I have a gorgeous 6 day old baby girl, breast feeding began well, however she has always had a bit of trouble latching on, and is quite fussy with which breast. She was born weighing 7lb 7oz and was weighed at 3days old, she had dropped to 6lb 12oz. Midwife didnt seem to fussed and said she is within her 10%, ive never known a newborn to lose this much, and shes also quite jaundice.
With all of this taken into account she will also go 8hrs without a feed and will sleep solidly. it can take upto an hour and a half for her to latch on.
Last night i did some research and it said to wake newborns, i have woke her every four hours, this worked during the night but this morning she is not having any of it and every time she attempts to feed she falls back to sleep!
Ive spent the last 3 days in tears and im terrified shes lost more weight.
We have a midwife appointment at 1520 today.
Does anyone else have this problem? any advice would be really appreciated. I have tried expressing however she urges and chokes on the bottle, not sure if teat is too fast? its an avent newborn teat that came with the pump?

Hi there.

Congrats on your LO!

My LO also lost 10%, didnt actually start gaining it til 11 days old, then was back to birthweight at 18 days old. 6 lb 4 oz down to 5 lb 10 oz, so pretty much same loss as your LO.

At this stage I would wake to feed rather than allow LO to sleep 8 hours.

We would strip LO down to nappy to keep awake for a feed - he would feed for about 30seconds at a time then fall asleep!

I also tried expressing but it just stressed me out even more as half an hour expressing would give a tiny 0.5oz!

I hope your LO has not lost any more weight and will start gaining it back soon.

Stick with it, you will both get there!!

Jaundice - my LO was still jaundiced til 10 weeks old!

Your midwife is correct, its within normal levels of weight loss and its also normal sleepy newborn behaviour, don't expect it to last though. Once baby has regained birth weight there's no reason to wake to feed although not sure about jaundice sorry. My baby slept 5 or 6 hours when he was newborn and I just enjoyed it and caught up on some sleep. I wouldn't top up with bottles though, it seems to cause more problems than it solves in 9 out of 10 cases.
Keep at it and congratulations on the birth of your baby girl.
X

Thank you for your replies, there just doesnt seem much information on babies that love to sleep! And theres nothing i want more than for her to wake every couple of hours, im sure i will regret that statement lol. going to have a talk with the midwife today and see what they say. She seems perfectly content and has plenty of dirty and wet nappies, just want to fatten her up xx

My baby girl came 4.5 weeks early and we had similar issues. She had issues latching (we still use a nipple shield sometimes, but she's gotten much better) and was not waking for feeds in the beginning either. I woke her every 3 hours at night and every 2 during the day to help her gain (birth weight was 6'6, dropped to 5'12). I'd change her diaper before every feed and make sure lights were on to try and keep her awake. Also would nurse her naked except for her diaper. This seemed to help a lot. Then between 2 and 3 weeks of age she began waking herself and now I no longer need alarms. She wakes me when she's hungry all on her own.

HTH! good luck xoxo I know it's stressful in the beginning, I bawled and bawled at first. But it will get better.

You are doing well. I would wake her every three to four hours to feed as the less they feed the sleepier and weaker they get. My LO did the same and I was thrilled until the Ped said if they don't wake you need to wake them until they start waking themselves usually about 2 weeks old. Even with trouble latching keep going, it does get better. Remember it's a whole new experience for you both and takes practice.

Keep feeding her naked, tickle her feet, have lights on, stroke her chin, flick her ear, change her nappy. In no time she will stay awake for feeds and then you'll be wanting her to go to sleep and she wont!!!!

Good luck!

Hi my 3 wk old was the same. Born 6lb11 and struggled to bf and latch so I had to express for the first few days.

My LO went to 6lb8 and again was considered ok.

My LO was also a touch jaundice and wouldn't wake and was very sleepy and my mw told me to wake her at least every 3.5 hrs and strip her and ensure she didn't go over 4hrs without feeding.

Jaundice can make them really sleepy and that's why they won't wake for food so you must wake them x

My daughter would sleep 6+ hrs right from the start too... I just enjoyed it and she would feed well with nipple shields, although also had alot of latching problems to start. If the initial weight loss was ok, have confidence that you will know if your lo isnt feeding enough.

My son now started with hourly feeds, which was a rude awakening after what i was used to with my daughter. Luckily he has now increased to 3/4 hourly feeds, but geez i miss my longer sleeps...

What a shame we cant all have wonderful babies that sleep perfectly all the time!

Jaundice is completely normal, 70% of babies are jaundiced so don't worry that jaundice is a sign of your baby not getting enough to eat or anything like that. Any loss up to 10% is also normal; even for formula fed babies. It is important to wake to feed until your baby has regained their birthweight-you may need to strip them down to their nappy and wipe them with a damp, cool (not cold) face cloth, it seems cruel and drastic but it is important; even with healthy full term babies if too long passes it can affect their blood sugar, making them harder to wake and feed properly and it can be a vicious cycle xx

Ugh, yes, my LO was one of those who didn't want to wake up to eat the first few days we were home. It was awful waking up a sleeping baby--it would take 30 minutes to an hour to get her awake and eating. I couldn't do the whole "sleep while she's sleeping" thing as I kept watching to see if she would stir just a bit and so catch her in a lighter sleep so she'd be easier to wake up! But it got better after about a week or two and she started waking up every 2-3 hours to eat.