Hello

My daughter Isabella was born on 31st July at 35 weeks weighing 4lb 10oz.

My waters broke naturally at 5am in the morning and I'd delivered her by 3pm that afternoon - a completly natural labour, no problems, no pain relief etc.

She was taken straight to SCBU where she spent 11 days in the "Feed and Grow" Nursery. 

I would like to find someone to talk to about what to / not to expect with regards to growth / development etc.

Bella will be 9 weeks old tomorrow and is still only taking the same amount of milk she was having in the hospital.  She gaining weight (9lb 12oz).  She feeds every 3 hours during the day but at night she goes to 2 hours and shows no sign of going longer and quite frankly, I've VERY tired and feeling quite fed up.

Am I expecting to much for her to be sleeping longer at night?  What can I do to get her to take more food so she won't wake up so often at night?

I have spoken to my HV and she sayes that I should just do what Isabella wants but I phisically can't carry on like this any more.  I am miserable, snappy, tearful and feeling unable to cope.  I need something to change.

Any advise would be appreciated.

Emma x

Congratulations on the safe arrival of little Isabella.

Her weight now is amazing so well done you.

Growth and development all depends on each individual child even if they are premature. BLISS is a very good organisation which can supply you with lots of advice and literature.

Sounds like she is a very hungry baby and likes to feed alot at night so she might have a her days and nights mixed up also she could be going through a growth spurt (3 weeks, 6 weeks etc). There is a great book called the baby whisperer that gives alot of tips on feeding, sleeping and baby queues (when tired, hungry, crying (what type)). There is no time limit when babies start to go longer some love to snack other's like a big feed.

I would try cluster feeding her from 5pm until 9. So feed her a liitle less or less time if you are breastfeeding than she normally does but do it at 5, 7 & 9. Then wait for her to wake up. Then when you are happy with this push her out a bit more when she first cries for 10 minutes. Some people use a dummy for this.

I would also suggest you a buy this book because it talks about the 10pm dreamfeed etc. I never did a dream feed with both of mine I just let them lead me at night. They slept through from 10 weeks but that could be luck more than anything else.

Have you tried different teets because this can make a world of difference. Mine were on level 2 Dr Browns when I started to bottle feed (after 6 weeks). With DD she took so long and drank so little I switched to Level 3 by 10 weeks. Its all trial and error but do what you want to do.

You can cope hun but when you have no sleep and feel hormonally emotionally and recovering from an early birth its not suprising. Take care of yourself and if you feel very low speak to your GP. I know alot of women, including myself who suffered from PND because of having a baby early.

Take care hun and Im sure the other ladies will be able to give you better advice than me.

Edited - Sleep when she sleeps and get into a sleep & feeding routine if this suits you. (not everyone like's this). Don't worry about house duties they can wait.

Mel

Henry born 6 weeks early
Matilda born 5 weeks early

Hiya hun congratulations on the birth of your little girl x

My daughter will be 3 on wednesday and was born at when i was 35 weeks pregnant but i expected her to be born alot sooner as my waters went at 32 weeks i can say it was a very long and boring stay in hospital with lots of contractions stopping and starting but im glad she stayed in just that little bit longer .

Your daughter sounds like shes doing really well and is pretty much doing  what she should be at this stage if im honest with you  also you just have to go off from when she should have been due as shes should  still really be only  a month old really now.I had all the same trouble with my daughter  with feeding .. i didnt breast feed as i couldnt have coped with her demands .. as i hardly  got chance to feed myself if im honest and just wouldnt have provided the right nutrients she needed .

Your daughters weight is fantastic thou .. ill have get my books out to check how much scarlett weighed for you  , she was born weighin 5 pound 12 . With my current pregnancy though im being monitored as they thought she was small ??? haha then when i said ermmm she was 5 weeks early they said oh she was bigger than average then lol , Hospital ehhh love them lol .

