11/10/2021
Have you ever taken a nap and slept way harder than you wanted to? And then for the rest of the day you feel like you are trying to get out of a fog? This is what a newborn experiences shortly after being born.
A lot of times you will find that the first feeding right after delivery your baby does really great and then after that they seem to hit a major decline. Well, think of it like this….It’s almost like after delivery, your baby gets a surge of adrenaline, they’re excited to experience this new world they just entered into, and then out of nowhere, the birthing experience hits, and they realize just how tired they actually are. They just went through a lot!
It takes a newborn about 24-48 hours to get out of this sleepy fog. They will come in and out of it to eat occasionally, but you may find it really difficult to get them awake and also difficult to keep them awake once they are at the breast.
So what do you do in the meantime? Well, the first thing I would recommend would be to do lots of skin to skin with your baby! You CANNOT do this too much. This keeps them close to the kitchen and being close to you also helps them conserve energy so they won’t be quite so sleepy (more on this tomorrow!)
The next thing is SUPER important….you need to start “talking” to your body! In order for the milk making to really get kick started, your breasts need stimulation and milk removal. If your baby is not doing this quite yet you will be doing your milk supply a HUGE favor by stimulating your breasts frequently. The more frequently you stimulate and remove some of that nutrient rich colostrum, the more your body starts to make. And if you can give your baby a little extra colostrum, that’s a big bonus as well!
The easiest and most efficient way to do this would be with hand expression, something you can ask your nurse or the hospital lactation consultant to teach you!
So for those of you mammas who have been through this already, what was your experience with the sleepy baby fog??
