latching her on is hard work and I think that exhausts her as well.

You can feed her with a syringe of breastmilk every 2 hours . Kind of like a baby bird. Wake her and make her feed.
The first 7 days are so worrisome.
Take her in to see a midwife at the slightest doubt.

Congratulations.

If you aren't going to get her checked out (which lots of people have suggested, and a NICU nurse with 20 years experience) then please do not let her go more than 2/3 hours between feeds. Feed and feed. Make sure she is having wet and dirty nappies. Jaundiced babies don't always look yellow. I've seen severely dehydrated babies with jaundice and severe complications from it that didn't have one tinge of yellow. I hope she perks up and gets into regular feeding, if not please get her checked.

Our little one was born on Monday and was very sleepy to the point I had to hand express and syringe feed as baby was too sleepy to latch. The next day we woke up and she had a slight yellow tinge which got worse during the day. Definitely keep an eye out for jaundice. It came out of nowhere for us and we needed readmitting as a result. Best of luck.

My youngest slept about 22hrs+ a day for ages.
Dream fed all the time. Didn't wake up for nappy changes. Dream fed and changed nappy all the time at the same time. I was a pro at that in the end.
He did start sleeping a bit less, but I watched a lot of box sets till he was about 9 months old. He always napped on me. He loved his sling too.

Both of my babies were sleepy and couldn’t wake them in hospital but that absolutely stopped at home. A week old baby who is finding it too tiring to latch properly sounds like a big concern. I would be expecting baby to be falling asleep on the breast after 10 minutes or so and needing waking to finish the feed (usually with a nice cold nappy change) but this sounds concerning. How is her weight?

Hi, I had a very sleepy baby, she was prem and also turned out to have TT. Not waking to feed can be a vicious circle, they don’t get enough food so are too tired to wake up to feed. Less risky for a big full term baby than a prem but still worth trying to wake her to take a full feed.

Stripping off helped a little but what really helped was tickling the feet, ears and also making a kissing teeth noise over and over while feeding them, it seems to annoy them and keep them awake for a little longer. (Tip from NICU nurse). Must have sounded mad but it worked.

If latching on is hard work and exhausts her then definitely get checked for tongue tie - but make sure it’s someone qualified who checks, most midwives and definitely GPs don’t know how. (

Are you on strong pain killers? I was convinced they affected DC2 although DC1 never seemed to be bothered by them.

If latching seems to be the problem, can goy offer expressed milk in a bottle. That way, you will also see how much shes taking.

6 different midwives told my sister, my niece was ok, just sleepy etc

Within 5 days, she was in hospital fighting for her life because she wasnt taking hardly any milk.

Always trust your instincts

@han01uk - I did say I would be getting her checked, did you miss it? But Sunday nights are never great for anything bar emergencies.

Any any rate she was more alert last night. She had a good feed (breastfeed) before bed at half ten, then woke at just before half one. I thought … great, she’s getting the hang of this! The problem is she exhausts herself getting on the breast. She clearly wants to but she puts her hands up and is right next to the nipple but screams and screams getting so worked up and angry. I think this exhausts her and then she’s wiped out the next day. I was up for three hours with her trying to breastfeed between half one and half four and for a lot of that she was very worked up.

Someone from the infant feeding team is coming today but I could do with them in the night really!

It's good she's had a decent couple of feeds. Hope your apt with the feeding team helps reassure you. I found it a shock with my second baby that she slept a lot and had short feeds... because I was remembering feeding what was actually a toddler by the time I finished feeding my first

Glad you’re getting her checked out OP. My son was like this, second child also. He was soo sleepy and wouldn’t latch right, and wouldn’t feed for very long. Took him to A&E and a dr checked him over, all fine. Luckily before we left she ordered some blood tests, thank God she did. My son then spent 5 days in the NICU with jaundice and suspected sepsis.

@Oceansinourway hopefully things have sorted now and your little one is getting on ok?

DS1 was a struggle to wake up enough to feed and went into SCBU at 5 days with jaundice. Previous to this I was waking him every two hours to feed and he’d just fall asleep within one or two minutes.
How is her weight?
Trust your instincts and congratulations.

Agree about checking for tongue tie as well.