Advice on milestones/sleeping at night, please.

[RainbowGift]

Hi. My twins are 11 weeks actual age, 4 weeks corrected age. They were born at 33 weeks.

I still feed them every three hours. They are not skipping any night feeds. It seems as though the pediatrician is going to judge their milestones by actual age. In which case, should I be encouraging them to stay awake during the day and working on developmental things? Right now I encourage them to sleep, since I am so tired and never get any rest. When did your preemies start skipping a night feed or even sleeping through the night? The whole actual vs corrected age is confusing me.

Thanks all! xoxo

 

[Cazzyg]

My daughter was barely prem at 36 weeks but she didn't drop a night feed until she was months rather than weeks old. Sleeping through the night didn't happen until she was closer to a year, but she was a particularly bad sleeper. Remember at 4 weeks, they are still newborns and all newborns really do is eat, sleep and dirty nappies! There's no rule book, when it comes to premature babies. Please try not to worry about milestones for now, sleep when you can and remember the housework can wait

Your paediatrician should be working on the corrected age and if they are insisting on using actual, I think I would be looking for another paediatrician if possible. Even at 36 weeks, they went with the corrected age for my daughter.

 

[Srrme]

My son was born at 28.6 weeks. He's 5 months old -- 2 1/2 corrected, and is feeding on demand. He eats every 1-2 hours, and still feeds a couple times during the night. If you force your babies to stay awake during the day, they'll probably become fussy. I would keep doing what you're doing, dear, and find another Pediatrician if needed.

 

[AP]

I agree, not only that but the little ones need their sleep in order to have the energy to feed, and they will sort that out for themselves, they'll decide when to be awake more Your pediatrician is mad and inexperienced if he/she is going by actual age.

Trust your instincts, i say you're right

 

[xxClaire_24xx]

Ellie was born at 33 weeks and came home after just under 7 weeks in SCBU she started going every 4 hours about 11 weeks, 3 weeks corrected and she started going from midnigh to 7am about 18 weeks, 11 weeks corrected but we do still dreamfeed around 11pm - midnight and we were advised to start Ellie on weaning at 19 weeks, 12 weeks corrected as she had bloods done and her iron levels were very low

all babies are diff my 6 year old who was 6 weeks early but allowed home next day as she was 6lbs and feeding well never slept through till she was around a year!!! x

 

[okciv]

Wow I'm lucky!

Eve came out of neonatal being demand fed (almost every 4 hours) she was 8 weeks old (2 weeks before her due date)

After about a month she slept through the night. As she mostly woke up after about 4 hours I just started waking her after 4 hours if she was still sleeping. She then gradually went longer & longer at night & was on 4 feeds a day & sleeping 12 hours a night pretty quickly.

 

[lozzy21]

I agree with the girls, continue to do what your doing and think about looking for another pead. Niamh was only 5 weeks early but the health visitor goes by her corrected age.