night feeds for premmies

[twinklestar]

hi all

can any of you offer some advice or tell me what you did if you were in this situation

my LO was born at 33+1 weighing 4.4oz he spent 2 weeks in scbu and came home at his birth weight

he is now 4 weeks old and im still setting an alarm to wake him for his 4hrly feeds in the night, he has stirred a few times himself just as its about to go off but other than that i have to wake him

at what age/weight do you think i can leave the alarm and see if he wakes?

also if i do that will i need to change his 4hrly to demand? id rather not swap as he is on a great routine

any comments welcome

 

[Bec L]

Wow, what a great sleeper!! Sorry, I can't be much help really as Poppy used to wake every couple of hours in the night so never had this issue. I did use to have to wake her in the day though, when she slept a lot, and after 4 hours would wake her for a feed. I can't remember when this stopped though.

Hope someone else can help xx

 

[Marleysgirl]

Sorry, I don't really have similar circumstances so cannot help - Andrew spent his first 11 weeks on NICU, where they fed him regular as clockwork, night and day.

 

[grumpymoo]

Hello!

I rather think it depends on his weight gain, plus new babies dehydrate if left without feeding too long, but if I were you I would call the NICU or your outreach sister and ask for their advice.

I did this many times when i brought Rose home (and they were great, even had doctors calling me back at times) as the HV and Dr did not know much about preemies at all


x

 

[Laura2919]

From the day I got the girls home I changed them to Feeding on demand. I spoke to my HV and consultant and they both agreed it worked better.

I think if your concerened you can call your consultant or see your HV and have a good chat hun

Hope you find something that suits you both x

 

[AP]

We stopped using the alarm clock when we felt her weight was a 'decent' weight, and when the HV agreed.

 

[bumpsmum]

after a few weeks home and a decent weight gain, we moved onto to demand feeding and stopped setting an alarm, over course of 3 months Matthew slowly went longer and then by 3 1/2 months (actual) slept right thru x

 

[mrsty]

hiya.. hadyn was born at 33+3 and came home at 5lb10 and he was also on 4hrly... at night we changed to on demand after the 11pm feed at around 5 weeks actual and he would go to about 6am... at 3.5months he then slept through! hope this helps xx

 

[twinklestar]

well as of today Kane is 6.4lb the HV said in another week we can stop the alarm as he should be around 7lb by then and 5 weeks old

X

 

[bumpsmum]

Fantastic weight he is coming on a treat x