I feel totally lost right now!
My little boy was born prem at 28 weeks and spent his first 9 weeks of life in NICU. He came home being formula fed almost 2 weeks before his due date and has now been home for 8 weeks and is 6 weeks corrected age exactly.
He has been feeding well and putting on weight fantastically and has no medical complications. However, after having him home for about 2 weeks it became apparent that he was suffering from terrible reflux as well as generally very colicky. We did everything we could to help him by elevating his basket, adding thickener to his milk as well as colief and the dr prescribed rinitadine (antacid) however he would only sleep after a feed if he was being held completely upright. My partner and i took shifts for a few weeks to sleep whilst the other one held him. The reflux has now started to really improve with the help of all the measures put in place (thickener, colief, antacids) but we are now in a situation where he will not sleep unless he is being held by one of us. Inevitably this has meant he has come to bed with us which I am well aware is not ideal and i'm really not happy with the situation. We have had the lectures about the dangers of doing this and I am well aware that it's not great but I've tried for weeks to put him down in his basket or cot and he settles for anywhere between 5 and 20 minutes before starting to make noises and eventually crying. I've tried picking him up to soothe him until he is in a deep sleep and then put him down again but the same thing happens. I've also tried to just comfort him without picking him up but that doesn't work either. I have the same problem during the day and the only place he will snooze is in his bouncer chair that vibrates which i think comforts him. He can sleep 1 to 2 hours in this.
I basically feel like I've come to breaking point and feel so all over the place. I just cant see how we can get into a routine as he basically wants to be held all day and all night - even when he is awake.
Ive spoken to a few other mums who say they don't really have a routine yet and others do and i read conflicting things about whether its too early for this or not. I just can't see the wood for the trees right now as I'm so sleep deprived and barely get time to do anything like shower when I'm on my own with him. The whole taking him to bed stresses me out beyond belief and i feel like such a bad mum.
We did buy something called a babymoov that goes in his basket or cot. Its not quite the same as a sleepyhead but same sort of idea. we have thought about getting the sleepy head but its so much money to spend with no guarantee it will work.
Any thoughts or ideas from anyone out there are welcome.
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HELP! No routine and wont't sleep alone - prem baby now 6 weeks corrected
5 replies
IJ82 · 23/01/2015 02:06
OP posts:
SnoozeForKids ·
29/01/2015 04:25
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