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Premature birth

Connect with others and find premature birth support.

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Original poster

34 week preemie & sleep

18 replies

Belmanlady · 10/09/2018 21:07

Hey guys. This may sound a very silly and premature question (pun not intended) but my lo is 8 weeks old (2 weeks adjusted) and I am struggling with lack of sleep. I am just wondering when your preemies went longer between feeds and slept longer? My DS is feeding (ff) every 3 hours, between 4-5ozs on each occasion. He weighs 9lb 14 at 8 WEEKS.
TIA

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ShakeVigorously · 10/09/2018 23:10

My 35 week dd's fed every 4 hrs and slept for 10hours a night from 6 weeks!
My 34 week ds is a little toad and feeds every 2-3 hours during the day still, at 17 weeks! But he started doing 8 hr stints in the night at about 12 weeks.
They're all different and develop at different rates, it would be lovely if there was a little manual that came with them wouldn't it ?
It does get easier

Thetimehascometo · 11/09/2018 00:27

Dd is a 34 weeker. She is now at 14 weeks (8 adjusted) just going 6 hours at night... it’s been a long slog of 3 hourly feeding up to this point 💤💤

Sorry they’re tiny dictators! If our DD wants feeding the whole street knows! 🙊😂

Thetimehascometo · 11/09/2018 00:28

Ps, amazing work on the weight! DD still isn’t that big. What was his birth weight?

Original poster

Belmanlady · 11/09/2018 05:42

I can cope with the feeding through the day, it's the night that's a killer, especially when I can't turn my brain off once he goes back down . He will get there in the end just need to keep reminding myself it's just a phase (like people keep telling me)
Thanks for the support, helps hugely at this time of the morning

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Original poster

Belmanlady · 11/09/2018 05:44

He was 5lb 8 born so a very good weight for a pre term baby and with no stay in neonatal I felt very lucky. He has been suffering with lots of wind on his tummy lately and has been sick more often so just hoping his weight keeps shooting up

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Freddiesgirl · 16/09/2018 21:01

I have a 33 weeker who didn't go longer than 3 hours until he was about 4 months old (sigh)...it will happen eventually and it's wonderful when it does!

Original poster

Belmanlady · 17/09/2018 02:23

Did you have baby in a bedtime routine @Freddiesgirl ? I'm struggling with one currently due to his feeds ranging from every 3 to every 4ish hours
TIA

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More2Fly · 17/09/2018 02:57

Sounds like you're doing great and he's feeding well. My 12 week old who was born at 42 weeks still feeds every 2 hours 😂

Freddiesgirl · 17/09/2018 06:48

We did, we struggled for the first couple of days with very little sleep then our outreach nurse suggested the following:

daytime naps in an adjoining room (he was struggling to get to sleep because of the noise we think)
do a bedtime room around 7pm (although actually we were more like 5.30/6pm due to such frequent feeds)
again we then put him in an adjoining room until he woke up for his next feed at about 8.30/9pm when I would go to bed and take him with me.

Also, for a while when I was really sleep deprived my husband would take the 11ish feed with a bottle of ebm, so I would go and sleep in another room after the 8.30ish feed until my LO woke up again about 1am.
After the 9am ish feed I would do daytime things to make sure he knew it was daytime!

I know routines don't help a lot of people and they are so little (ours was only 5lb when we bought him home at 3 weeks old) but we found trying to have some vague day and night routine really helped us. I suppose you have to do what you have to do!

HTH

Rtmhwales · 17/09/2018 06:56

I’m jealous that you have no NICU stay! Mine was 31+6 and even though he had zero issues it’s policy in my country that they absolutely have to stay until 35weeks.

That said, mine is 13 weeks (5 weeks adjusted) and is only making it max 5.5 hours at night, he started that about two weeks ago (3 week’s adjusted) and before that it was every 2h45m like clockwork. So we’re getting there slowly. Would love to hear how you get on!

MiniMaxi · 17/09/2018 07:01

DS born 33+6 (now 2!) and yeah it’s tough isn’t it! Basic rule of thumb is you need to add those 6 weeks on to any milestones - so e.g. my son smiled at 12 weeks when normally it’s around 6. Same goes for sleep I guess.

From memory we fed him (formula as I couldn’t BF) even 2h through the night for what seemed like forever but was probably 2-3 months before he started going longer.

Oh and watch out for reflux / silent reflux as it’s v common in prem babies and can strike after a couple of months. Our GP prescribed ranitidine which was very helpful.

Well done for everything you’ve achieved so far and keep going!!

Original poster

Belmanlady · 17/09/2018 08:38

@Freddiesgirl
That sounds very much like our routine, my partner does the feed around 11 so I get 3 hours uninterrupted sleep. Just keeping my fingers crossed more sleep comes soon. Thanks for sharing your experience

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Freddiesgirl · 17/09/2018 08:46

Good luck! It does get better, but it certainly felt like a long time coming...!

tiredmama1 · 17/09/2018 09:03

It does get easier even if they don't sleep any longer! My preemie was about 2 months corrected before she slept anywhere but on me, it was exhausting. She's now 7 months corrected and still wakes every 3 hours... you do just get used to it weirdly.

Original poster

Belmanlady · 18/09/2018 10:21

@tiredmama1
Wow!! How have you managed?? Well done!! I'm thankful my LO generally settles well in his crib during the night so I get an hour or two!

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Original poster

Belmanlady · 05/11/2018 09:31

Hi all.
Just wanted to check in to see how you are all doing.
So LO is now 4 months actual and we have only been having one night feed for the past 2 weeks 😁 he feeds at 7:15pm, settled at 8pm and then will wake at 1:30am for feed then back down. Only issue now is he makes a lot of noise at 4:30am every morning, grunting and little crys but when i get up to check his eyes are closed but seems uncomfy. He will generally go back off to sleep until 5:45/6am so grateful for that. I'm just inside what's causing him to wake/be uncomfortable at that time of the morning 🙄

How are you all getting on?
Xx

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Monopo1y · 30/11/2018 14:40

We are just starting on this journey bringing our 34 seeker home on Monday after 3 weeks in nicu! So far he's waking every 4 hours for a feed. We started this routine in hospital and so far he's sticking to it. I do wonder if he'd take more though. I might try increasing his feeds by 10ml to see at what point he refuses. It would be nice if this made him go a little longer through the night.

We suspect our lo is suffering with reflux and he is on gaviscon. He was tried on Ranitidine but was discovered to being missing heart beats so this was stopped as a precaution. Since coming home he has become a very noisy sleeper, sounding very uncomfortable but he never cries. He makes lots of groaning/gurgling but always has his eyes shut throughout. Is this normal for a prem baby? This kept us up the night before last through worrying but last night, having taken him to be checked at the drs we tried to ignore it. He still woke for his feeds as before and generally seems well in himself.

Original poster

Belmanlady · 01/12/2018 17:33

@Monopo1y
Hey. Great that you are now home and 4 hourly feeds are really good at your lo's age. We didn't get to that point until he was 3 months old.

Our little one still makes lots of noise but generally only after his usual 4:30am brief wake up, it continues until he eventually wakes properly at 6am. Not sure what causes this as when he goes down at 7:30pm he is super quiet until he wakes for his night feed. Hoping he will grow out of it soon as it keeps me awake even with ear plugs

Hope you get some sleep soon x

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