Breastfeeding baby falling asleep at breast

[Skiingwithgin]

Any advice from anyone gratefully appreciated!

2nd time mum, bf last child to 18m but forgotten the new born phase.

DD is 5 days old and we’ee deep in cluster feeding life. I know it’s tough, I accept that!

my issue is DD is feeding for max 5 mins then falling asleep, no amount of tickling, making her cold, blowing on her face or repositioning is working to keep her going. She’s zonked. So I put her down in her bed (next to me snuz pod) and bingo 5 mins later she’s awake and rooting and we start all over again.

I’ve tried burping her in between, I’ve tried just cuddling her (but then she stays asleep for hours. But I can’t stay awake holding her! If I’m awake I want to be feeding her!

any advice onto elongating the feeds? My milk is well and truly in now too and I don’t feel she’s emptying the breast fully!

i can’t co sleep due to medications I’m on, so please don’t suggest that!

going out of my mind. My older child would cluster feed but for like 30 mins feeding at a time with a short break in between for a few hours, but would then sleep. This monkey won’t! Not until 6am when the toddler wakes up for the day ironically!

help!

I'm not sure I can offer much help but I feel your frustration. DD1 was just like that (she's a teenager now) I was under pressure from the health visitors as she wasn't putting enough weight on but she just kept falling asleep all the time!
Blowing on her never did anything at all. I used to rub her feet and tickle her by running my fingernail down the sole of her foot. Or failing that I had to undress her which was such a rigamarole and seemed heartless when she was so happily asleep, but it did work.
We got through it eventually so hang on in there.

Congratulations on your DD Google breast compressions, OP. Will try to find a link.

www.breastfeeding.asn.au/resources/breast-compressions

I feel your pain!

My daughter was doing the same thing in the first few days after birth, she's now 2 weeks and her feeds have elongated by themselves without me doing anything.

I was in hospital for the first week with her and to combat having to hold her whilst fighting sleep, I just lay her next to me and kept her latched on the breast and she'd come off herself when she was in deep sleep. That was the only way I could get any sleep. She doesn't stay longer than a minute when put down to sleep on her own.

Now that we're home, we're still bedsharing and contact napping, so she sleeps next to me at night and during the day I wear her in a sling.

You could try giving her a dummy and she might last longer in the Snuz pod?

Oh I'm so sorry I just read your comment about not being able to cosleep. Apologies.

Dummy might be your best option for sleep. For elongating feeds, have you tried stripping her down to nappy and doing skin to skin?

Have a glass of water beside you and give her a wet Willy. If that doesn't work, just accept it's not for ever and they will soon have a bigger tummy.

My baby is six days old and we have similar problems! As a PP mentioned breast compressions have been working. Now I basically express a feed into his mouth and he drinks it. I was told to make feeds a minimum of 20 minutes to ensure I get the hind milk and often there's a nappy change in the middle of that to keep him drinking. We've had a couple of successful settles in the side crib by holding him until he's fast asleep and then transferring. It's so annoying though when I've held him for ages and then he wakes up anyway! Not sure of alternative for now though. It's so exhausting this bit isn't it! I wouldn't mind the frequent wakes (e.g. 2 hourly) if I knew he'd go straight back to sleep next to me.

Thanks for all the ideas and messages of support, sorry to hear so many of you are in the same boat.

my eldest I could put down after a feed and she would give me at least an hour at this age to get some form of sleep, but this little one, nope - snooze pie central.

im doing breast compressions actually now (as if this evening) because I can feel lumps in them! She’s not a fan!

had some success with skin to skin earlier but like you say, it’s a rigmorale, it’s getting colder and I can’t strip us both off if we’re out.

re the hind milk thing I’ve heard so many conflicting things about it. Day 5 weigh in tomorrow so we’ll see what MW says!

ah the joys of breast feeding! I’m looking forward to when it gets easier! I know it does…eventually…at some point….right?

good luck to all you struggling too! Solidarity sister!

5 minutes is all some babies need, and she's very little. Maybe she'll perk up after a week or two when she's recovered from the birth!

If she's had 5 minutes and falls asleep I would just let her sleep. I know it's not the easiest for you, but unfortunately we can't control babies' needs!

Don't put her down. Let her feed, and fall asleep, and then keep her asleep on you/DH for a couple of hours, she should then have a bigger feed when she wakes up.