Prem baby sleep patterns and other concerns...

[Marymoo73]

My DD was 7 weeks prem, now 10 weeks, adjusted 3 weeks. SCBU got her into 4 hourly routine, which is fine and up to 5 nights ago was going through from 19:30 feed to approx 03:30 which was fab. However, she's now waking at midnight and again at 03:00 approx. Is this normal? HV suggested that when prem babies reach 40 weeks they "regress" slightly. She also suffers with trapped wind, for which we have tried all usual avenues..again HV now suggests reflux?! Am confused, tired and would welcome any advice, suggestions....

Is your dd bf or ff. If she's bf its very normal. My ds was in a 3 hourly routine, he came home at 37 weeks, buy his due date he woke up, by 3 weeks adjusted he was much closer to a demand fed newborn. Its only in the last week we've had a 5 hour gap between feeds and even then we since ave gone back to 10.30, 1.00 am, 4.30 am, friday night. then 10.30, 3.00am 5.30 last night. DS is 12 weeks adjusted now.

Yes, it is very common for them to regress.

My DS2 was 12 weeks early, and NICU got him into a 3 hourly routine, then when he came home at what would have been one week corrected he regressed to feeding hourly! It was very hard work for the first few weeks, but he did eventually settle back into a proper routine of three hourly feeds by about four or five weeks corrected.

deemented was he ff... i can't seem to get my ds past 2 -2.5 hours apart from odd feeds. at night I can but not during the day. he's feeding again now 2 hours after his last feed which was 20+ mins plus 3 oz ebm...

When he first came home he was on EBM in a bottle - he was a lazy sod and wouldn't latch on for love nor money, then when he was about sixteen weeks corrrected i was persuaded to put him on formula ad he went onto nutriprem2.

It is hared work right now, but it will get easier, honestly.

The waking thing sounds completely normal. Why does the HV think your dd has reflux? Are there any symptoms other than trapped wind? My dd was 10 weeks prem and had pretty bad reflux from week 8 til around week 16. She was still being sick til around 10 months old but all the other symptoms had gone (pain during feeding and discomfort after evidenced by crying/arching of back, gulping +++ to try and alleviate pain but making it worse in the process, being sick after every feed, offensive smelling wind, a lot of wind, unable to settle unless on tummy (initially would only sleep on my chest)). She started sleeping through when she was 10 months which I was pretty happy with tbh, but was in a routine well before this (feeding once or twice between bedtime and morning wake up). It does get better

I think it's normal, although my HV and sCBU nurses didn't call it "regression". As I understood it, getting milk becomes more important than staying asleep. They stop being so weak that they sleep through the hunger, IYSWIM. At least, that is what happened in our house.

Then after a while of waking very frequently, the baby stops being all skinny!