1st night home... help.

My baby was born slightly premature (35 +5weeks) and due to oxygen levels, unstable blood sugars and jaundice had to stay in NICU/special care/transitional care for 7 days. Last night was our first night home and I feel so scared and such a failure... everything at the hospital was so regimented everything was timed and exact. Im a type A kind of person so if theres instructions I will follow them to the latter but now we're home and he just wasnt taking his bottle right for bed he kept spitting up and then wouldnt settle and wouldnt stop crying and I couldnt stop crying. I finally got him fed and sorted and sleep for 12:40am and hes slept really well but now it's almost been 5hrs and I dont know what im supposed to do now, do I wake him up to feed? Do I enjoy whatever sleep we both get even if its longer than 4hrs? I feel like such a failure already

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You're doing good momma 💖🩵 I was told by his pediatrician and my lactation nurse to wake up my son the first couple of weeks until he was gaining weight consistently and then could let him sleep until he woke himself up. He started sleeping through the night at 7 weeks old but he did have a few 4-6 hr stretches before that. He's 7 months now and usually sleeps anywhere from 8-10 hrs overnight when not going through a sleep regression.

Its hard but try to sleep when the baby sleeps..... dont wake a sleeping baby ever.
It does get easier

When my little girl was born last year we were advised to wake her roughly every 2 hours for a feed as jaundice can make them very sleepy and they'll sleep through the hunger. We were advised to keep doing this until the jaundice had cleared and she was back up to birth weight. If in doubt you can always contact the hospital or ask the midwife/health visitor for advice. But don't stress, you'll soon get into your own way of doing things now you're home 😊

Could you dream feed i.e let them sleep and feed at the same time?

My daughter was born at 37 weeks and also struggled with her blood sugar as well as temperature and weight. She was born at 5lbs 8oz. If your LO has surpassed birth weight then it is safe to let them sleep as long as they’d like and feed on demand. If not then I would recommend you wake to feed every 3-4 hrs. Sometimes babies are overstimulated, overtired, struggling with gas….etc. They’re still transitioning to life outside the womb. But that struggle is never your fault. All you can do is try your best and love that baby. 💗

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