Any other mamas with preemies..

Re: Any other mamas with preemies..

• ReneeJ2011 member

  September 2015

  My little man was born at 35+6 and he goes through phases where he will wake up to eat but 5 minutes in fall asleep so I started changing his Diaper in the middle of his feed and it has helped. He didn't loose a ton of weight only 6 or 7% but since he was small to start with 5-1 and got down to 4-11.5 we are going for weight checks till he starts gaining well. I also set alarms for every 2 hours at night so that if he doesn't wake up on his own we don't miss feeds (learned my lesson night 2 at home when we accidentally went 5 hours between feeds because he didn't wake up and I hadn't set an alarm.)

  Report0 Reply
• Loading the player...
• thinkpink101 member

  September 2015

  My preemies never did that but this LO is soooooo sleepy. It takes me 3 hours to feed him at times. He lost 12% of his birthweight so it's super important that he eats often, but he makes it very difficult. Yesterday I even gave him a sponge bath...and he slept through the entire thing. We out him in front of a fan, put cold water bottles on his back etc. to try to wake him. It's frustrating!

  
  

  
  

  Report0 Reply
• Ali8348 member

  September 2015

  I had my little guy at 36 weeks to the day, and he struggled with waking to feed until last night (one week old). He would be terribly difficult to wake and when he did, he would barely eat anything. All of a sudden overnight last night, he just started eating the amount he was supposed to every 2-3.5 hrs. We set an alarm at night to wake up because I don't trust that he will yet, but it seems he just needed a little time to mature and figure it all out.

  Report0 Reply
• str13 member

  September 2015

  S was born at 30+4 and is 36+5 adjusted today. I set an alarm to get her up at least every 3 hours. I change her diaper first to help her wake up enough. And I have everything ready to go as soon as she's got a clean diaper.
  Also I take her hat off. I like to keep her swaddled while she eats, but if she's too sleepy I unwrap her some.

  Report0 Reply
• WDDCH member

  September 2015

  Preemies tire easily. It's also normal for exclusively breastmilk-fed babies to be slower to gain back birthweight (preemie or not) because they aren't getting the constant, exact caloric intake that formula-fed babies get. BM changes constantly. I echo the ideas above about waking baby every couple hours, including at night, waking baby up with a changing and then settling them in to eat.
  
  Sometimes just unswaddling a baby and laying them down in a cool spot (bassinet or crib) is enough to wake them up. But I'm not sure that's a good idea for preemies specifically and no idea if your little one is hooked up to things or in NICU or whatever. You'd have to use your judgement on that one.

  

  Report0 Reply