Of course, the best way to avoid sleepy babies is to decrease the use of
narcotics during labour.  Meperidine (demerol) is one of the worse to
use because of its long half life.

However, finger feeding wakes up sleepy babies, and I use it a lot.  The
mother expresses milk (sometimes colostrum is much easier to express by
hand than by pump) and either gives it by finger feeding or mixes it
with sugar water and gives it by finger feeding.  The baby often starts
waking up within a very short time of starting the finger feeding.  Then
get the baby onto the breast.  If the baby does not wake up, at least he
has fed, and is more likely to wake up for the next feed.

Check finger feeding at:

http://www.erols.com/cindyrn/drjack0.htm

Jack Newman, MD, FRCPC