Preemie sleep!

Dorothyo4

My baby boy was born October 22 at 33 weeks, and he had a 2 week NICU stay. Just would like to hear any tips or success stories of parents who have gone through having their preemie not sleep well at all. My son will get up about every 45 minutes to an hour and a half all night long. At around 3 if I finally sleep with him he will go a 2.5 to 3 hour stretch but that's it. He is currently sleeping In a cosleeper attached to our bed. He would not sleep in his bassinet or crib. Just looking for some hope that things will get better, I know it takes some time with preemies!!!!

Missa_g

By my calculations you are just about to your EDD, right? He is a newborn and newborns don't sleep well. At this age there isn't much you can do and frequent wakings are normal.

Dorothyo4

Yes December 9th! And I know that he's basically like a newborn now, just wondering as time passes if anyone has any tips or stories :-)

LaciJaxx

Is he getting full or falling asleep while eating? How is he sleeping during the day?

Kelly_12

They say the newborn frequent wakings last for about the first six weeks.. My LO was 6 weeks early and was up every hour or two all night long every single night for the first 3.5months.. So I figure his 6 weeks early plus 6 weeks as a "newborn" took me that long to get him to sleep longer.

At about 4 months he started to do longer stretches, 4-5 hours at once and then some nights as much as 6-7 hours and then up to eat and back down for 3 more. However this is not every night, but a huge increase in sleep from the first several months.

Unfortunately I think he's teething and we are back to getting up every hour or two this week.

Not what you wanted to hear I'm sure, but know that 6 weeks after his due date there was significant improvement. Basically overnight with no changes from me.

My LO struggles with severe reflux tho and I always thought that was part of the reason for the frequent wakings.

Dorothyo4

I am working on full feedings with him but he def eats for about ten minutes on each side as a minimum. He sleeps pretty well during the day, maybe too well! But I know he needs his rest.

Kelly_12

Does he seem gassy at night? Remembering more from those first 3 months..he was always gassy and I thought waking with pains from that too. Their little digestive systems aren't where they should be yet.

Throw3ks

My DD is 15actual/5adjusted and she is just now starting to sleep one 4-6 stretch at night. Otherwise it up every 2-3 hours.

Dorothyo4

He is definitely gassy, we hear it and he grunts and fusses more at night than any other time. I bought these drops called tummy calm that don't seem to be helping much, any other suggestions on what I can use?

Pips09

Unfortunately, there's not much you can do. An extended newborn phase comes with a longer period of newborn sleep. My suggestion, apart from there being a medical reason, is to just ride it out until he's older. I feel that 6 months adjusted is the earliest you can really try to work on sleep issues.

I will say that moving my newborn from a flat bassinet to an inclined RNP helped us, so you can try changing his sleeping location and see if that helps.

conradtn

For the gas issues...we hold DD upright 30 minutes after she eats to help her tummy settle.

Throw3ks

We just use infant gas drops. My daughter had a reaction to colic calm and other gripe water products. These seem to work fine for her.

Kelly_12

For our gas troubles we used gas drops as well as I gave him probiotic drops. My pharmacist said gripe water does nothing for gas and to not even bother.. She told me stick with the Ovol gas drops and that's what helped I think.

He also sleeps on an incline. Tried to work out the gas best I could before bed with extra bicycling of his legs, tummy time etc. Honestly tho I don't think anything we did was a cure, helped yes but not a fix.
It was like a lightbulb turned on for him at 6 weeks adjusted. He was just less gassy and slept better.

LaciJaxx

I second the sleeping on an incline.

Our LO was also super gassy until about 6 weeks adjusted. Then it seemed to ease up. I finally caved in and got gas drops but they just gave him a little relief. I didn't give them as often as stated though because I had heard they can cause constipation.

Good luck. Hang in there