Brand new baby and EASY

[GG]

My dd is 1 week old. She started off her life pretty loudly - the first thing I noticed about her was her 'voice' - but she seems to have calmed down this past week. She doesn't cry much these days, which I consider a blessing (trust me, I am not complaining).

My question is if you could tell me if I'm starting her off right.  I didn't find the BW book until DS was 3 mo, so I don't have that experience with 0-3 mo newborns.

Basically, I have dd on a 2 hour EASY (per Tracy's recommendation since she was born jaundiced and isn't 6.5 lbs yet) however, if she wakes up sooner, I feed her again. I just need my little girl to gain weight at this point (her weight dipped after she was born, which is normal, but it hadn't started going up yet).

I'm trying to keep her awake for a little bit after she eats, so that she doesn't learn to fall asleep while bf'ing. I'm having trouble keeping her awake while eating, though. That little girl can sleep! Any suggestions on how to keep her awake while nursing, other than talking to her or getting her down to her diaper for some skin contact?

I haven't done the temperament test yet since I don't quite feel comfortable labeling her. A few days ago I would quickly have said she was probably spirited but now I'm thinking she may be an angel or textbook baby. I'll wait until I get to know her better.

Anything I'm missing??

[LŠuren]

Hi Georgia,

Congratulations 

I started DS on EASY when we left the hospital, he was 5 days old and feeding every 3 hours anyway so that made it so much easier to implement EASY. I was initially breastfeeding, however his weight dropped so bad we where both kept in hospital until his weight increased with formula top-ups.  Calum was a sleepy boy and kept falling asleep on the breast and NO amount of waking (even being stripped to his nappy) would make him wake up.

I think the main thing is not to be so hard on yourself, I think (from talking to other mums) it can take until they are 3 or 4 weeks to get onto a routine that resembles EASY. My friend breastfeed as well, her DD feed every hour from her day and night, gradually over 3 weeks she increased to every 3hours day and night.

Georgia, I think you should concentrate on getting her weight up, being doing exactly what you are currently doing and look to get on EASY in a few weeks time. Hopefully then her weight will be up and you can start to extend feeds.

I think you are doing really well, especially as I see you are still managing to post on here   

Take care and gets lots of rest.

[GG]

I'm not worried too much on getting her on EASY right away.  I know that, right now, the 2 things she needs most are food and sleep, and that's what I'm concentrating on moreso than if she's staying awake for her "A" time. However, it is hard to get her to latch on to nurse while she's sleeping so I do need to wake her a little for that, just until she starts sucking.

Thank you for the advice, Lauren!

(btw... because the baby sleeps a good amount and because I had help last week, I was able to log on for snippets of time throughout the day.   We'll see how things continue as they both get older.)