Can't get my jaundice newborn to eat or wake properly

[erised24]

My baby is a week old. Born assisted with forceps at 38+5 weeks. We have been back and forth the hospital all week having tests but she's not above the treatment line so we keep getting sent back home. During the day she just sleeps, I can't wake her up to feed. I've been told to feed her every 3 hours but I can't wake her and when she does eventually wake up, it's nearly time for another feed! I was told to BF and top up with formula but she will no longer accept the breast (again will not wake up). I've tried nappy changes and stripping her off, skin to skin... I don't know what else to do :(

Brilliant! Well done you!
Now, if you want to exclusively breastfeed then you drink more water and offer boob every 2 hours in the day (or on demand) then you should be able to slowly drop off the formula.
Or if you are happy on both then keep going.
But there is a risk baby will prefer the bottle simply because it's so much easier to milk out of.
Best of luck with whatever you do X

Thank you, it's such a huge relief.

Unfortunately I feel baby already prefers the bottle much more. She gets very frustrated when I try to BF and ends up crying. Sometimes she does latch but it doesn't last long before she starts constantly unlatching and eventually getting frustrated again so have to give her a bottle.

Your doing an amazing job. Do you want to move to ff or keep bf?

I really love BF which I didn't expect at all, had a crying session when she first started pulling away and refusing the breast. I was all prepared to FF if needed and didn't foresee the feeling of guilt of not being able to feed her myself.

Ultimately I just want her to be fed and happy however way she wants though the thought of giving up BF is really hard!

No one tells you when you have a baby you give birth to a baby, a placenta and lots of guilt!

Neither bf or ff are the right way. Having done both I would say neither is easier than the other. You need to balance which is best for you. If you want to move towards more bf then always offer boob before bottle, if she is fussy then just keep swapping boobs. When bottle feeding make sure you are always paced feeding.

If she is awake and feeding well at night, and filling her nappies, and sleeping in filtered sunlight during the day, then it sounds more like a clock issue than a jaundice issue. newborns not caring about what time of day or night they are up and at it is pretty normal. so long as she is gaining weight and her skin color is improving, then all is well.

I forgot to mention it’s breast feeding over night which increases your milk supply. Prolactin the hormone which increases milk supply is only produced in large amounts over night.