Second baby questions

[willsmum]

Morning everyone

My second baby a DD arrived last monday so is now just 6 days old.  She was delivered at 39 weeks by elective section, weighed 6lb 2 (now 5 lb 13) and has a touch of jaundice that we are just treating through feeds and light.

My DS was alot bigger and was in NICU (for group b strep) for a week and just seemed to arrive able to do EASY!

I am aware that she is still so young (not really even meant toMorning everyone.

I just wanted to check a few things are with all those experts out there.
 be born yet) and therefore just to take it all as it comes but we would like to start to put some EASY type structures in place.  I am finding it a bit difficult despite reading the books again because she seems so small to me and obviously wanting to get rid of the jaundice.

She is an excellent feeder (BF) and seems very chilled like her big brother was. They are not worried about the jaundice as she wakes well for feeds and is alert etc.  Because of her size and the jaundice we decided to feed every 2 hours and that is going ok.  She seems to want to do the same at night however and I am wondering how we start to get her to go a bit longer at night.  I naively thought that the 2 hour feeds in the day would combat this   

Our plans are to;

Start to try and do EASY during the day a bit more.  She is not keen really on this at the moment.  It is looking more like EAESY which obviously not the way we want it.  Is it a case of perseverance at this age and weight and offer that top up feed before sleep for a few more weeks if she needs it or wants it?  It is feeling really cruel at the moment to insist on shush pat to sleep rather than feed which I didn't feel with DS so not sure why I feel that way?

Continue with the 2 hourly feeds - but for how long? 

The jaundice is resulting in quite horrible poos which don't bother her but we can really hear.  We really don't like to leave her like that but as it seems to be after alot of the feeds we are up changing her too after each feed, which unsettles her. 

My DS is being a star and it all seems to be quite easy from that point of view (he is 3 so that makes it easier with understanding etc) so we are not really limiting noise during the day.  Once we start to properly start trying to shush pat rather than feed to sleep should she be away from the actual room he is in.?

Thanks for any help
x

[empowered mama]

Hi there hun,

I personally would encourage you to go with the flow of your new LO since she is so very young yet.  Especially in light of the jaundice and somewhat low birth weight, I don't know how beneficial it would be to put her on a feed schedule.

Not sure what others might recommend, but I would think somewhere between 1 and 2 months might be appropriate and more feasible for implementing the EASY routine.  But kudos to you for thinking ahead - I would imagine in a few more weeks you could start to stretch the feeds to more like 3 hrs.

HTH