Excessive sleeping a sign of cerebral palsy?

[DuncanDisorderly]

There is a very high chance that my twins will have some form of cerebral palsy due to being born at 23 weeks.

One twin already has some degree of hypertonia and they are due to be assessed properly in a couple of weeks.

I was just wondering what other signs to look for, and particularly if sleepiness is a sign of anything. My babies are literally sleeping away their lives. They sleep 12 hours straight at night, and never manage more than two hours awake at a stretch during the day.

Today, for example - it's now nearly 4 and they were awake for an hour this morning then napped for three hours, awake for 2 hours and have now been sleeping for over two hours so that's only three hours total for the whole day so far.

Do you think this is something worth mentioning, or should I just thank my lucky stars? ;)

I should say they are now seven months, 14 weeks adjusted.

My DS was a very good sleeper when he was a baby, sadly he is not now. He was also born prem at 29 weeks and would regularly only manage 45 mins awake before a 1.5 hour nap. Do remember that they are only 14 weeks and the difference you'd expect in sleep from a 7 months and a 3 month old is quite a lot.

I was very worried about the amount of sleep but nobody seemed to think it was a problem, certainly DS could stay awake and did during all the physio etc that we had. When he decided to drop his 2 hour midday sleep at about 2.5 that was it, it went and he's never had a day time sleep since. Night time sleep has gone from as you describe, 12 hours straight to 2 or 3 times waking - due in his case to discomfort with his AFo's and fear .

They have had a rough start and I do think sleep is good for little ones, growing happens then!

23 weeks! wow!

First, congrats and all power to them - they have done so well.

As Hairy says, they've had a difficult start and had to work very hard, so have loads of catching up to do.

DS has CP with total body involvement. He was a term baby (difficult birth & serious illness at 2 days led to the CP) and he has never, ever slept through the night (he was 2 in June) and rarely sleeps for any length of time, unless he is ill.

So, difficult to say, but i would mention it, seeing as you have an appointment soon.

You could be just very lucky

Hope it goes well x

Hi, congratulations on your babies, 23 weeks is amazing. I have never heard of excessive sleeping being a sign of CP, my DS has CP and was certainly never a big sleeper, especially during the day. Maybe it is just because they were born so early and need all that sleep as they are still recovering. After all we don't expect an adult who has gone through some major accident or illness to suddenly be totally recovered with a few short months, and your little ones must have been through a lot.

my 27 weeker was and is a big sleeper , he has CP but i have never heard of a connection. Many congrats on the twins, well done to you.

Don't know about CP but many friends with preemie babies said that they slept a lot for the first few months...
Congratulations on your twins! They are doing so well.

My DD was starved of oxygen following an abruption at term. She had fits at 24 hrs after birth and has some brain damage resulting in hypotonia (trunk area). After her birth she slept for a month without really waking up - not even for a feed. She was a sleepy baby until about 6 months old.

She 3 now and sleeps like a dream at night - 12 hrs usually. She is a really active child despite her difficulties and tires herself out!

Hi, my son was born at 27 weeks, he will be 6 months actual/3 months adjusted tomorrow. He was in hospital for 5.5 months, has spent a long time on ventilator and is still on oxygen now at home. He also sleeps A LOT and sometimes I worry if this is normal. But everyone tells me it's normal so I try not to worry about it too much. He'll sleep for 12 hours at night and then have several naps during the day, although never longer than 45 minutes. I suppose it's like OP said, they have so much to recover from and sleep is good for them.

Its so hard to know what's 'normal' and what isn't with prem babies. Good luck with your twins! x

I think it is linked to prem babies rather than CP. ds2 was born at 28 wks and I remember taking him to the DR'S whn he was 18mths old as he was still sleeping constantly!

He does have very mild CP & Autism & doesn't sleep much at all now :( (he's 7)
His friends who have CP, particularly those with more severe CP tended to be poor sleeperes and more restless babies. SO not ehard of a link with CP?

yeah ds was a 26 weeker and slept loads up till he was about 18 months, now the nights he sleeps right thru are few and far between so my advice would be not to worry about the sleeping, sleep is good for growing bodies and make the most of the sleeping while you can...just incase!

I was also going to add, alhough it's of little comfort, I don't know many people with DCs with CP who sleep very well. My DS is good and will sleep through the night most nights (though it varies a lot) but since he was little he never ever slept during the day for more than half an hour, which gets very tiring.

Seriously, try to rest while you can if they are sleeping a lot just now.

ds is however rather fond of a wee hours nap after lunch in school!