sleep question on 5 day old.

Rebedall1

So we are home and settling in. Its been a little rough getting used to sleeping in 2.5 hour increments. My queston is-how much should he be sleeping? we had our 1st ped. appointment yesterday and she said he is a little jaundice but looks good. She said to keep breastfeeding him and we have our 2 week follow up next week. Right now I would say he has about 2 -total awake times sometimes 3 lasting about 20 min to 3o min apiece. He will wake up to feed (falls asleep during 20 min feed and I tickled him awake) and when i diaper him...any thoughts? Am I just having new mom nervousness? TIA!

jonnygurl76

this is normal--newborns sleep up to 20 hours a day!! 

aruall

My DD had the exact pattern....normal, no worries!

Lurksgirl

It's perfectly normal.  Don't worry about it at all.

StarryNight39

Very normal! My DS is 2 weeks old and within this week he finally started to have some more "awake" time. 

mind

Very normal mine did the same thing and was having day/night mixed up plus lost of weight.  everything is fine now so don't worry you are doing great

Hulahoop1234

I would to urge you to get his blood tested for an actual bilirubin number.  Our pedi said that DS was just a little jaundiced and that his bili number was probably no more than 10-12, no big deal.  We pushed to have the actual number tested and he was a 22 and had to be admitted for bili lights and an intensive feeding schedule.  

What I never knew before is that jaundice makes babies extra sleepy and pokey, including at the breast.  As a result they often don't end up getting enough to eat.  I learned from the hospital staff that very frequent bowel movements and urination are a large part of getting the bilirubin out of their system, so its kind of a catch 22.  Our DS needed a lot of prodding, tickling, nudging, etc. during feedings when he was jaundiced. 

Lots of sleep is normal for a newborn, but there is definitely something very different about jaundiced babies' level of sleepiness.