So confused!

My boys, Benjamin and Thomas, were two months premature. They were born in July and were due in September.

Now that they're home, I find that all we do is nurse and sleep, with maybe an hour or two of alert time during the day and very fussy hours between 9pm and 1am.

Should I be treating them like they're only two weeks old (their adjusted age) and not worry about the sleeping? Should I be trying to get them onto a schedule?

Right now they eat pretty regularly every two hours, sometimes three and sometimes one. They almost always fall asleep after nursing.

I read in the book "Double Duty" that you shouldn't let babies sleep after 4pm (it said this in the section on the first month), so should I be keeping them awake right now? We try to keep them up between the 6/7pm feed and the 9pm feed, but most of the time they're really cranky after the 9pm and it takes forever to get them settled down again.

I'm so confused, please help!

 

My babies were not preemies but I really think you should treat them by their adjusted age - as if you have two 2-week olds at home. My boys were only 2.5 weeks early but I still take this into account sometimes - they have been three weeks late doing many things.

 

At this age, definitely go by adjusted age. Let them sleep when they want to sleep -- you can't get two-week-olds on a schedule anyway, and if you try to keep them awake at certain times, you'll just make them cranky. (Which they may be anyway -- unfortunately, newborns can fuss a lot.)

The only thing I would do is try to make sure they eat every 2-3 hours during the day (even if it means you have to wake them up), so they don't do all their sleeping during the day. But even that might take some time to get straightened out. Good luck!

 

I agree with the above post that even two weeks early makes a difference in terms of what they are supposed to be doing. At two weeks old, I'd definately let them dictate their sleep. 2:00, 4:00 or whenever! I swear mine slept 22 hours a day the first weeks!! I literally couldn't get pictures of them with their eyes open because as soon as they finished eating, they were ready for sleep again, and would sleep until the next feeding. I read somewhere that babies should be treated as if they needed a fourth trimester (thankfully, outside of us) and for the first three months don't need much other than nutrition and sleep.

KS

 

:sign0016: to TS! Congratulations on your babies! I would definitely go by their adjusted age, and in that case, all they should be doing is nursing and sleeping! We didn't get into a good routine until about 4-5 months.

 

Ditto the pps! Their adjusted age is what counts. Do NOT try to get them on a schedule this young - they need to eat when they're hungry and sleep when they're tired, not when some book or clock says so.

Nursing and sleeping is pretty much their world right now... And the evening fussing is normal (unfortunately).

Good luck! Newborns are such hard work, but it sounds like you're doing great!

 

Hello and welcome to TS!! Mine were born 2 months early and all they did was sleep and eat for about the first 2.5-3 months. The only schedule I tried to keep them on was the feeding schedule that they came home on from the NICU of every 3 hours. Sometimes we slipped to 2 hours but most of the time 3. I breastfed my daughter and she always fell asleep after nursing until she was much older. But as for my boys they too would fall asleep on the bottle. I would not try and "keep the awake." It will be counterproductive in that they will be too cranky to get to sleep. Let them sleep when they want to sleep. Unfortunately the sleep center of the brain matures with the adjusted age for the preemies (at least it did for mine) so you may find that it will take them longer to sleep through the night. I highly recommend the book Healthy Sleep Habits, Healthy Child by Weisbluth. He had some very good tips for getting babies into a sleep routine and will tell you like it is...that you will have to wait until the adjusted age to get some sort of routine going. I really liked and valued what he had to say. JMO. Congrats on your twins. Careful...they catch up fast.

Rachel