new baby sleeping too much?

[ZaksMom]

I have a 3 day old baby who hardly wakes up day or night unless nappy dirty or wants feeding
I feel I should be delighted as ds1 never slept & wanted to breast feed all day
but is this normal?
had water birth & no drugs at all
she is a bit jaundiced but HV not worried
unfortunately I have never been that confident about HV & MW advice as they all contradict each other!
can anyone reassure me?

If there are plenty of wet nappies then she is fine. I think when they are very little they just do sleep a lot - 20 hours out of 24. Make sure she is feeding well, and when awake is good and alert.

Jaundice is fine as long as it resolves - if it is improving then that means she is getting enough milk. My ds was very sleepy as a baby, and I had to wake him up constantly to feed. If she is waking up to feed then that is fine - aim to feed every 3 or 4 hours, even through the night.

Meant to say, CONGRATULATIONS btw.

Hi Zaksmom, congratulations on your little one and well done with 'no drugs' - how did you do it??!?

My ds sounds more like your ds1 so I may not be the best for advice, but from what I've read on other threads this sounds fine aslong as she's waking (or you're waking her) every 3hrs or so for a feed. I think whatever their sleep patterns are like in the early days you need to make sure they're getting enough milk and wake them when necessary. You can try and keep her awake longer in the day with sounds and visual stimulation. My ds always slept 'on the job' and I had to tickle his feet and underarms to make sure he'd take a full feed.

I'm sure you'll get some good advice shortly. Try not to worry.

She is still very young and this may change.
My DD did this at first but she was born at 36wks. I remember saying this to the midwife and she laughed and said this will soon change. The good thing is she wakes for a feed. Just mention it when you see your midwife, but don't worry too much. Also midwives I found in my experience do contradict each other. The best midwives in my experience with good advice are the ones who actually had children of their own. Larsxx

Just to add that dd was juandice and was a small birth weight told to feed every 2-3hrs and had to actually wake her to feed. larsxx

3 days is still so young...the physiological view is that they don't need much (or maybe any) food initially so nothing weird about few feeds for some very new babies, just get the rest while you can, because Lars is right and it can all change!

my ds was exactly the same when he was first born where i was bottle feeding and he wasnt taking enough milk about 2oz every four to five hours i was told to wake him the equivilent of two oz every two hours but to let them sleep as long as they like through the night (i wasnt that lucky) best thing is if they sleep over three hours without a feed during the day is to wake them strip them try and make them feel slightly uncomfortable so they stay awake i also found feeding infront of a fan on low if possible i had this advice if a midwife and give her her due it works he's now 7 months and eats a hell of a lot

plus my son was jundice try and get plenty of sun to the skin like leaveing the curtains open and her stripped for about a hour a day and when the jundice clears up compleatly they will have a beutiful coloring to them

congratulation on the birth of the baby hope apart from this all is well with you both

Congratulations ZaksMom
My DD slept a lot when she was tiny. I woke her 3 hourly for feeds from day1 and she always went back off to sleep quite happily (I did this mainly to establish my milk)
She didn't 'wake up' and be alert for longer periods until she was about 8 weeks old. Now at 11 weeks she still can only cope with being awake for 1.5 hours.
My DS was totally different and fought sleep from the day he was born so I guess every baby is different ...

I had the same thing. My dd wouldn't even wake up for a feed. She was also slightly jaundiced. At 5 days she slept for 7 hours from 4pm till 11pm and when we tried to wake her at 7.30pm for an hour for a feed we couldn't. We ended up just letting her sleep. She woke at 11pm very hungry. Make the most of not having the completely sleepless nights and a chance for you to recover from the birth and spend some time with your ds1.