Jay, this baby sounds just like my third child. . . except that at age
12 days, Gabriel was sleeping more like 23 1/2 hrs. per day!
Plus, I had no meds during labor (homebirth). I assume Gabriel was such
an extremely sleepy baby was because he was almost 4 wks. premature. He
did not even have a rooting reflex yet! talk about difficulty getting
him to nurse. . . as you describe life for about3 wks. consisted of
trying to rouse him. . . then working with him to latch on. . . trying
to keep him from stopping nursing as he dozed off again. then of course
it would soon be time to rouse him again and start over. . . one time it
took me 45. minutes to merely rouse him let alone nurse him. . . I even
rubbed an ice cube on his head once in desperation (he was born in VERY
hot summer time).
My question is : why is this mom feeding the baby EBM in a bottle , and
not just nursing directly? you mention that the latch on is good,. . .
When working with a sleepy baby, it is very time consuming and that is
pretty much what your life consists of. . . having to deal with pumping
and cleaning bottles just adds more to do. . . plus of course you know
about the nipple confusion issue. . . who needs that when you are
already dealing with a sleepy baby- that is enough to deal with already.
Possibley the labor meds are having an effect on the baby. . . but them
are a baby's who are simply sleepy for no obvious reason.
The important thing is to keep at it, rousing the baby every two hours
around the clock, and feeding. If it takes a while and some work to
rouse the baby, then the mom may have to be rousing more frequently so
that the time spend rousing does not start to cause the feeds to be too
widely spaced.
Believe me, it is a Big job . She needs a lot of support that it can be
done.It takes patience and perserverance to work with a sleepy baby.
The adage "babies won't let themselves starve" (something to that effect)
is not true with sleepy babies. They WILL just sleep and sleep unless
we grown-ups intervene.It is tempting to let a sleepy baby sleep too
long, since it gives the tired new parents a nice long break. . . but
they need to know that it isn't good for the baby.
I spent 3 weeks in my bedroom with my son, rousing and nursing, and
helping him to learn how to latch on. Thank goodness he was my third and
not first baby. . . or there could have been trouble with wt. gain or
dehydration.Plus I had a lot of confidence in my bfing ability and a lot
of bfing knowledge, since I had already nursed 2 babies.
There are lots of little tricks to rouse a baby. . . I'm sure you know
them.I found most of them DIDN'T work with Gabriel! I even held him in
from of an air conditioner vent once, in desperation.(didn't work),.What
worked was a lot of perservance, trying first once rousing method, then
another, and finally I would rouse him. . . same things did'nt work
everytime.He just wanted to sleep. . . I think he just wasn't ready to
deal with the world.
Also make sure the mom's HCP is seeing the baby regularly. . . to make
sure the sleepiness is just that and not caused by an underlying medical
problem.
We were so used to Gabriel's sleepiness. . . that when he developed
viral pneumonia at age 6 wks,we didn't notice the few symtoms he had
till it was almost too late. what we thought was his usual sleepiness
was extreme lethargy that was slowly becoming unconscioussness.He didn't
have any outward symptomns of pneumonia . . . expect for a tiny amount
of nasal secretion over a 4 day periods. no cough.. . no fever - later
learned that very young babies will get a decreased body temp. instead
of increased body temp.His was I think 96F when I got him to the ER.We
almost lost him. . . he was transferred to another hosp. by ambulance;
he was on a ventilator in PICU for 3 days, then in hosp. for another 5 ,
3 of those still receiving oxygen.
So, a reminder to keep an extra eye on the sleepy babies.
Plus, a reminder that even totally breastfed babies CAN get upper
respiratory tract infections.
Ellen, LLLL, Pittsburgh
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