Tips for making baby alert enough to feed?

[TrixieLox]

Our little one was born on Saturday at 36+4 weeks. I know this isn't as premature as others, but she's still considered premature so was hoping to get some advice here.

The problem we're having is she's not putting on enough weight. She latched well and BF for a bit but it just wasn't giving her enough food. So we went onto formula and things really improved. However, now we're home, we're struggling to keep her alert and awake enough to feed her the required 50ml every 3 hours. She often falls asleep and by the time she's finished, it'll only be an hour until her next feed!

I've heard of things like stripping her down, tickling her feet, changing her, winding her... anything else?

And anyone else been / going through this?

 

[Fleur29]

Congratulations on the birth of your daughter! She sounds similar to my preemie dd born at 34+4 (who is now a huge 19 month old!) anyway one thing that worked for us - when you feed her, hold her a bit away from your body rather than cuddling her in, if that makes sense?! We also used to strip Isabel down and tickle her feet - good luck, I remember those early days so well, worrying about getting enough milk into her. It does get easier! Xx

 

[MummyMana]

We had the exact same problem, they wouldn't let us out of the hospital until she started feeding properly so we were pretty desperate... She wouldn't wake for feeds so we'd change her nappy to wake her up (she hated having her feet taken out of the sleepwear bless her), and tried tickling her feet and wiggling the bottle to keep her going, but we still had the same problem... Then all of a sudden her feeding picked up literally overnight just persevere, try all the tips, get her to drink as much as you can and don't stress, she won't be like this forever! My little bab who took nearly 2 hours to drink an oz is now draining 8oz bottles I hope things improve for you soon

 

[AP]

We had to try it all, tickling, again we held her away from us rather than into us cuddling.

 

[TrixieLox]

Thanks, everyone. It's a tough old slog. She has been better today though so we've been grabbing every opportunity when she's alert to feed her! I feel bad about not breast-fedding too but it's just not giving enough and struggling to express I know perseverance is key but just wanna focus on getting her fattened up and focusing on formula and not having to focus my energies on expressing every 3 hours seems to be the way forward.

Anyway, midwife tomorrow and really hoping and praying my little girl won't be readmitted to hospital again, especially before father's day. It will really upset my hubby.

Anyway, must look on the positive side, she came out screaming, didn't need to go into neo-natal and we had her home after 5 days.

 

[AmyB1978]

My lo was a 34 weeker, one of the NICU nurses gave me the best advice she told me that the stimulating them can actually cause the. To shut down when they are a preemie instead of,actually stimulating them. She reminded me how hard my lo,was working just to eat and to,wait 60 seconds from the last suck and then if she was still taking a break to pat her, etc. feeding we away from my body also helped when she was getting bottles and football hold when she was nursing. Giving er those 60 seconds helped so much. It was also feed often and little and very tiring but t does get better... They get older/ bigger and able to feed better. Good luck to you and congrats on the birth of your lo!