Question about feeding and sleep for preemie moms

[fikmama1986]

Hi ladies,
I intro'd shortly after my son was born in April at 33 weeks 0 days. He finally came home from NICU on Tuesday!!!

I'm so grateful to have my family together at home but will admit to being overwhelmed. Currently, he is 37 weeks and wakes every 2-ish hours to feed and gets fortified breast milk (24 cal). I put him to breast a few times a day and follow up with a bottle to ensure he is getting enough food.

My plethora of questions include:

When do these little ones get to the point that they are strong enough to exclusively breast feed? I know I'll have to throw in a few fortified bottles a day for awhile but I'm so tired of pumping already. I feel like I'm tied to the darn thing. By the time ethan finishes eating, I pump, wash everything, he's going to wake up in an hour.

How long before they feed on demand? Is it a matter of weight gain? My pediatrician says to not let him go past 3 hours between feeds. Granted that hasn't been an issue yet....

At what age did your little guys and girls start seeing for longer periods? Like 4+ hours

I appreciate any feedback that any of you may have. This is my first baby and uncharted territory for me!

[fikmama1986]

May 2, 2015 9:20:35 GMT -5 jnetx said:

May 1, 2015 19:37:17 GMT -5 fikmama1986 said:

Hi ladies,
I intro'd shortly after my son was born in April at 33 weeks 0 days. He finally came home from NICU on Tuesday!!!

I'm so grateful to have my family together at home but will admit to being overwhelmed. Currently, he is 37 weeks and wakes every 2-ish hours to feed and gets fortified breast milk (24 cal). I put him to breast a few times a day and follow up with a bottle to ensure he is getting enough food.

My plethora of questions include:

When do these little ones get to the point that they are strong enough to exclusively breast feed? I know I'll have to throw in a few fortified bottles a day for awhile but I'm so tired of pumping already. I feel like I'm tied to the darn thing. By the time ethan finishes eating, I pump, wash everything, he's going to wake up in an hour.

How long before they feed on demand? Is it a matter of weight gain? My pediatrician says to not let him go past 3 hours between feeds. Granted that hasn't been an issue yet....

At what age did your little guys and girls start seeing for longer periods? Like 4+ hours

I appreciate any feedback that any of you may have. This is my first baby and uncharted territory for me!

I had a 34 weeker who was 5 lbs 3 oz at birth, 17 day NICU stay. For us waking to feed and supplementing went hand in hand. We were given the go ahead by our pediatrician to stop both once she was satisfied with his weight gain...I believe it was around 6 weeks actual.

Some things we did to make night feedings at the beginning easier were only bottle feeding at that time. If he had already had his required number of ounces of formula, I would use pumped milk (if not he got formula or a mix). We did not try to breastfeed at night...only during the day. Also, figure out a way to pump and feed him a bottle at the same time. Either your H can give the bottle or you can get set up pumping, prop him up on a pillow like a boppy, and pump while he eats. If you finish pumping first, just switch the pump off and stay connected till he's done. And last, figure something else out with pump parts. I got to a point where I was comfrtable just storing them in the fridge between pumping sessions. This keeps the milk residue from going bad and is considered safe. Before that though, I got a few extra sets of pump parts. I would throw them in the sink when I was done and I had the next set all put together and ready to go lined up next to my pump. I dealt with the washing in the morning.

We switched to feeding on demand during the day a few months later, once his weight gain showed our new night plan was working.

The sleeping longer periods is going to really vary baby to baby, even for non-preemies. He slowly spaced out his feedings and was down to one (slept from 9 pm to 4 am, est, then back to sleep for a few hours) by 3 months actual, but then he picked right back up and woke every two hours from 3 months until 6 months and then cut out the other feedings slowly over the next 3 months. He woke to eat at least once until 9 months. But, like I said, every baby is different in this regard and after 6 months, you can choose to sleep train using whatever method you want and that may help them fall back asleep on their own if they aren't waking from hunger at that point. Some babies space feedings out really quickly and sleep through the night early.

I didn't know you could just keep pump parts in the fridge. How long between washings? Do they have to be stored a particular way? Thanks so much for your response!

[tngrl3]

I had a 34 weeker who was 3lbs 10 oz and came home at 4lbs after a 14 day NICU stay. He was only ever on breast milk and we did not supplement it went we went home. His feeding schedule in the NICU was every 3 hours and when we were first home he seemed to stick to that. I always fed on demand and sometimes that did mean more than 3 hours between feeds. I nursed some and did bottle some just depending on how he was doing. Some feeds I could tell he was tired and just needed a bottle so he didn't have to work extra at eating. I'd say he was about 3 months old before I switched to nursing at every feed when we were together. As far as sleep, for DS it was more about reaching a weight than and age for the longer sleep sleep stretches. I knew he needed his calories so I accepted that frequent nights feeds would happen for a while. I think once he hit about 10lbs he started sleeping a little longer.

