2 day old VERY tired and not feeding the "normal" amount? ?

[mamareba]

... my little one is only feeding a few times a day for about thirty to forty minutes.  And I think some of that is just comfort sucking.  She' s almost 2 days old, and seems to have passed her meconium.  But, she is very tired and is hard to rouse to even try to feed every three hours, and then she passes right back out after a few sucks.. her latch is good though! We are weighing her tomorrow, so Im trying not to panic.  We had an extremely long (3days and nights) labor and Im hoping she's just still tired from that and by tomorrow it will wear off .... thoughts?  

[mousebandit]

Not an expert, but I have been told consistently with my little ones that they need to go to breast at the latest every 3 hours.  I know with ours, they were lethargic and did not wake themselves up to eat (mine have all been preemies except the last one).  We had to resort to some mean-feeling things to wake up and keep those little ones awake.  The routine was take off all the clothes, change the diaper, put to breast, tickle face, neck, chest, and feet to keep awake and nursing.  If need be, we used cold washclothes on the tummy.  THat sucked, but it did work.  The NICU nurses showed us that.  You can also hold little ones in your hands, away from your body (think of the baby Simba scene from Lion King) and move the baby vertically - the down movement usually startles them awake. 

If the little one is inclined towards jaundice, they need all the colostrum/milk they can get to push that poopy through.  THat clears the bilirubin out.  As bilirubin climbs (as jaundice gets more pronounced), baby gets more lethargic and sleepy and feeds less.  It turns into a negative cycle. 

I would definitely be working on waking that baby up and putting her to breast (and keeping her awake!) every 3 hours minimum at this point.  If she was early or is small in size, you might even consider going every 2 hours during the day. 

I'm sure some more experienced mamas and maybe LCs will jump in here, just wanted to give you some encouragement and info!  {HUGS} mama!! 

Mouse Bandit

[katelove]

How many wet nappies does she have in 24 hours? 6-8 wet cloth nappies means she is getting enough fluids. The fact that her meconium is transitioning is also a good sign that she is getting enough.

As a general rule you can allow a healthy, term newborn demand feed. She will almost certainly have lost weight when you weigh her tomorrow. Most babies lose weight in the first 3 days. If she has lost more than 10%, your midwife may suggest you start encouraging more frequent feeds. 

All the best.

[to-mama]

Hi, that's perfectly normal! I had the same issue and my midwife said they will sleep day 1 and 2 and suckle all day long for day 3. This is to bring your milk in. My LO did not have any milk coming and he suckled all day when he was 3 days old and only slept 5-6 hours that day. Third day he was pretty much sleeping all day and my milk had come in so I was feeding him every 2-3 hours or so.

It's perfectly normal! I thought he wanted to comfort suck too but my midwife assured me it's the way nature works to bring our milk in :) Hang in there!