Home today and loads of questions!

[roxie78]

We brought our baby home today after spending 12 days in SCBU! Just wondered if anyone could advise on the following -

1. In hospital they put loads of layers on her i.e about 2 blankets and 3 sheets and a hat(I know she doesn't need a hat now she is home though)! Now she is home how many layers should she need if the room is about 20 degrees? Do preemies need any extra layers? I know the official guidelines would say 1 sheet & 1 blanket but I don't want her getting cold! She had a temperature probe on her in hospital so now she doesn't have it I'm clueless! The ear thermometer seems a bit big to use on her at the moment!

2. Bottle teats! She used those Sterifeed teats in hospital but now she is home we are using a few sterifeed teats we have left over and we have a few medela ones to try. Apparantly I was told preemies don't get on too well with Avent teats? We bought a load of Avent bottles typically! Anyone else heard this or can reccomend any?

3. Settling! In hospital she slept for 4 or 5 hours, woke to demand a feed then settled again till next feed. Now she is home she seems quite unsettled and keeps waking up. Is it just the change of surroundings do you think or could she be cold or something else???

 

[Fiestagal]

Welcome home!

1. I'm pretty sure we had 1 cot sheet and a thick fleece blanket folded double over him. We were weaned down from 4 blankets in hospital over a period of time!

2. We were told Avent bottles were a problem too but actually at 5 weeks of age he was managing fine with them, although he only had small feeds to give medication in and the rest were bf, he was less than 5lb in weight then. But we did also use cheap bottles - think they were 'griptight' brand, from the co-op pharmacy and these had a good easy flow on them.

3. Our routine went completely to pot once home, I read about people being grateful that scbu life put them in a good routine but that wasn't the case for us. I guess it was the new surroundings and not being used to TV sounds and generally a 'noisy' environment than the one he was used to.

 

[25weeker]

Congratulations on getting your lo home.

I stressed about the temp as well. Check their chest and tummy and if they feel ok she is probably warm enough.

I breastfed and gave a bottle of EBM every evening as well as my lo cluster fed a lot. I used avent without any issues. The only thing I noticed was I had to move to the next size up after only a few weeks as the first size was too much work for my lo. She was 5lb when she came home.

Our routine went to pot when she came home. In Nicu I used to feed her and put her down awake and she went to sleep on her own for 3-4 hours. She has now been home 7 1/2 months and rarely self settles. Although I am probably to blame for that lol! Her feeding has only became more of a routine now because she is on 3 meals a day.

It's very stressful at the beginning but you do begin to relax a little gradually.

Xx

 

[AP]

For Avent bottles, Alex did not take to them. At all. Ever. i did the same, i bought loads!

NUK worked for us,(seem to get a good latch on them) then when she was older, she wasnt as fussy! I hear the cheapo type teats you can get from boots and asda etc are popular for preemies too xxx

 

[pink.crazy]

We also used (still using!) NUK bottles, I bought TT but he couldn't get on with them, the hospital advised getting the NUK ones and he took to them really well! They also said the mega cheap bottles are good, the tall slim ones you see in chemists/supermarkets.

 

[toothfairyx]

Congratulations!
Wish I'd know about the avent bottles
I got avent bottles mainly as I got an avent breast pump and it seemed like it would be easier to interchange stuff, but we had massive issues with wind with them, when in hospital they'd said he was a windy baby but really good at bringing up his wind after a bottle. I found him windy after breast feeding too.
I'd initially tried the tt bottles at home but the teats seemed too big and too close to his nose as he was so small. When he was bigger we moved back to the tt bottles and we are getting on great with them.

As for the routine, funny that it also took me around 2 days to ruin the 4-5 hour routine he was doing in the hospital by moving from bottles of ebm to breast feeding! i think this was partly due to it being more tiring for him to bf, but also that when he went onto demand feeding in hospital he was chugging away double what I'd been producing literally overnight, and it took an age for me to catch up. When I finally felt that I had after a week or so he had another spurt and I was behind again.

I was told not to use ear thermometers until over a year old by the nurse who discharged us, so we have a forehead strip which is fine if you can control the wriggling!

 

[katy1310]

Hello and congratulations on getting LO home

I had exactly the same questions when Sophie first came home.

We used to put two blankets over her at night - a woolly knitted one and a thinner fleece one. I also wondered if she should have a hat, cardigan etc when we got her home, because the first night we roomed in with her in the hospital, the nurse told us that we must have the heating on full and the window tight shut (the hospital was already boiling as it was, and it was June!) But when the community nurse came out to see us the day after we got her home, she said it was important to get Sophie used to more "normal" temperatures and she said a couple of blankets would be fine. Now she has a sleeping bag, and I still worry a bit in this cold weather!! Our bedroom was 15 degrees this morning! We just judge each night what it seems like - she either wears a fleecy sleepsuit with a long sleeved vest or a normal sleepsuit, long sleeved vest and a cardigan.

Re the bottles, we started out on the Tommee Tippee ones when we first got her home and she was absolutely fine on those. She had the slow flow teats. I was breast feeding but she needed quite a few top ups as well. We later moved onto the Dr Browns bottles but that wasn't till she was a few months old.

Re settling, Sophie was exactly the same for a few days. She was busy taking in her new surroundings and it's just such a different atmosphere for them at home - they're used to bright lights, heat, noise of the alarms etc. She used to sleep for 4 hours between feeds in the hospital - I used to feed her, put her down and she went straight to sleep till the next feed but it was completely different when she came home. She did settle after a few days though and settled back into her 4 hourly routine. We found it really helped to get a bedtime routine going right from day one - we gave her her vitamins and bathed her about half an hour before her last feed was due then fed her and she went straight down and slept for 4 hours. We have stuck to that routine all along and it means she knows it's bedtime. She's a bit harder to settle just now because she's teething but up till the last couple of weeks, she's always gone straight down after her last feed. She used to feed every 4 hours through the night when she was first home but gradually dropped one feed then the other, and by the time she'd been home 2 months she was sleeping through.

Enjoy having your LO home - you're going to have an amazing Christmas xxxx

 

[embojet]

Congrats on getting home!
I agree that best way to check the temp is just to check the back of her neck/tummy.
Molly went through so mnay rands of teats before settling on Boots own make. My advice would be buy only one or teo types and persist as I wasted so much money on teats, and it turns out she was just a fussy eater.
Molly was the same when she came home, I suppose it's only natural with such a change of surroundings x

 

[roxie78]

Thanks for all the replies. All very helpful! Well the first night went quite well really, only had to feed her at 11:15pm, 3:15am then 8am. Tried the Medela teats this morning (they are the slow flow ones) but she really seems to struggle to get much out of the bottle with them! Are those sterifeed teats particularly fast ones does anyone know? Also does anyone know if you can put supermarket or other brand teats on the medela or sterifeed bottles? Is it too soon to try a faster flowing teat?

 

[Mumof42009]

Congrats on getting your lo home.
The mam teats are good as they are flat all mine was fine with them. As for blankets I had one sheet and blanket folded in two, it is best to check there temp reg tho.

 

[roxie78]

Well just a quick update, we bought some teats from the chemist (medium flow) and they seem way better so hopefully that is 1 problem solved! She does seem very hungry though! The hospital said aim for approx 370ml per day but yesterday she had nearer 500ml! Is that ok do you think? Also in hospital she was feeding approx every 4 or 5 hours but the last day or so it is more like every 3 hours!