Anyone else got a very sleepy baby..?

[mw1234]

Hi All,

My son is now 11 days old and remains very sleepy. I would say he sleeps between 20-22 hours per day. When he is awake, he is a very calm baby and will look around but makes little noise. I have been b/feeding him but have to wake him to feed as he wouldn't bother and when he does feed, it can take anything upto 2 hours. He falls asleep and then its time to wake him again for his next feed.

He lost the usual 10% of his birth weight but over the past 5 days, he has not put any weight back on even though I have been very disciplined with the b/feeding. I have decided to introduce some formula to give him a kick start.

The midwife did say that perhaps he is very dozy as he may be getting the minimum food to maintain his weight but not any extra (no yellow poo yet!). But that he is 'sleepier than most'.

I'm sure this is all normal as to every very sleepy baby, there will be one that screams all night. Anyone else had a similar experience?

mw

My DD was a sleepy baby. I tried unsuccessfully to BF as she just wasn't interested. We had to set the alarm for night time feeds as she would just sleep straight through. We has to constantly undress her and tickle her to try and keep her awake to bottle feed.

As the BF didn't work and I was bottle feeding my MW suggested that I went straight for the medium flow teats as it meant DD got a good feed in before dozing off again. The slow flow ones were obviously just too much hard work for her!

I remember being very worried but it didn't last for long, only a few weeks I think. Then she started gaining weight as she should.

Just to add that my DD is a very unsleepy 4 year old now!

ds2 was like this and after 2 'normal' sleepers-as in didnt we were worried.all else was well except we had to wake him every 4 hours to feed.the midwife showed us to gently flick his face(sounds awful!) and ways to hold him to helphim stay awake as he fed.

at 8 months he was obviously told that babies dont usually sleep so well so made up for it!

infact almost the same as theironinglady!

Hopefully people with more knowledge will come along soon. But I know a sleepy baby could be suffering from jaundice, so you need to keep an eye on it. Your DS does sound quite sleepy, but I am no expert.

I would ring my MW to discuss it further.

My dd was the same although she was formula feed, waiting 5.5 ours between feeds. She gained weight and slept all day and through the night at 6 weeks.

She is now 7 and still a great sleeper!

As long as he is gaining weight then I would try not to worry too much and Enjoy it.

My ds was very sleepy the day after he was born, but was suffering from jaundice, very low blood sugar and an infection. He basically just needed a really good feed.
It sounds like your ds is getting enough to drink so I wouldn't be too worried.
But definitely keep checking with midwife or health visitor if you are concerned - trust your instincts.

found this-
'Some causes of sleepiness in newborns include:

Drugs given during labor and delivery, including epidurals (especially more than one) and painkillers given during Cesarean sections.

Medical reasons - jaundice, infection, or circumcision. Jaundice is common in newborns (see article on jaundice) and makes babies very sleepy. It's kind of a Catch-22-because he is sleepy, he doesn't nurse well, and because he doesn't nurse well, he doesn't stool and his bilirubin levels go up. Circumcision is a medical procedure that takes a lot out of babies. Expect your little boy to be tired, sleepy and not too interested in nursing the day of the procedure if you choose to have it done.

Too much stimulation -- some babies 'tune out' by sleeping when the environment is too noisy or the lights too bright.

Too much milk -- some babies react to the increased flow of milk on the third or fourth day by falling asleep within a minute or two of nursing.

Inadequate milk intake -- another Catch-22. The newborn baby who isn't getting enough milk may respond by becoming weaker and sleeping, rather than screaming his head off and demanding to be fed '

also was he premature at all?ds was only 3 weeks early but the nurses said maybe he just wasnt ready to 'play' yet.

It might be an idea to pop over to the bf boards for some support? They have brilliant and very qualified posters.

DS was like this - turned out he was jaundiced and tongue-tied and not eating well. I'm sure your little one is fine, but there are ways of boosting your milk supply and his eating that you may find reassuring.

The midwife has not mentioned jaundice and she isn't concerned about that.

He was not premature either, he was 10 days over and waighed 10lb 1oz. Delivered via C-section. He fusses over latching on but when he does, he feeds well for 10 minutes, has a look around for a while (and this can be a while!) and then does another 10 minutes. My first son was a poor feeder and we had to introduce the bottle as well. It's possible my milk may not be of the good enough quality.

I'm hoping that the bottle will give him some energy to perk him up, gain some weight, and then my worry will reduce.

A midwife suggested to me that my milk supply may not be of good enough quality - especially as I was exhausted and suffered several infections. She told me to get some Complan, which is a drink that you can make up either hot or cold (I found the vanilla one made up hot was delicious). It has a lot of vitamins and calories in it and can help improve your milk quality.