12 day old baby feeding...

[Maya212]

My 12 day old daughter is worrying me slightly.

From the day she was born she was feeding every 2.5-3 hours and drinking 2.5-3oz formula. As of yesterday, it’s drastically changed. She’s having less naps, staying awake for long periods of time and going about 5 hours or longer between feeds. I’m a FTM and don’t know what to do. She’s very content with her dummy and doesn’t seem to be hungry. I don’t know if to feed her when she tells me she’s hungry or feed her anyway? I’m wanting her to sleep! She’s literally not sleeping all of a sudden and it’s driving me crazy. I’m really worried about her. There’s so much conflicting info online and I just don’t know what to do.

What's nappy output like?

She's probably just ended a growth spurt.

Have you tried a sling or the pram or a car ride to encourage sleep? It might just be she's 'waking up' after recovering from birth. Babies don't read the information about what they 'should' do....

Thank you for your response.

Nappy output is absolutely fine, no worries there.

Yes, normally when we go out in the car she falls asleep, not today. I can tell she’s fighting her sleep but I just don’t know why. She’s quite an alert nosy baby anyway but she’s never this bad. She’s been awake now since 6am this morning. I’ve tried everything. She just won’t sleep then to top it off, isn’t feeding as much. Do you think growth spurt is likely? What do you mean by “waking up from birth”?

I was told dummies could interfere with breastfeeding- especially if introduced before breastfeeding is well established (usually around 1 month) so could be linked to that.

Have you tried skin to skin whilst feeding in a dark room to get her to sleep? Although she’s too young to tell night from day I found this helped me calm and regroup as well as my baby. It didn’t always send him to sleep but sometimes it did. It’s common for them to fight it as they go through growth spurts or development leaps and you will start to see the signs each time one comes. As long as nappy output is ok, she seems alert and her usual self (except fighting sleep!) and their are no weight issues her feeding changes are likely due to the growth spurt. Always speak to a health visitor if your worried though!

@Ticklemeelmo
BF irrelevant if you reed OP

Waking up is just starting to become aware of the world a little after recovering from birth.

My DD never slept in the daytime, maybe 15 minute nap all day long. Wouldn’t sleep in the car, barely in the pram, hated slings. Once I accepted this was her ‘thing’, I just got on with it although it is hard. We did eventually get into some routine of 4x 30 minute naps a day! Once she hit one, she became a champion napper!

The feeding is the bit to keep an eye on, should be roughly every 2/3 hours at 12 days, maybe a little longer here & there, my DD would do 5 hours between 7pm - midnight commonly.,..but 2/3 hours the rest of the day. Is she drinking a bit more on those feeds?

I have a 12 week old but he was a nosy little bugger since he was 2 and properly "woke up"! He barely naps for more than 20 minutes during the day but does sleep okay at night. Some babies are just more alert and hyper than others. Do you have the Wonder Weeks app? It's useful in knowing when they're going through a leap or growth spurt

Gah - wrong thread! Sorry!!

@Bol87 I think when I posted this, she was having a bad day. She still seems to stay awake for longer than most babies do but as you say, I’ve just accepted that this is her thing! I was only giving her 3.5floz too and now she’s taking 4floz easily and that seems to be sending her to sleep. I think it was me not feeding her enough perhaps?

@pinkstar01 haha! Ah, she’s so nosey!! It’s so tiring too! I’ve just looked at that app, going to give it ago as I’m interested to know when she might be having a growth spurt