Preemie home and sleep help!

pattilynn206

Hi all, I have a 7 week DD who was born at 33 weeks and is doing very well, BUT will not sleep longer than 2 hours at night.  It's like she has an alarm that every 2 hours she wakes up to eat!  She's been home for a month so it's not like I just brought her home.  According to books, I should be calculating her age from her due date which was this past Sunday...so does that mean I shouldn't expect her to get longer sleep times for another 6 weeks?!  Would love to hear from others with 33 weekers (or around that!)...just don't know what to do.  I love her to death and i'm blessed to have her but this every 2 hour thing is KILLER.  

 

Also...where is the link to get the tickers and pictures on my profile...I can't find it on here!! 

MaybeMore

Mine was a bit later than yours--34wks--but he needed body contact to sleep for the first 6 months.  He woke up every hour at first because he was always hungry.  After a couple of weeks, it became 2 hours.  Co-sleeping kept me from suicide!  Or flight!

pattilynn206

Thanks for the reply...6 months!! Shoot me!  I have had her sleeping on my chest at times but I don't sleep well that way and want her to learn how to sleep on her own without me.  I keep her on me during the day for therapeutic purposes but I just don't know what to do at night!  And it seems she doesn't like to lay flat...so if i co-sleep I have to basically sit up a bit.  Was it hard to transfer him to a crib after you co-slept for 6 months?

jteneback

Yeah, that sounds about right.  My DD was born at 34 weeks and was up every couple of hours until she was 12-13 weeks old, and often up for serveral hours at a time in the middle of the night.  Luckily when I went back to work she started sleeping much better.  It's hard, but you will get through it, and then the time will fly by!

We also bed-shared (just the two of us) while I was on leave and it helped both of us get better sleep.  She often slept on my chest and she has been able to gradually transition away from that without a big problem.  She now sleeps in her swing or in the co-sleeper next to me.  She's too big to sleep on top of me! 

Just give her what she needs for now, which may be different than what term babies are doing.  I got a lot of flak for letting her sleep on me but it's what she needed at the time and she's not co-dependent or anything now!

darkblue

 My son was born at 35 weeks.  He did not sleep more than 3 hours (and that was MAX) until about 4 months or so.  He also had horrible colic.

 I hate to say it, but it might be a while before she sleeps longer.  

I wish I had asked for more help...maybe your mom or mil can help while you get a few hours sleep??

healthynut

Mine came home about two weeks before their due date (they were 31 weekers).  I was told to count their due date as a newborn and go from there.  So I figured I wouldn't be getting an increase in sleeping for at least 6 - 8 weeks and I was right.  I would say I got them to about 4 hour stretches after 6 or 7 weeks some.  I remember for a fact that we were down to just one feeding a night when I went back to work, so that was about 8 or 9 weeks after their due date.  Good luck!  I promise this part ends and you sleep again one day.  Promise.

pattilynn206

Thank you everyone!  I'm looking forward to the longer stretches!!!  I'm also looking forward to her first amazing smile...guess I have another month for that as well  

lemen99

We had the opposite issue with both boys :-) But, definitely adjust age and I think she'll be sleeping longer soon.  Be sure to put her down awake so she can put herself to sleep - good habits now can make a great sleeper later. Both of my kids are amazing sleepers.