5 wks premature

[TheStorySoFar]

Sorry for short message but typing L handed while feeding. DS born at 35wks. He was a bit slower to smile & gurgle (9-10wks born). He's now12.5 wks born & responding & initiating smiles/ chat. My query is regarding feeding (maybe the wrong place to post though). Will his growth spurts occur at his birth age or his corrected age? And his sleep; will he feed/sleep like a newborn for longer? TYIA

My DD was born at 33 weeks and her development was in line with her corrected age. (We had to wait about 3 months for a smile, which felt like bloody hard work!!)

Apart from weaning (which we were advised to start based on birth age), everything seemed to go with corrected age. After a while (about 1 yo I think) we couldn't tell any more as there is so much variation between children anyway.

There is a MN prem babies topic where you might get more responses:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/premature_birth

Mine were 31 weekers and ditto what Happy said. Everything development wise was on adjusted age apart from weaning which was on actual age.

They are nearly three now and everything is back to actual age, I think we stopped referring to adjusted age after they started walking which was at 18 months actual.

DD was a 34 weeker and did everything on corrected age development wise (sitting, crawling etc)

However in terms of growth spurts and sleep it was all a mess unpredictable. She had tongue tie which screwed everything up for the first 4 months.

I have read however that late prems often catch up weight very quickly - which I guess would mean they must have more growth spurts than average?

For example my experience was that DD was born on the 50th centile (just under 5lb which is average weight for a 34 weeker), then dropped to 25th while in hospital and tracked that until about 3/4 months when she started jumping centiles and by about 9 months she was on the 75th centile and now tracks that. So basically some big growth spurts from about about 4 months onwards. However it's possible those growth spurts would come earlier in a non tongue tied baby.

In terms of feeding frequency, as a matter of common sense I would expect prems would feed like a newborn for longer, simply because they are smaller for longer and so can't feed as much in one go.

I remember wondering the same as you - how do I adapt all those week by week sleep/feed/routine charts to my prem DD. The short answer is you can't really. You have to be guided by your baby a bit more than a parent of a full term baby, as your baby is rather further from the "textbook" iyswim.

Sorry bit of an essay there!

I agree with minipie - even in term babies these growth spurts happen at different times give or take a few weeks so at 5 weeks early you may find things happen within the 'normal' range. My little girl was born at 35 weeks and the sleepy newborn stage lasted 9-10 weeks then over Christmas (born early Nov) went nuts for feeding and has gradually climbed centiles ever since. At six months now she is rolling, almost sitting up and at 50th centile for weight (uncorrected). So they can catch up quick but there is such huge variability anyway and babies change week on week so try not to overthink milestones, growth spurts etc (taken me 6 months to do that!). Congratulations.

PS as you mentioned sleep specifically, she is sleeping through most nights 8-6 and has been from 5.5 months. Naps are still a little challenging but easier to deal with a challenge when you are getting sleep at night

My DD's weight gain was certainly not typical and caused our neonatal team (and me & DH) some headaches early on... I've found her "red book" and here's a rough summary:
born 33 wks on 50th %-ile
up to 39 wks: weight unchanged, dropped to below 0.4th %-ile
39 - 42 wks: climbed own %-ile line below 0.4th (hospital dr helpfully mentioned starvation...)
42 - 50 wks: gradually climbed to 9th %-ile (corrected age)
50 - 62 wks: followed 9th %-ile line
62 - 80 wks (=~10.5 months since birth): climbed to 75th %-ile
now at 2 1/2 yo on 91st %-ile, so very healthy!

So it was entirely unpredictable. Not sure that really helps you!

DS1 born at 33 weeks. Similar to Happy. At first we did notice a delay in terms of smiling and sitting up (although he did have a big head which is also common for premmies I think). But both our boys have always been very physical and so that hasn't really been noticeable. Perhaps a bit of speech delay but he certainly made up for it when he got talking at 18 months!

As they approach 1st birthday, gaps become smaller and smaller. Weight wise, he had properly caught up to actual age - more around 75th centile actual age, like he had started on for corrected age, if that makes sense. Didn't notice any difference sleep wise, but now that we've had no.2 I see just how hard a time I had with breastfeeding DS1 which I am pretty sure was due to being premmie...