Small baby born at 36 weeks - question

[Angeldelight21]

My dd was born a week ago at 36 weeks due to placenta issue/ preeclampsia/ reduced growth. She is perfectly formed but very tiny (1750g) and we are still in the Neonatal unit due to her weight.

My only worry is that she sleeps all the time and she might latch for a couple of minutes only a day if I'm lucky. Will the sleepiness pass at all? Even during the pregnancy I did hardly feel her moving and was always worried if something was wrong.

I'm wondering if somebody had a similar experience with their baby and when was the feeding established?

Congratulations! My smallest triplet was around the same weight. My best tip for keeping them from sleeping too quickly when feeding was tickling their ears. Always seemed to work well with mine. Mine are 15 now its hard to imagine they were ever so tiny.

Just to say a big thank you for sharing your stories X

Hi @Angeldelight21 please persevere, it is completely normal and it is possible to establish breastfeeding. It is also hard and you have to accept that sometimes a bit of formula or not being able to breastfeed are not the end of the world.

My son was born at 35+2 and 2448g. He was hypoglycaemic and very sleepy and lost weight. But once we got the tube in things really improved. My tips would be to change nappy before feed, it will wake baby. Put baby to breast and allow to latch, pour milk in while on breast even if asleep. This way baby is associating your smell and being on the boob with being full, and it will help you with milk production and bonding. Try to do as much kangaroo care as you can. Have you got bonding squares/muslins that you swap between you and baby?

I pumped as soon as DS was fed so that I was stimulating a full feed and would then use that for the next feed. We did have a formula top up each day as I was very anaemic. We did eventually establish breastfeeding once the tube was out but it was 8 weeks before he was exclusively breastfed.

Still talk to and touch you baby etc and she will be more awake when she is ready. I remember looking at my son thinking, do something, anything, cry… He did though. He is nine now and doesn’t sit still.

Yes they sleep a lot because they should still be inside you . It will pass

Another vote for exploring finger feeding expressed milk. Is there a feeding specialist you can speak to?

My eldest was born at 35 weeks and was very sleepy for the first few weeks. She was treated for jaundice. I wanted to breastfeed so I had to wake her every 3 hours to feed, and also pump milk to get my supply going. It was very tough at the time but she was fully bf when we left hospital so it did work out. And by the time she was a few weeks old she had decided that sleep is for wimps

Hi OP

My baby (now four months old) was born a month early due to pre eclampsia and was growth restricted (4lbs9 at birth). He was extremely sleepy and couldn’t really suck well enough to feed from my breast at first. I expressed and fed him from a bottle every two/two and a half hours. This was gruelling but can be done if you can rope in your partner to do the bottle sterilising and basically all other chores for you. In between feeds I would just cuddle him loads and offer him the breast often using a nipple shield (much easier for them to suck from when they are still so tiny). Occasionally I would remove the nipple shield to see if his latch had improved, and literally almost to the day of his original due date he started to be able to feed well without it, and I ditched the expressing and now exclusively breastfeed. So in my experience it really can be done, but when they are tiny and sleepy bottles are easier, and you need to be able to spend a lot of time just lying around with the baby doing nothing else. If that is possible for you then lean into it and try not to stress about it; if it isn’t possible, your baby will do just as well on formula.

If you have any other questions from
Someone who has very recently been in your position please feel free to pm me!