Falling asleep while feeding...

[jonesso]

Hello experienced mummies!

I have a 2.5 week old who has no sleeping or feeding pattern yet. That's fine, however there are days when he "snacks", or so it seems - constant short feeds, falling asleep on the breast, but then waking up within 5 minutes of me putting him down and then he screams the house down for more food. He sucks on his fists and anything else that goes anywhere near his mouth with such gusto, but then is completely lazy feeding (either on the breast or a bottle, makes no difference), eats very little and dozes off. This pattern can go on for hours... about 5 hrs so far today! He's slept about a total of thirty minutes in that period...

Any suggestions? Or has anyone else experienced this?

Thanks.

[ThomasMum]

Hi Sonia,

From my experience with Thomas and from what I've been told, newborns may not seem at all interested in feeding at some stage esp for breastfed bubs. Perhaps it might still tired from all the 'dramas' ie. the physical stresses of labor and birth which sometimes it takes longer for newborns to recover, also they have such tiny tummy!

With Thomas I remember that the first month was so exhausting because of his demands, altho his sleeping patterns wasnt too bad tho

Eventually once bub will settle in with the world surrounds including the routines, the feeding patterns. Once these are established you'll be laughing!

Thomas was 2 months old when he finally 'picked' his patterns, sleeps after feed during the day for 45min-1 hr and one feed during nights up till now, so hopefully it won't belong for your lil one finally settle in and stick to the routines!

In meantime be patient, and try to introduce the 'pattern' say every 2 hrs apart feedings?

Good Luck!

[Kat]

Hi there,
my DD would feed almost constantly in her first 12 weeks. Plenty of people were there to tell me that she MUST have at least 2 hours between feeds or it was a bad habit but as soon as I ignored them and just fed her when she wanted for as long as she wanted (which turned out to be sometimes after 1/2 hour, sometimes up to 1.5 hrs, rarely less often in the day-time) then we were all happy, no crying, no unsettledness, very happy little girl and peaceful Mummy. However obviously that is very time consuming and it might be a bit of a culture-shock to find yourself a full-time milk-bar. Have you tried speaking to the ABA (nursing mother's) as I found them absolutely priceless when it came to any breastfeeding / settling concerns.
Regards
Kat