[fikmama1986]

May 2, 2015 12:40:18 GMT -5 tngrl3 said:

I had a 34 weeker who was 3lbs 10 oz and came home at 4lbs after a 14 day NICU stay. He was only ever on breast milk and we did not supplement it went we went home. His feeding schedule in the NICU was every 3 hours and when we were first home he seemed to stick to that. I always fed on demand and sometimes that did mean more than 3 hours between feeds. I nursed some and did bottle some just depending on how he was doing. Some feeds I could tell he was tired and just needed a bottle so he didn't have to work extra at eating. I'd say he was about 3 months old before I switched to nursing at every feed when we were together. As far as sleep, for DS it was more about reaching a weight than and age for the longer sleep sleep stretches. I knew he needed his calories so I accepted that frequent nights feeds would happen for a while. I think once he hit about 10lbs he started sleeping a little longer.

Thank you for the feedback. DS was 3lb 15 oz at birth 33 weeks. Just had his first pediatrician appointment on Thursday and was up to 5lb 8.5oz. I'm hoping he will continue making those gains. Hate to admit but I miss all the data taken by NICU like intake and daily weight.

[jense927]

My DS was a 31 weeker and 4lbs 1oz at birth. I actually found it worked better for me that the middle of the night feed (anywhere from 1-3 am) I breastfed so that I didn't have to deal with pumping then and he got his supplemented feeds at other times. My DH would do the last feed before he went to bed at 11-12 I would do the middle of the night and then the 4-5am. That way I could sleep from 8pm-2a breastfeed and then sleep again until 5ish. So to lay it out easier this was our schedule

8pm- bottle with pumped milk and formula
Then me to bed
11pm - DH gives bottle with pumped milk and formula
2am - breastfeed
5am- pumped milk and formula

It's so hard in the beginning! We didn't figure out this schedule until a few weeks in. Good luck!!

[meladorie]

May 1, 2015 19:37:17 GMT -5 fikmama1986 said:

Hi ladies,
I intro'd shortly after my son was born in April at 33 weeks 0 days. He finally came home from NICU on Tuesday!!!

I'm so grateful to have my family together at home but will admit to being overwhelmed. Currently, he is 37 weeks and wakes every 2-ish hours to feed and gets fortified breast milk (24 cal). I put him to breast a few times a day and follow up with a bottle to ensure he is getting enough food.

My plethora of questions include:

When do these little ones get to the point that they are strong enough to exclusively breast feed? I know I'll have to throw in a few fortified bottles a day for awhile but I'm so tired of pumping already. I feel like I'm tied to the darn thing. By the time ethan finishes eating, I pump, wash everything, he's going to wake up in an hour.

How long before they feed on demand? Is it a matter of weight gain? My pediatrician says to not let him go past 3 hours between feeds. Granted that hasn't been an issue yet....

At what age did your little guys and girls start seeing for longer periods? Like 4+ hours

I appreciate any feedback that any of you may have. This is my first baby and uncharted territory for me!

Congrats on having your guy home!

1. I think getting to EBF will depend on how much you practice and how patient you are. DS was never on a 2 hour schedule - the nicu has him at 3-4 hours. When I bottle fed he would go 3-4 hours but breastfed only 1-2 hours. I just didn't have the stamina for that. I will say though that he was born at 31 weeks and started being able to have a full meal via breast at maybe 2.5-3 months old. But we weren't practicing a lot.

2. I want to say maybe 2 months old or so was when I stopped worrying about waking him at the 4 hour mark. For the most part he woke on his own at 3-4 hours. But he's been great at gaining weight very steadily (born at 3.5 pounds and now at 3.5 months he's 11 pounds!). I also stopped fortifying his milk at 2.5 months or so.

3. It's only been since he hit 3 months or so that we are seeing him sleep longer than 4 hours. Usually the first stretch of the night is 4-5 hours and then it's every 3 hours after. Last night at just over 15 weeks old he slept through the night for the first time (8 hours!).

[minae01]

The ladies above had great things to say... I just want to share my story.

DS1 was born at 32w3d at 4 lbs. 6oz. He spent 21 days in the NICU. We never tried nursing in the NICU, but I pumped. After we got home, he developed reflux and puked rivers of spit up. He was very slow to gain weight. In addition, I didn't produce very much and had to supplement with Enfacare. I always fed on demand. I never woke him unless he was going longer than 4 hours, which was rare. He usually went 3-4 hours. The doctors never really pushed it. I started trying to nurse him at 6 weeks, but he was a lazy nurser and my supply sucked. I would have to supplement at every feed. By the time he was 2 months actual I started just nursing at night and that was it. I pumped the rest of the feedings. I only kept that up for about 4 months. My supply was terrible and it was more trouble than it was worth. I'd say DS started sleeping through the night at about 15-16 weeks actual (6-7 hours). It was right around 9-10 lbs.

You can definitely just throw your pump parts in the fridge. I'd put them in a ziplock and wash them once a day (except when we had thrush - ugh). Also, if supply isn't an issue, you can cut down on your pumping to save you some time. I'm not sure how many times you are pumping, but if you're also nursing, just pump once or twice a day to get the extra bottles for supplementation.

Congrats on having the baby home, and as long as he's gaining weight on his own curve, try not to worry so much. Don't forget about taking care of yourself!