sleep and baby noises

[Zose]

Hi, my baby is nearly 3 weeks old, born 5 weeks early. Have had a lot of trouble bf, only recently is it beginning to work. However, when she sleeps she makes a lot of noises. How do I know if these are just noises or whether she is hungry. She takes from the breast a bit but then often needs a top up of expressed milk, am I therefore not feeding her enough? However, if this is the case I don't know how to sort it out as she always falls asleep within a few minutes of being put on the breast, but then won't settle when I put her back down in her moses basket. Any ideas?

My dd1 used to make lots of grunting noises when sleeping. Easiest way to tell if baby is hungry is to hold them against your shoulder and they will head bang against you hunting for your nipple. DC may well feed every 2 hours initially so it is hard going. DC will settle down they just find it hard initially as they are used to being tucked up nice and warm inside you. If they fall asleep when feeding then i used to rub their cheek or feet to revive them. If DC is taking expressed milk from a bottle they might find it easier than taking from your nipple as it flows quicker. Congrats by the way.

It may also be wind causing some of the noise, grunting and fidgiting about after a feed? How well are you winding her after a feed?

My first child was a very sleepy feeder to begin with. I made the mistake of offering top ups and it actually affected my milk supply. I should've left it alone and just fed on demand to begin with looking back

If she is gaining weight well and producing wet nappies then she is getting plenty to eat from you

Hi - my DS was born 6wks early and also BF. If your LO is hungry she will probably wake up. What's already been said about headbutting and nappies is good advice. I remember DS being a pretty noisy sleeper so as long as she's winded I don't think it's anything to worry about. Premature babies find BF'ing quite hard work and often don't feed for long. Our NICU nurse taught me that if he was starting to fall asleep I could get him to take a bit more by gently tipping him away from me as if I was going to take him off the nipple but without actually breaking the latch. If he thought it was going away he usually reacted by starting to suck more strongly! After a few weeks at home we dropped the top-up bottle feed and BF'ing became a lot less faff. We're still going strong & he's 11 mos :) Congrats & good luck!