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Babies: 0 - 3 Months
vigurl
member
If you are feeding every 3 hrs pls come in...
vigurl
member
I had a premmie 2 weeks ago and just brought him home for the hospital this past Monday. He has a feeding schedule set for every 3 hrs round the clock for at least 2 more weeks. I feel completely exhausted and like I get no sleep. I guess I need to get into some sort of routine with the pumping (I am EP) bottle washing, changing, feeding etc.
What is your schedule ladies. Maybe I can take some tips from you so that I could get some more sleep in. I am not sure how much longer I can function like this. Any advice is appreciated.
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Re: If you are feeding every 3 hrs pls come in...
I was EP and felt the same way. Espessially at night, by the time I woke him, changed a diaper, fed him, changed another diaper, pumped and got both of us back to sleep it was time to do it all over again. I have decided for a few reasons to formula feed now and I don't wake him at night for feedings, but the most he ever lasts is 4 hours. It's rough and I try to take at least 1 nap during the day.
Hopefully after the 2 weeks it will be easier for you! Sorry I am not much help!
My son is still eating every two hours, but he sleeps through the night now. So he starts at 5:30 am and eats every two hours until his last bottle at 9:30 pm.
He started sleeping through the night at 7 weeks, but until then he woke up every two hours to eat. There was no stopping it. I still feel exhaused from time to time. I figure I'll get to catch up on sleep when he's a teenager and sleeping until noon.
I guess I'm not much help either. I should add that he's formula fed and has been since his very first feeding.
http://pandce.****/index.cgi#general
If mom goes crazy, baby can't do well. . .
My LO lost 9% of his birth weight and was jaundiced so my midwife had me feeding him every 2 hours. After 5 days of this I was ready to lose my mind- I couldn't function, I was in tears constantly and was just out of my mind. I called a lactation nurse who told me to give myself a break. Wake him and feed every two hours during the day but let him sleep at night and wake me up. I usually get one 3-5 (only 5 once) hour chunk of sleep out of him a night, followed by him waking every 2 hours.
I know this is probably not the advice you were looking for, but sometimes you need to put yourself and your sanity first. I'd at least try it until your next appointment and see how he or she is doing weight-wise and go from there.
At 6 weeks, we're still doing every 2-3 hours. The only positive thing I can offer is that my body has adjusted to it and I'm not as sleepy as I was in the first few weeks.
I'm not producing even 20% of what he's eating, even with regular pumping, so he's mostly eating formula, which then means DH can take some of those shifts. So I still (usually) pump but can at least nap through the time I would be feeding, changing, washing, etc.
Oh, I feel your pain!! DS1 was a preemie and I EPed. The first few weeks were hell. People don't understand how much extra time EPing takes--washing bottles, washing pump parts, feeding, pumping, changing, etc. Just when the routine ends it's time to do it all over again. I felt like I was losing my mind when I was doing this with DS1.
Tips: during the night get someone else to feed the bottle while you pump. Put pump parts in the fridge during the night so you don't have to wash them each time during the night. Not sure how many weeks your LO is but as soon as you can (usually the 6-8 week mark) drop one night pump (and extend a daytime one). When you drop this pump, get someone else to do one feeding during the night. I remember when I finally got 4 hours of sleep--I felt like a new woman!
Is your LO nursing at all? If this is a possibility, find a really really good LC right now!! If you can get LO to drink straight from the tap, your life will get much easier.
All that being said, it's also OK to decide to stop EPing when you are ready. If you are losing it, that's no good for baby. So do what you can and what you want to but also know it's OK to stop if it's all too much.
We brought our preemie home 5 weeks ago. Congrats to you!! Isn't it the best feeling?!
Our pedi said that when we brought LO home (he was 37 weeks) he could sleep as much as he wanted at night, but that we needed to stick to the 3 hr schedule during the day. I now feed on demand during the day but he still rarely goes more than 3 hrs.
I'd say MAKE SURE you distinguish day and night at your house. During the day keep the house as bright as you can. And in the evening, start to close blinds and use less light if you can to get them switched from the NICU "no such thing as day and night" environment. I think this was the biggest thing that helped LO start going 4-5 hours at night.
I did stop pumping. And while I'm not saying you should... It did help my sanity. I wasn't producing enough to keep up with LO's intake and that was emotionally hard on me. So that choice gave me a little extra free time.
Can you pump before he wakes so that you can go back to sleep as soon as he's finished feeding? Maybe if you had 8 bottles you could get away with only washing once a day? At night, maybe wake to pump, wake baby, change diaper, feed bottle, back to sleep?
Getting in a routine is hard, but give it a few weeks and you'll start to see something start to form.