Baby falling asleep on breast

M

mintycat

Registered User
My baby is 13 days old. She has jaundice and is very sleepy all the time, spent 3 days under phototherapy lights at the hospital. She sleeps a lot during the day but I try to wake her every 2.5-3 hours for feeds. She sucks for about 5-10 mins and falls into a deep sleep. Sometimes she will wake and suck for another 10-15 mins but a lot of times, she will not. How can I wake her?

I think due to this, she wakes up several times at night. I express as well so my husband gives her my EMB. Last night for example, she had 3 oz at 1 am, 3.5 oz at 3 am. 3.5 oz at 5 am and another 2 oz at 6:50 am. Then this morning, I fed her at the breast for 25 mins at 8:40 am. Does it seem like she is drinking a lot at night so that is why she doesn't wake much for milk during the day?

Also, when I BF, I only offer one breast because she will not wake for the other breast. If she can suck for 20-30 mins, is that sufficient?
 
Mintycat I am sure that someone from the La Leche League will probably post.
However, just a couple of quick points.
1. It takes about 3 weks for day to reverse day and night - at the moment, she is still feeling your body's rhythms from the womb - she is lulled to sleep during the day by your motions, and more awake at night - when she gets more oxygen.
2. It is quite normal for babies to wake up several times at night - often until they are close to a year old. You wil hear a lot of stories about "My baby slept through at three weekks" - but this is a minority. If you baby is asking for milk, you should definately give it to her.
3. You can try to keep baby away after feeds by holding her upright, or talking to her. BUt if she won;t wake up - don;t worry - as she becomes more and more aware over the next few weeks, you can try more to help her have a longer feed. At the moment her tiny tummy gets full very quickly.
Hope this helps.
 
Hi Mintycat,
I have no idea whether my method is correct or not. But it worked for my baby, so I will tell you about it anyway. I am sure other moms will tell you their experience as well, and you can choose what's the best.
For timing, I tried changing baby's biological time zone by first making the room very bright at night, and dark during the day making use of lights and curtains. Also switching music as well, so cheerful music during the day, and sleepy music at night to make some background stimulation. As for feeding, whenever baby falls asleep, I would stimulate him by poking gently on his face nearest to the mouth, Squeeze the breasts a little (for BF), tilt the bottle downwards (for bottle feeding) and gently swirl the teats inside his mouth, gently pull his ear, tickle his hand or even wipe his a little with a wet towel. He will probably suck suck then sleep again, but I would stimulate him again repeating the process again and again. Keep changing breasts also helps. Even if it's a minute each, you should try that. I find that in general there is no rights and wrongs in breastfeeding, I think each babies have different traits and characters, and so it's a matter of trial and error to find what works. I may be wrong of course, coz I am not an expert, only a mother. But I did pick up some of the above by observing what the nureses do at the the hospitals. Hope this helps! AND MANY MANY CONGRATULATIONS on the safe arrival of your baby!
 
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Thanks for all your advise. I am so determined to make breastfeeding a success this time that I am beginning to feel stressed. I was convinced to give my older DD formula at the hospital because of her jaundice that she never developed a good latch and I ended up pumping exclusively for her for 9 months, which was tiring to say the least.

I really want to breastfeed this time and not pump all the time, but it seems she is already showing preference for the bottle. And I am so nervous she is not getting enough from my breast after sucking for 10 mins that I top her up with EBM most of the time.
 
Dear Mintycat,

A baby who is only 13 days old needs to be feeding between 8 and 14 times in 24 hours. Are you managing to feed her this many times?

Also you need for her to be doing deep jaw movements when she is feeding. If she is only doing shallow ones she will not be taking much milk. Dr. Jack Newman has a number of video clips on his web site. I recommend that you watch them to understand what I?m talking about when I say deep jaw movements.

The web site is http://www.breastfeedingonline.com/newman.shtml, scroll down until you find the section called Latching. These videos will help you to improve your latch too.

The other thing which will help your baby to breastfeed is to not give any supplement or top up in a bottle. There are many ways to give babies milk ? it doesn?t have to be in a bottle. The best way is to use a tube as a lactation aid. Again Dr. Jack has videos showing how to do this on his web site. Look under the section called Supplementing.

I would advise seeing either a lactation consultant or a LLL leader (contact details on www.lllhk.org) to get help with your positioning and latch. It really is important to get this sorted out as soon as possible.

Best wishes,
SARAH
 
Hi Sarah

Thanks for the response. She feeds about 9-12 times a day, including both on the breast and with EBM in a bottle. When she is on the breast, she has deep jaw movements and I hear swallowing. It's just that she falls asleep after 10 mins so I don't know if she is getting the hind milk. I always thought it's better to be on the breast for at least 20-30 mins for babies this age? She seems to be so sleepy all the time.
 
There are two techniques which help the baby stay away and thus get more milk, Breast Compression and Switch Nursing. Below is information from the internet but all this information is difficult to take in and talking to someone or better a face-to-face meeting will help.

Dr. Jack Newman also explains how to do Breast Compression on his web site, http://www.breastfeedingonline.com/newman under the section Breast Compression.