Ill tell you a little bit about scarlett .. and put some  pics on here for you to see then and now lol  shes now  the size of an average 4 year old so shes hughhhhhhh for her age lol .. not sure where she gets her height from thou lol . sorry if this is a large post xxxx due to pics

 2 days old in nicu .. she didnt need oxygen which i was relieved at

 8 weeks old here ..

 her 1st birthday .. she was walking at ten and half months old by the way xx so no development  problems

 scarlett when she was 2

And Scarlett Now xxxx 

Sorry this is a long post just wanted to make sure you know they grow no diffrently to any other child and scarletts on track with everyone the same age .. they do say they take a year to catch up so by time there one there on track but this wasnt the case for us as scarlett and probably wont be with you as they wer only 5 weeks early .

 

 

 

 

 

Hi there

Congratulations first of all.

I gave birth at 31 weeks, my waters broke at 29 weeks but no contractions, so after a short stay in hospital I was allowed home and then suddenly she decided to arrive.  I had felt a little strange that day, 28th January 2009, and was in hospital to be checked over ....thank goodness !!

First contraction at 8.30pm, every 3 minutes by 9pm and she was born at 9.55pm in the bed on the way to the labour ward .......... something to tell her when she is older.

My daughter Kirstin was born weighing 3lb 5oz, she lost the usual 10% or so at the start and went down to 3lb 1oz.  She was in the neo natal unit until 2nd March so nearly 6 weeks, and weighed 5lb 5oz on discharge, the 6 weeks were hard for me and hubby and there were often tears at night when we had to leave her.

Anyway, being in the unit that long I seen so many different babies and they all have there individual needs.  Kirstin had nothing wrong from day 1 and she started on Cow & Gate Nutriprem 1, she was then put onto Nutriprem 2 and I was advised to keep her on this until her 6 month form her due date review at the childrens hospital.

Kirstin generally fed every 4 hours to start, then it was 3 and sometimes it was down to 2.  She was about 10 weeks old when she first started to miss the late night feed about 11, but still woke for a feed about 3am.  We had a bedtime routine that we started early on, the 3 B's, Bath, Bottle Bed.  That usually happened about 7.30, so what we decided to try was waking her about 10.30/11pm and giving her a top up and this did seem to help take her through to about 6am.  One night I went to bed early and had intended getting up again later for 11pm feed .... but, I slept through and didn't wake until 1.30am.  So we took a chance and she slept through and that has been her ever since, she was 12 weeks old.

However, she was growing quickly and by the beginning of June when she was about 18 weeks old, she was chewing her hand and like you couldn't keep up with bottles during the day, but still slept all night.  So spoke to health visitor and she suggested trying her with some baby rice, so she was 21 weeks old, although 12 weeks corrected.  No problems, I had a rough guide from the HV about when to introduce additional meals, but I just used my own gut instinct and it was about 5/6 weeks until she was on 3 meals a day including meats.  She is now 8 and half months old and weighs a grand 18lb 9oz and is wearing some 9-12 month clothes, many of the docs and nurses can't believe the change and some even comment thinking we have swapped her for another baby.  The only thing she is not quite doing on her own is sitting up steadily, but she is almost there, other things like rolling over and attempting to crawl are fine.

I guess the thing with a premature baby us to just allow then to go at their own speed.  I have a friend who's son was a term baby and didn't walk until he was 15 months old, so just go with what you feel is right, you know how your baby is acting as you spend the most time with them. 

This was our first baby and I was 40 when i gave birth.  I had one previous miscarriage at 10 weeks.

Hi. I'm another one who had a baby at 35weeks. My son Thomas is now 2! He weighed 3lb 8oz at birth (stopped growing in the womb) but has had no developmental problems at all. Was walking at 12months and is typical of a 2yr old now.

The only thing he is behind with is his growth. He is only just going into 12-18mths clothes which still drown him but 9-12mth ones seem to small. Its nothing to worry about though as his growth has been steady and he should catch up now as other children his age are slowing down lol.

Congratulations and enjoy your baby being a small baby for longer!

Leila and Tom xxx

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