6 weeks and baby not doing much...

[LadyRenoir]

Ok, so to set the scene, my baby came 4 weeks premature at 36 weeks.
No one knows whether this will impact his development, or to what extent.
He is doing some things right (lifting his head, he sometimes crawls up my chest , albeit when he is very hungry, but can definitely do a good climb up a go!).
His hearing test in hospital looked fine, but he does not seem to be reacting to my voice or that of my partner, no cute cooing sounds or smiling when seeing us which apparently is meant to be happening now-ish. He has cracked a few smiles, or at least that's what we hope he did, but not something that occurs often. When should we be getting worried, or start looking if all is well|?

Oh bless you, this reminds me of a post I made at a similar stage (DD was born at 37 weeks). The fact is - they don't do much for quite some time!! I have so many pics of poor DD covered in toys that I am clearly desperate for her to play with, when she has no idea what's going on... 😂

Your baby should be starting to smile, make eye contact and in the next few weeks starting to hold his own head up. That's about it for now.

Don't worry and just enjoy him and the cuddles. DD is now 2.5 and won't sit still on me for a minute - honestly you'll miss them when he's bigger so don't waste it worrying!

I think I was worried that he does not seem to be reacting much to our voices. We were told they should recognise our faces, and smile or make sounds when they see us, but our baby (we think) looks at us sometimes, or vaguely in our direction, but not much more than that.
Or maybe he is just not too excited to see us

My twins were born at 36 weeks. I don't think they smiled / cooed til past 8 weeks (as they had a check with the Gp at that point and I remember her saying not to worry as they were only 4 weeks corrected). They caught up tho, hit all milestones and are now normal active toddlers. Give your baby another month before you worry. 36 weeks is not very prem and there's no reason why that alone should cause developmental delays.

Ah bless you. My DS was born at 38 so was essentially full term but he didn’t do any of those things for quite a few weeks. He’s now a teen so just basically grunts but the school reports seem to suggest he can read and form a sentence

He’ll be fine. Concentrate on looking after yourself, if you can and I’m sure he’ll be doing all of those things shortly

I had twins at 37 weeks. They were definitely a bit slower with early milestones than their older siblings eg supporting their head. But they soon caught up. Your son will be fine!