overly sleepy baby?

[71newmom]

My son is 12 days old. He was born at term at 8lbs 7oz, healthy (he went down to 7lbs 12 oz and is now back at his birth wt). Problem is that he's been very sleepy since day 1. I know this is characteristic of some brand new babies, but by 12 days, shouldn't he be more awake? He has his eyes open maybe 1-2 hrs of the day at most. He was found to have jaundice at day 4 (level of 17), he was on home phototherapy, which has been discontinued. His level at day 12 is 13, which his dr says will continue to go down. He seems to have normal muscle tone. I need to wake him to breastfeed (whether it be every 2 hrs or every 4), and he's very difficult to rouse and latch on. He's so sleepy that he doesn't stay latched on, just keeps falling asleep. He does not have any abnormalities with his mouth, but his suck is somewhat weak. We work super hard at breastfeeding, but it's so much more of an effort than with my older son, who nursed for almost 2 yrs. Should I be worried that my baby is so sleepy?

[odoole]

I would definitely call the ped if you're worried.

How is he when he IS awake? I think that's probably more relevant than how much he's actually sleeping. Is he listless, or does he perk up some when he actually is awake?

[Kelly1101]

My baby was like this... jaundice, and VERY sleepy. As the PP mentioned, though-- when she was awake, she was fully awake. She was just NEVER awake, she slept all the time, until she was over two months old.

I had to struggle to keep her awake enough to nurse, too-- constantly rubbing her back and her hands while she was eating, so that she would keep nursing and not just pass out on the boob.

How long did your baby have the light therapy? Mine was on it for five days. Is all the yellow-ness gone?

[71newmom]

he was on phototherapy for 7 days. he seems to be fully awake and bright-eyed, although it just doesn't happen for more than 10-15 minutes at a time. but he does like to look around and i can tell he is interested in his surroundings. so i suppose that should be reassuring. his ped is not at all concerned at this point, and i have mentioned it at least 3x to her, since we keep going in for wt and bili checks. he has a 2 wk checkup in a few days.

[Kelly1101]

Originally Posted by 71newmom

he was on phototherapy for 7 days. he seems to be fully awake and bright-eyed, although it just doesn't happen for more than 10-15 minutes at a time. but he does like to look around and i can tell he is interested in his surroundings. so i suppose that should be reassuring. his ped is not at all concerned at this point, and i have mentioned it at least 3x to her, since we keep going in for wt and bili checks. he has a 2 wk checkup in a few days.

If he's wide-eyed and interested when he IS awake, and the ped is aware of his sleeping patterns, I'd say don't worry about it. All babies at that age sleep a lot, and like I said, mine slept all. the. time.

People would come visit and be DYING to have her wake up so that they could see her eyes, but nope.

She started having much more awake time around 6 weeks-2 months old. By three months, she was sleeping through the night, and 2-3 naps, awake the rest of the time.

Relax. If you're very worried, keep a sleep journal recording when and how long she naps, and show it to the doctor at your 2 week check-up. But I'm betting she's tell you it's fine and normal.

[odoole]

I should add, if you're worried about your son eating enough, I would encourage you to use a bottle.

my DS was a preemie and on phototherapy just for 1 day, but VERY sleepy his first 2-3 weeks or so.

I don't know how you feel about using a bottle, but we did it from day one because he was born at 5 lbs 4 oz and came home from the hospital at 4 lbs 10 oz. It was obviously very important that he eat a measured amount at regular intervals, which was impossible to guarantee at the breast.

We always started him out at the breast, but he would fall asleep after a couple minutes. Then we'd switch to the bottle. It's much easier to feed a sleepy baby from a bottle of expressed milk. (The NICU nurses taught us all kinds of techniques for how to keep the baby awake/stimulated during bottle feedings.) After about 3 weeks, DS was able to stay awake long enough to feed from the breast pretty much exclusively. He didn't have any problems with nipple confusion or anything.