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Extremely Sleepy Newborn

jmarrugojmarrugo member
in January 2016 Moms
Does anyone else have an extremely sleepy newborn? I never thought a baby sleeping too much would be an issue, but she won't breastfeed because she won't wake up. She's having trouble gaining her birth weight two and a half weeks later. I've started breastfeeding for 20 minutes on each side and then feeding her breastmilk that I have pumped, and then 2 oz of formula per the doctor. Is anyone else in this situation?
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Re: Extremely Sleepy Newborn

  • ambercakes92ambercakes92 member
    I would say for probably the first two weeks, my daughter was hard to wake for feedings. I would have to undress her a good bit and just keep moving her around to get her awake enough to feed. Sometimes it would take over an hour to get that food in her, but by 2.5 weeks she had surpassed her birth weight. I was really obsessive about trying to stick to a feeding schedule of every 1.5- 2 hrs, 3 max. How often are you trying to wake her?
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  • jmarrugojmarrugo member
    Did she get better when she passed her birth weight? I wake her every four hours at night and every two hours during the day. We accidentally let her sleep for seven hours one night because we just assumed she would wake up when she was hungry!
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  • danasphillipsdanasphillips member
    Was she tested for jaundice?
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  • jmarrugojmarrugo member
    Yes but she doesn't have it
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  • maureenmcemaureenmce member
    We were in this situation with our LO but she perked up after a few days of the formula supplementation.  How long have you been adding the formula?  Hopefully it'll bring your LO around, wakefulness wise.


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  • HipshakerHipshaker member
    Switch nurse. When baby falls asleep at the breast, unlatch burp and switch sides. Tickle babies jaw when she's slacking.
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  • PedsIsHardcorePedsIsHardcore member
    A McGyver trick is to rub the bottom of her foot while you feed her. I rub the full length of DD2's foot. DD2 would only snack and then want to eat every 2 hours until I started rubbing the full length of her foot to make her wake up. My mom showed it to me with my DD1.
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  • jmarrugojmarrugo member
    We have been supplementing for over a week but I think I've figured out she wasn't getting enough breastmilk since she's not the best at nursing yet. I've started pumping after feeding her and giving her that plus formula
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  • l4rkl4rk member
    One of my tricks to wake my baby up is wiping her face with a cold, wet washcloth. Also flapping her arm, switching sides, and changing her diaper. My midwife said one of the tricks is doing all these things before she falls asleep -- the second she starts to drift. If her eyes close, it's game over. If all else fails, I gently place her on the hard floor for a few seconds and that gets her good and mad. :smile:
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  • kelnate22kelnate22 member
    Yes. My daughter is now 5 weeks and is still sleepy for some feedings. Supplementing will definitely help your daughter gain her weight back and pumping will too. My little one lost weight fast in the few days after her birth until we started supplementing because my milk didn't come in until 5 days after she was born. It took 2 weeks to get her back to birth weight. She was not jaundice. Change her diaper before feeding, take off her clothes to feed so she isn't warm and comfy, tickle her toes and fingers and a cool washcloth will all help. Sometimes it didn't for me and I would try them in different orders like changing diaper the half way through taking off her clothes. You're doing the right thing though and know you're not alone! We didn't go more than three hours in the first weeks between feedings until she gained her weight back and Doctor ok'd us to go 3-4 hours.
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  • MamabeagleMamabeagle member
    My LO eats frequently in the evening and eats less during the night, but he has gotten better about eating more efficiently as he's gotten older (4 weeks now)
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  • 6240662406 member
    This sounds exactly like my DD.  We had the same issue, she would latch, nurse for maybe a minute, then fall asleep.  We tried everything to wake her up or keep her awake.  At her two week appointment she still was not back to her birth weight so i decided that I would exclusively pump.  This way I know exactly how much she is getting.  She's 3.5 weeks now and she's a pound over her birth weight.  I really wanted to breastfeed but in the end this works best for us and helps me not to stress about her weight gain.
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  • jmarrugojmarrugo member
    I really want to breastfeed too but it's just been a constant battle that leaves us both frustrated. I'm thinking about switching to just pumping but I feel like I've failed and that I gave up. She just screams and screams now when I try to feed her.
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  • jencook25jencook25 member
    Oh goodness, this is what going through now. When my little man was born 4 weeks ago i was determined to breastfeed. However after a difficult birth, him having jaundice, and me having flat nipples making breastfeeding even more work, I started giving him expressed milk. He started producing the correct amount of nappies (showing us he was dehydrated to start with) and gained energy. I then had a few weeks of almost exclusively expressed milk, and he was doing great (though I was disappointed that I wasn't breastfeeding). Then we tried getting him back on the breast in the last two weeks, and as he falls asleep so quickly at the breast still I listened to the midwives/LCs advice and tickled his feet, pressed the palms of his hands and under his chin, blew on his face etc to wake him up. This led to him becoming averse to the breast, and like your little one would just get so worked up as soon as Inoffered him the breast (though I think this was partly because he hated being pestered to stay awake, and partly because the bottle made him even lazier) which is so heartbreaking! For the last few days I have been offering him the breast once or so a day, and not pestering him at all (yep, he's asleep after a few mins) just so he learns to enjoy it again, and then offering him the bottle as soon as he wakes up. I've ordered a breastfeeding line (aka breastfeeding aid, you should google it), and as soon as it gets here we will start using that, so he only has to suck for the time he would on the bottle, and the reward for sucking is more like what it is at the bottle than breast. Once he's used to this I will decrease the flow/volume from the aid, do he gets more from the breast. 

    Dont feel like you've failed swapping to just bottle. My bet is you've been trying bloody hard to make breast work. At the end of the day, you've got to do what's best for Bub, and it takes a lot of energy to breastfeed, so if he's not getting much milk you could be stuck in a bad chain reaction. Also, a swap to the bottle doesn't need to be permanent! 

    Goodluck, I hope it all starts working for you soon! Xo
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