Waking to feed and STTN?

cassiedianne

DD is 3 1/2 months now (born 5 weeks early at 4lbs with a 30 day NICU stay due to feeding issues).  When we left the NICU, they had her on an on-demand but must eat every 4 hrs feeding schedule, on 24 cal.  We've continued that same pattern since then.  

 She still only eats 3oz every feeding, 1-2oz in the middle of the night when we have to wake her up.  For one night when she was about 6 weeks old, we let her STTN to see how long she would sleep on her own.  She slept 8hrs and woke up on her own but still only ate 3oz.  Since she didn't make up for not eating in the middle of the night by eating more when she woke up, I felt like she wasn't getting enough calories, so we went back to the must eat every 4hrs thing. 

 She's gaining weight, though not super fast - she was 9lbs at the last weigh in.  She's now exclusively on BM so she's not getting as many calories as she was but her gassiness and spitting up has stopped so we're happy with that progress.

 I guess my question is at what point do we start letting her STTN?  Our next pedi appt is her 4 month shots in mid Feb and we'll definitely ask her then but I thought I'd ask you ladies first to see if you had any similar experience...

meldoo2002

We stopped waking to feed in the middle of the night when they were around the size of a "typical" baby ... 8 ish pounds.  But we also were on a 3 hour feeding schedule so they were probably getting 1-2 more feeds/day than your LO.  Is she waking to feed on her own throughout the day or are you always waking her?

haziedaze

I would talk to your pedi to be sure, but my guess is she would do fine if you let her set her own schedule. Even if she doesn't make up for it in the first feed of the day, she would likely catch up throughout the day. They actually did a study on preemies and found that even preemies end up taking in the same amount of calories after a day or two as babies who are awoken to feed. I'd ask sooner rather than later, because it would be nice if you could all get some more sleep!