MoM's who had preemies...

Lilystar82

When did you start doing a schedule? Q and H are a little over 6 weeks old but still 39 weeks gestation. They are sleeping 4 hour stretches during the day and 6-7 hour stretches at night. They dont have a set schedule and are still sleeping quite a bit. Their awake time is gradually increasing - but is still signifigantly less than a "typical" 6 week old. I'm assuming since they were preemies - they need the sleep to keep developing?

bkjcwedding

Mine came home from the NICU on an 8-11-2-5 feeding schedule and slept most of the time unless they were eating.  We stuck with that until they were about 4 months old and they started letting them sleep a little longer between meals. I can't remember how old they were when they started being awake more, but now at 7 months they take 2-3 naps per day and eat about every 4 hours during the day. We never really pushed a schedule (other than the 8-11-2-5) but things just worked out. 

I can remember at around 6 weeks thinking that they were sleeping too much, but the pedi assured me it was fine. 

tSquared1987

We still aren't really on a "set" schedule. They eat about every 3-4 hours and are pretty consistant with it. They sometimes STTN. If they don't then they are up about every 4 hours. My boys still sleep quite a bit during the day also.

chickaboo1974

I let my boys set their schedule-to a point.  They wake when they want, eat and if they want to go back to sleep they do if not then we play.  Sometimes one will sleep and the other will be awake- so it is great for one on one time.  They are now taking a bottle 4 times a day- pretty much spaced out evenly, so the only thing that I schedule is bedtime.  We start the last bottle at 9pm.  They usually sleep until 5 am atleast- but it has been as late as  6am.  I am hoping they STTN by 4 months.  I have never had a problem with them sleeping, so like me I love my naps.

caitdana

My girls due date is tomorrow. They are both still under 6 lbs although they are over 12 weeks old. NICU and Pedi told us to keep them on a ever 3 hour schedule  until further notice, which would be around 7 lbs or so. Someone told me that preemies just sleep all the time. Sophia was up from 10 pm until aout 3:30 am last night. I like having the schedule and if I need to throw in an extra feeding I am flexible.

Leigh71

My girls are 6 months and still do not STTN.  Our Pedi and our Neonatologist asked that our girls stay on an every 3 hour schedule, until they were consistently gaining.

My LO Kate was IUGR, so she really needed the calories;; and still does.  If I let her sleep on her own timetable, she would miss a lot of feedings.  My girls were very tiny at birth, so feeding them every 3 hours was so important. 

jlc071903

our girls came home on a 3.5 hour schedule. We never moved them off of their NICU schedule, sure we adjusted the times to suit us better (moved from 4-8-12-4-8-12)  to a (6-10-2-6-10) schedule. The first feeding our girls dropped as they stretched out was their middle of the night feed, it was HEAVENLY.  WHen they we over 7 pounds, our pedi let us start to let them sleep at night until they woke us up, at first it was 4 1/2 hour stretches to 5 but quickly they stretched to 6 hours, which was nice (even though I was still getting up to pump, but I too stretched that pump to later and later so that I could sleep as long as they were.. They officially started sleeping through the night when they were 6 months actual, 4.months adjusted.