Very sleepy baby, taking forever to eat?

Knottie84786369

My due date was November 28th, I had gone to the hospital the morning of the 20th because my water had broke. After laboring in horrible pain for 3 hours, they checked me to see how dilated I was and realized that they could feel the babies nose instead of head, and that his heart rate was dropping during c sections, so they said I had to have a c section. I had decided to breast feed at the last minute, instead of formula. Well they didn't send a lactation specialist in, and I had no help trying to feed him. I was really concerned he wasn't eating enough, and he was very hard to wake up. But they said he should be fine. He weighed 7 lbs 4 oz at birth.
A few days after we had his first check up and he had lost a pound. The doctor was very concerned and said to wake him for feedings every two hours and he should be taking 2 oz to get his weight back up.
We bought a breast pump and I only made about an ounce at a time, so we have to supplement an ounce of formula at each feeding. Any suggestions on how to wake him up for feedings? Also How to increase milk supply? The doctor didn't seem concerned about his sleepiness, it's just frustrating. Thanks in advance!

Knottie84786369

**His heart rate was dropping during contractions, not c sections!

millereliz13

Our little guy was the same, he took his,time to eat due to being asleep. We would change his diaper to wake him up. He's 2 months now and occasionally I'll strip him down to just his diaper to wake him up

Bigboobsmcgee

That's how my first was. I had to use cold wash rags, take him out of his clothes and change his diaper. I struggled with BF'ing my first child so I went to a lactation consultant 3 different times. In the end, I never produced enough milk so I switched to formula BUT that might not be the case with you.

See a lactation consultant AND post this on the BF board. They are really helpful over there.

rue:D

A diaper change is enough to wake my baby up, and is what the nurses at the hospital suggested. The benefit of that is she usually then goes back to sleep after eating (sometimes she falls asleep eating). She is FF so I can't offer advice on increasing supply. Since you're not very far PP, it may just be that your supply hasn't adjusted to baby's needs yet; that can be an issue from what I understand. I agree with @Bigboobsmcgee - consulting with a lactation consultant would likely be beneficial.

bellie1223

Tickling their feet (though I used this one so much it doesn't really work anymore), rubbing their heads, diaper change or undressing, wet wash cloth, all help wake them up.

I had similar issues--not a c-section, just a sleepy baby-- mine lost almost a lb too after we left the hospital and (because?) my milk took like five days to come in. I didn't end up supplementing with formula, just had my kid on my book boob 24/7 to help stimulate milk production. She started gaining and the ped was happy, though it's still on the slow side, but she's having plenty of wet and poopy diapers everyday. I have done everything to up my milk supply: fenugreek, pumping, mother's milk tea, oatmeal everyday, lactation cookies, brewers yeast in smoothies, drinking tons of water. My supply is definitely better but I'm not sure if I can attribute it to any of those things, or if like pp said, it just takes a little bit for your supply to even out. At any rate, trying all those things helped me feel like I was doing something instead of just sitting around waiting. Sorry for the novel, at the end of the day you need to have confidence that your body will do what it's supposed to, and trust your doctor to give good advice.

Oh also, I saw a lactation consultant a few times and honestly, this is an unpopular opinion I think, but I did not find her much help. She let me know that our latch was good, but other than that really had me freaked out that my daughter wasn't gaining enough, even though my ped was happy with her weight gain. I left the LC in tears thinking my baby was in dire straits and I was a bad mom. I feel much more relaxed after it stopped seeing her. I really just had to trust my gut and my doctor.

MrsN092714

I had the same problem at first. My little guy would scream, I'd put him on the boob and instantly asleep. Tickling his back, neck or changing a diaper helped wake him up but it seemed nothing would wake him up for long so it was just a battle of getting as much as we could into him. After a few days it was like a light switch went off and suddenly he was nursing 30-40 mins per side, which definitely helped my milk production (not my poor nipples though!) we did supplement a bit with formula at the start, and now at 4 weeks in he is EBF, gaining like crazy and down to about 10-15 mins per side on average. Keep going with it momma, your doing great and it takes practice. Breastfeeding is HARD! It's something the two of you have to learn together. Don't let anyone make you feel guilty if you supplement, or decide to make the swap to formula. Do what's best for you and your LO.