Premmies sleeping through the night???

[clairec81]

Hi all, when did your LO's sleep through the night and did you 'force' the issue? Erin now 13 weeks but only 6lb 7oz so been making sure she gets 6 feeds in 24 hours including half ten and 3am. For the past week I have been putting her in her moses basket up stairs and she sleeps much better than in the living room. However she is a nightmare to wake at half ten and takes only a small feed. She has also started to take less at the 3am feed (which I set an alarm for and wake her). Any advice on what I should do - don't want her to miss those all important calories but she's 3 months now and not sure I should go on like this!

 

[AP]

Thats a toughie, because of her weight. We got Alex home over that weight and we still needed to set the alarm. After she hit about 8lb we stopped the alarm and she went longer in the night, but she didnt quite drop the middle of the night feed until 3 months.

If it was was me in your position I would push on, anything to help weight gain, but I'm not sure what others(like the girls on here and your HV) would suggest?

How much milk is she taking throughout the day?

 

[clairec81]

I have thought it might be best to continue with the set times and alarms due to her weight. Only thing concerning me is just how sleepy she is at half ten (its a case of putting her on the changing mat to wake up every 5 minutes! poor wee soul) not sure if she might take more if i left her to have a good sleep - and i'm conscious of how important sleep is for growth - she only cat-naps during the day! She takes about 70 - 100 mls each feed but more like 60mls at a push at half ten and 3am!

 

[Marleysgirl]

Andrew didn't come home until he was almost 3 months.

After one day, we changed to feeding on demand. He dropped his 11pm feed at 5 months, and his 3am feed at 6 months, so now he sleeps through from 7-7.

 

[AP]

( when i said three months for alex btw, i also meant corrected age. she was 3 months actual when she came home, 6 months actual sleepin through)

 

[Foogirl]

If she's not sleeping much through the day, I'd be tempted to let her sleep at night.

Abby dropped her night feeds on her own at about 3 months. But we didn't have any weight issues.

I think I'd try to get more milk into them in the day rather than wake them in the night - especially if they aren't taking much because they are too sleepy.

I'd also try to get her to sleep more in the day. I was told if they are up for much more than 45 mins - 1 hour, they are burning more calories than they are getting in the feed. You might find that a good sleep combined with upping the feeds will help with the weight.

 

[clairec81]

Thanks for the advice - Erin awake for up to a couple of hours at a time at some points during the day so maybe that's part of the weight problem. Same problem last night - took about 45 mins to get 50 mls into Erin at half ten - on and off changing mat every few minutes to wake her! Decided to set alarm for 4am instead of 3am to see when she'd stir and ended up walking her when my alarm when off at 4am and still only got 50mls in before she zonked again! Getting worried now but remembering that she demand fed in the unit with some success so maybe i'll need to let her dictate the feeds and ensure a bit more sleep during the day!

 

[annie111]

My son came home at 3 months weighing 3lb 7oz. He was demand breast feeding in the unit and we just carried this on at home. By 5 months actual and weighing about 5.5lb he was sleeping through the night. He never fed when we woke him anyway so I didn;t bother!

 

[clairec81]

Well went with demand feeding through night and after a good feed at half 6 and going down at 7ish Erin slept til 1am and woke up took a good feed and went back until about 6am and again took a good feed this morning. It was so nice to see her wanting her bottle instead of having to keep waking her and almost force feeding! Who knows if this will continue but definitely keen to let her dictate feeds through night. She's getting weighed tomorrow morning so we'll see how her weight is. Think getting a good block of sleep is good for her too!