I am a mom to a preemie born at 36 weeks. Shes been in the NICU for a week now due to not eating well. All she does is sleep so she dont really eat from her bottle. Another thing is she doesnt open her eyes. Maybe just a little peek. Are these things normal?
All new babies do is sleep. Mine were born at 37 weeks and 38.5 weeks and I had to wake them every 2 hrs to eat for the first few weeks. Stripping them down and changing diapers mid feed seemed to help.
36 weeks isn't so terrible, but they do have to learn to coordinate suck, swallow and breathe. The NICU nurses will work with her, and she'll get it down. Yes, it is normal. My grandson was born at 34 weeks, and it took him awhile, and they fed him through a tube for a few weeks. Then when he started taking the bottle, he literally only took a few cc's.
My daughter was born at 30 weeks. she slept and was tube fed for just under a month. then we started breast feeding and bottle feeding (we would switch so she wouldn't get too tired trying to breast feed). it took her a while to get used to the bottle and eating on her own. we had to wake her up every 3 hours in the nicu to change her diaper and feed her.
good luck to you and your little one.
If your baby is having a bm and 6-10 wet diapers in a 24 hour period then she is fine. During the day time I would be waking the baby to eat every couple of hours. Are you home yet? If she is not then ask the nurses for more guidance. My youngest was born at 37 weeks and he was a very sleepy guy too compared with my other kids( I have 6 total) He is now about 12 weeks. They will sleep a lot.Good Luck!
J.
I don't have experience with preemies, but I did want you to know about some resources.
http://www.preemiecare.org/resources_tools.htm
http://www.attachmentparenting.org/
I hope these help you. Also, you can check out the book "The Vital Touch" by Sharon Heller. Your local library should have a copy or you can grab one from Amazon.com.
Good luck - lot's of touching, singing, and mommy-love with do wonders as well I've heard.
My daughter was born at 36 weeks and it was a challenge to wake her up. Feeding her was a work out, because she did not stay awake long enough to take more than a sip or two. She only peeked at us for a while. They will get through this, but they do sleep a lot. My daughter is now 7 yrs old, but those first few months were tough.
Totally normal for a premie. My first were born at 34 weeks. At first they seemed perfectly fine but then when it came to feeding, they pooped out after just a moment or two. They were tube fed for about a week, with my son getting almost another week. They were usually sleeping and the nurses told me it was their way for recovery. One of my girls had a bit of an issue keeping her body temp high enough so slept in a closed bed for aboout the first 5 days so her body temp was kept higher.