Breast Compression at http://www.breastfeedingonline.com/15pdf.pdf
And again he has more video clips on his web site which can be useful

This technique really works very well. You need to give the baby a rest after a bout of sucking but of maybe only 20 seconds before you do the compression again. If you wait as long as two minutes the baby will be asleep and, of course, the baby does need some rest after a bout of sucking. I know that sometimes mothers are so anxious that they want the baby to suck non stop ? this is impossible (just like we have to have rests when we eat so does the baby).

Another good technique is Switch Nursing. Switch nursing is changing to the other side when the baby no longer seems interested. Usually when we start feeding the baby is very interested to suck, as the baby slows down we start the breast compression and when the baby slows down with the breast compression we change and get the baby to have the other side. On the other side after the baby starts to slow down we again use the breast compression and when he slows down again swap back to the first side again. We can continue swapping sides as much as we like and for as long as the baby is willing to continue to suck. It is fine to swap sides 8, 9 or 10 times in one feed.

Best wishes,
SARAH
 
I suggest that you put the supplements on a schedule. This way you know exactly how much you are giving and are then in a good place to reduce them. It is not a good idea to top the baby up after each feed. The babies quickly learn that they don?t have to work at breastfeeding because they will get a bottle afterwards.

So I usually suggest that mothers give the bottles (although not using bottles is a much better idea) at 9:00 am, 1:00 pm, 5:00 pm and 9:00 pm (if giving 4 feeds, say)and then just breastfeed at ANY and ALL other times. This helps the baby realise he has to work at the breast.

Kellymom.com has information about weaning from supplements to the breast and a useful form to fill in which helps you know exactly where you are and what the next stage is.

Weaning from Supplements Instructions
http://www.kellymom.com/store/handouts/concerns/wean-supplements.pdf

Weaning from Supplements Log
http://www.kellymom.com/store/handouts/concerns/wean-supplements.pdf

Best wishes,
SARAH
 
Mintycat - I am in the same situation. My (2) LO's are 15 days old and are still very sleepy (they were born 4 weeks early, so not really supposed to be in the world yet...so is kinda understandable).

I unswaddle them about 5 minutes before a feed so that they have chance to wake up, then if they fall asleep sometimes a 'jiggle' of my breast is enough to wake them, sometimes I change their nappy half way through and that is enough too.

I find it very frustrating when feeding them, especially as there are 2 to deal with (and especially in the middle of the night), but I take heart in the knowledge that in a few weeks time, they will become more efficient at eating and be more wakeful.
 
my 4 month old would only ever feed for 10 mintues at a time, still hard to get her to feed more. i, too, was worried until the first check up and i found that she was gaining very well. then by the 2 month check up she'd doubled her birth weight.

the best advice i can off is RELAX!!! getting all stressed out is NOT going to help, only hinder you.

so, RELAX and ENJOY!
 
ps. forget to say that to keep my girl awake for longer, i'd actually undress her, so she was a little on the cool side. (she was also 4 weeks early and 2.47kg at birth)
 
Carang,
I'm in similar situation like you are...my 2-month-old baby only sucks no longer than 10 mins each time ever, but is gaining weight healthily. But i wonder what's your feeding time gaps? For me, during the day, baby feeds like every hourly or so!!! it's killing me. and at night, she feeds between 3-5 hrs, much better than during the day.
 
generally during the day it can be every 1.5-3 hours. she goes to sleep by 8pm every night and wakes between 3-5am for 15 minute feed and back to sleep until 7-9am...has been this way for at least a month
 
Mintycat, you are doing really well! If you are determined to BF then it will all work out fine, your baby must almost be 3 weeks now and will start taking in more at each feed and last longer inbetween.

My boy was also sleepy and jaundiced and needed phototherapy, I had to supplement with a bottle but cut it out as soon as his weight was back up, the breasts take about 2 days to adjust to a new feeding requirement, and thus after 2 days of feeding every 1.5-2 hrs, he was back to needing to be woken for feeding (at least every 3 hrs to get your milk supply going initially, but if you are able to give so much EBM your supply sounds fine).

At 3 weeks, he took 7-15mins each feed, with the exception of one 30-40 min feed each day, took 8 feeds/day, gained wgt well, and still prefers the breast to bottle (much to my dismay as I am back at work and want him to take the bottle). It was a struggle for me and I don't think at your stage I was able to pump out nearly so much milk, so well done!

One good way to get up supply is after that feed, to pump from the breast your babe fed on first for that meal, just an extra 1/2 oz is good enough to stimulate more milk
 
Mintycat, don't worry, you are doing fine. One tip is make sure your baby is taking not only the front part of your breast milk, because he will get very hungry very quicky as the front milk are water and less fat. During the night if you are tired, it is important for you to get good rest in order to produce milk, so EBM during the night is a good idea if you have someone helps you. Babies get tired easier on the breast because they need more energy, so top up by bottle is also fine. It is much less work for a baby to have the bottle. However, they do fall in sleep a lot, so don't worry. I have twins and they are 13 months now and I have been breastfed both of them until 6 months and EBM aftter until now. They have not taken any formula so far.
 
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