Premie at home and noisy all night long

7 replies

Starmer82 · 09/12/2016 08:29

My son has been home from the neonatal for almost three weeks. He was born at 30 weeks plus 6 and he is now 6 weeks old or 37 weeks corrected.

Has anyone got experience or any tips on how to adjust baby at night? He makes noise all night until about 4.30 am. I've been told this is because he is used to the noise of the neonatal and is compensating for the quiet of our home at night. I have tried so many things: leaving the radio on; we've bought Ewan the Sheep; put the TV on quietly; put a night light on; and a dummy.

Any advice welcome, I have a four year old son so sleeping in the day is not an option!

OP posts:

LuchiMangsho · 09/12/2016 08:36

I don't have any experience of premature babies but newborns are v v noisy. They grunt and make noise at night. Is he awake when he is making these noises or are they more disturbing for you than for him? If his body clock hasn't adjusted then napping in bright light in the day and total darkness at night night help. It takes about 40 days to learn night/day.

GoofyTheHero · 09/12/2016 08:40

My non premie did this, you have my sympathies. She would grunt/snuffle/whinge all night. Literally. The only way we managed to deal with it was that I slept in the spare room and DH slept in with her, as he could sleep through the grunting. She was BF so he just shouted me when she needed a feed. I had a 20 month old too so couldn't sleep in the day.

Original poster

Starmer82 · 10/12/2016 07:52

Thank you for your messages. We had a bit of a better night last night. The Neonatal Outreach said he may have silent reflux which is quite common. We put him in his bouncy chair during his usual time for being restless and he slept so much better. There is jope

OP posts:

scrumptiouscrumpets · 10/12/2016 12:55

There is an old thread about this on the preemie board. It's common for newborns to be noisy but even more so for preemies. DS 1 was like this, he kept me awake the whole night with his grunting and straining. Luckily, he grew out of it not long after his due date. How about trying earplugs? I find they don't block out loud noises,so you'd still hear him crying.

Pointeshoes · 10/12/2016 13:07

Our twins were really bad when bought them home in June for the first couple of weeks they started waking up at bedtime! Looks like your trying everything possible - we had Ewan and a dull lamp on the landing. They were so used to sleeping with bright lights and noise I think it was just too quiet for them. We had them in bouncers until 4/5 months in the evenings until we went to bed so we could keep them asleep by rocking ! They both have reflux so had to be upright after a feed. We've also got a older son who's 6 - the routine of school drop offs kinda helped with settling them into a routine of naps though.

MiniMaxi · 11/12/2016 18:38

Congratulations on your new(ish) arrival!

Our LO was born at 33+6 and was also very noisy when placed flat on his back in his Moses basket - but hardly at all when he sleeps in his Cocoonababy which places him at an angle. He does have silent reflux so perhaps that does have something to do with it.

Perhaps raise the head end of the bed a little?

For noise I've found a great white noise thing on YouTube which has been more effective than Ewan - but doubt you'd want it running all night!

sweetchilli77 · 12/12/2016 10:09

My baby was born at 28 weeks. once home (on oxygen) the noises where so loud. All night. Grunting, sounds like a lamb....i can laugh now but it was constant. This was going on whilst she was sleeping. So awake to feed then we was awake with the grunting.
The neonatal nurses said its so common with premature babies.

She came off the oxygen at 5 months (8 week old corrected ) and things faded out and now she sleeps peacefully.

We play white noise while she drops off and it seems to work

Flip