Community› The Bump Message Boards› Preemies
Preemies
New Discussion

awake time/play time

morganoremorganore
in Preemies

How long does your preemie stay awake/how old/and what do you do? 

My DD still sleeps an awful lot during the day...and when she's awake and not eating/wanting to eat, I try to talk, sing, play music, read, walk around the house or outside, put her on her play mat or swing or bounce chair and do a little tummy time. But it just seems like her awake time doesn't last very long and she gets crabby and just wants to eat and go back to sleep. And if she's eating and can't go back to sleep then I have to put her in the moby and walk around the house. Jw when the awake and play time becomes longer?? I want to make sure I'm doing the right things and she's developing like she should be. I know every baby hits milestones at different times though.

Report Reply to Post

Re: awake time/play time

  • schtephanieschtephanie member
    I remember feeling the exact same way about 2 months ago.  I think for preemies, since they are trying to do their catch up growth, they tend to sleep more and stay in the "newborn stage" a lot longer than FT babies.  I think we started having more awake days and actual play time about 4.5 months actual/2.5 months adjusted.  But even then, we still have days where he just wants to eat every two hours and then he naps for 45 min, so he's only awake in between for like an hour max.  And for 30 minutes of that he's crabby!  But this stage will pass.  Until then, I did just what you're saying, and we do walk around in our RS an awful lot (and especially now that we can get outside since the weather is so nice).
    Baby Birthday Ticker Ticker Baby Birthday Ticker Ticker
    Report Reply
  • Loading the player...
  • morganoremorganore

    Okay good! Bc I'm wondering how she's going to learn how to hold her head up and sit up etc since she is so sleepy all the time...I'm just being paranoid. 

    PS. I'm PMing you! 

    Report Reply
  • FisMomFisMom
    I'd say DD was a lot like yours. We did as much tummy time as we could early on because now she doesn't really like it. DD is 3 1/2 months adjusted and she stays awake for maybe 2 hours at a time, maybe a little longer, depending on the time of day. I still do those things - go for walks, read to her, sing to her, dance with her, play on her mat, tummy time, put her in her swing. The reality is that small babies are sort of boring. But take advantage of the sleep time now. DD is awake more and more and that means less and less time to do other things, like check emails and go on the bump.
    Report Reply
  • luvdv8luvdv8 member

    For about 3 months it felt like if DD wasn't eating she was sleeping. And she hated tummy time! I felt like she was never going to learn anything. Slowly she started wanting more awake time and we realized that we were over-stimulating her a bit in our desperate attempts to get her to interact with us. When we started taking her play times slower and letting her take the lead a bit on when she was or wasn't feeling like participating she stopped just tuning us out and heading back to sleep.

     

    Our Little Family Keeps Growing! Baby Birthday Ticker Ticker Baby Birthday Ticker Ticker
    Report Reply
This discussion has been closed.
Choose Another Board
Search Boards
"
"