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Starting EASY with Preemie?

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JennVanessa1083:
Hello!

I recently gave birth to my daughter on January 14th at 36 weeks gestational age. I was diagnosed with severe preeclampsia which caused intrauterine restrictive growth causing my daughter to be born at 3 lbs. She spent 2.5 weeks in the NICU and I spent about a week in the hospital. The NiCU put her on 3 hour feeding schedule.

She is now 4 weeks old (I guess 0 weeks adjusted) and is thriving weighing in at 5 lbs 4 oz. She is exclusively BF feeding after a lot of work with the NICU lactation consultant and is now nursing anywhere from 2-3 hours during the day and 3-4 hours throughout the night. She does tend to do every 2 hours more so in the evening, maybe cluster feeding?

On average she is still spending most of her time sleeping (about 18-20 hours a day) so wake time isn't long. It's anywhere from 20 minutes-around an hour (only once or twice a day).

I love BW as it helped so much with my DS and would love to start DD asap.

I guess my question is when should I start? I tried researching BW with preemies and couldn't find much. Is there anything I can do now or is it too early considering she is still very much in the fourth trimester.

With my first, I had to break solo many habits when I started BW so trying to avoid the props as much as possible while still keeping in mind that she is still so young.

Thank you so much!!

Katet:
Congratulations on your little one.
Essentially EASY is about not letting them fall asleep while feeding rather than awake times or times between feeds. So you can try and seperate the feed from sleep with say a quick nappy change, but ultimately at such a young age it's essential to feed on demand and build the attachment with your baby.
From a BTDT the best laid plans to not have 'props' and not have to undo things often is very hard to avoid when you are juggling a baby and a toddler or preschooler, so be mindful that desires and reality can clash and often the balance needs those props.

JennVanessa1083:
Ha true! I see AP being very present this time around.

I could start working on separating the feed from sleep. However, for sleep time, what is the best way to start encouraging independent sleep?

I forgot to mention that I have an overactive letdown and supply so I feed her on a recline and have to keep her sitting up for 20-39 minutes. Usually if she doesn’t fall asleep nursing, she falls asleep sitting up. Should I still try to wake her and put her down awake? Or should I wait until she’s awake for longer stretches?

I guess because she’s a Preemie I’m wondering if I should just let it be until she’s a bit older to try to get her to fall asleep on her own.

Katet:
You could try and wake her, but I’d honestly say if she’s sleeping most of the time anyway there is plenty of time to look at what you need to do to help her learn to fall asleep when the milk coma no longer works.

JennVanessa1083:
Ok! Yea for the most part the milk coma is very much happening. Sometimes she wakes back up while burping her. Then I cuddle her or wear her depending on what is going on.

Is there somewhere I can reference wake times? I feel like I may be missing some sleep cues.

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