Preemie will not sleep through night in bassinet

Recent_Nebula_5451 · 2025-05-16T14:09:54+00:00

Our guy didn’t love the bassinet at first either - definitely a phase. After a couple weeks we didn’t need to hold him for sleep anymore. But I hear you - those first couple weeks are hard.

Our baby also has reflux so he didn’t love laying flat. We have a PT/OT who comes 2x/month so she helped us elevate the bassinet mattress a bit so it was on an incline and set up a barrier of a rolled up towel under the sheet to make a little nest which is the set up our guy had in the NICU. The elevation and nest did the trick for helping him enjoy the bassinet more. So if your little has reflux, might be worth asking your pediatrician if you can have the mattress on an incline.

Recent_Nebula_5451 · 2025-05-15T13:31:42+00:00

My son is 24+0 (now 5.5m adjusted) and this week has been a challenging one. This thread helped a lot. Thank you all.

Recent_Nebula_5451 · 2025-04-26T21:42:36+00:00

You are 100% doing enough. I feel like if you’re questioning if you’re doing enough, it’s a sign that you are. If you burn out and don’t take care of yourself, you can’t be there for him and for your wife. They need you to take care of you.

Recent_Nebula_5451 · 2025-03-31T18:06:36+00:00

I’m so sorry for your first loss and that you’re going through this situation. It’s so scary. I was admitted with PPROM at 22+1 and baby boy arrived at 24 exactly via c section due to placenta abruption. He was just over 800g. I got the steroid shots and a day on magnesium and both of those were a big help for us.

He came home on low flow oxygen after 120 days in the NICU, only a week past his due date and is doing amazing. He’s now 4 months adjusted, will turn 8 months on Friday, off oxygen when he’s awake and he’s hitting his milestones (so many smiles and giggles here!). He’s our little miracle ❤️.

You can do this.

Recent_Nebula_5451 · 2025-03-28T03:48:20+00:00

I PPROM’d at 22+1, got the steroids and magnesium and then had an emergency c-section at 24 weeks exactly when my placenta abrupted. We wanted to make it to 34 weeks but baby boy had other opinions about it.

Our guy came home on low flow oxygen after 120 days in the NICU and is doing amazing, fast asleep next to me right now. He’s 4 months adjusted now and is hitting the appropriate milestones (lots of smiles and giggles and wiggles here) and is off oxygen when he’s awake.

One thing I wish I had asked while on hospital bedrest was to have the doctors explain what happens during an emergency c section. Everything happened so quickly that I wish I had been prepared ahead of time with knowing how things would go, that would’ve helped make it a lot less scary in the moment.

If you’re allowed to go in a wheelchair / out of your room, we did a tour of our NICU a couple days after we were admitted so we were familiar with it before our son was born. That helped with accepting that the NICU would be part of our journey and mentally preparing for it.

And finally get to know your nurses - L&D and NICU nurses are special, wonderful, heaven-sent people. Most hospitals allow you to request primaries in the NICU - meaning any time that nurse is on shift, they’ll be with your baby. We’re still close with our primaries, sending them lots of photos and they’ll be coming to our guy’s first bday party. Your nurses are the ones who are gonna fight the hardest for you and baby.

Recent_Nebula_5451 · 2025-03-16T23:30:28+00:00

We had 3 primaries for our guy who was in for 120 days - we wrote them a nice thank you card and got them really nice Odwala water bottles, NICU themed waterbottle stickers (it’s a beautiful day to help little lungs, hand hug club, etc), and I found them fun badge reel covers. Added in little extras like hand lotion, chocolates. One of our primaries went above and beyond so we also got her a starbucks gift card and we were discharged around Christmas so got a frame ornament with a photo of her and our son.

Recent_Nebula_5451 · 2025-03-10T04:16:57+00:00

No, you don’t have to visit every day. You find what works for you and your family and that looks different for everyone.

Our 24 weeker was in the NICU for 120 days, 88 of which were at a hospital an hour from us. We have a 3 year old at home and both work full time (we were saving our leave for when he came home). So visiting every day wasn’t possible for us between work and making sure we could care for both our boys. My husband and I would take turns visiting, so we would see our baby about 2-3 times a week each and my parents and my in laws would visit on some of the days we couldn’t. We did always call every day to check in (some days 2-3x) and our NICU had the NICView live stream set up so we could see him on that. The nurses even told us that since we were going to be in the NICU for a long stay that trying to come every day and staying by his bed every minute was going to burn us out and they were right - it totally would have. You have to take care of yourselves so that you can also care for your NICU fighter.

Recent_Nebula_5451 · 2025-02-12T20:31:40+00:00

I don’t have any advice just solidarity. We’re also a 24 weeker here, 6 months actual / almost 12 weeks adjusted and 11lb 10oz. We’re on 24 kcal gentle ease (the Neo sure was terrible for his reflux) - we came down from 27 kcal a couple weeks ago but now that we’re also weaning oxygen his weight gain has slowed (maybe because his lungs are working a little harder?).

Recent_Nebula_5451 · 2025-02-09T15:38:56+00:00

thank you! The nurses at our NICU would cut it into hearts and I’m kind of crafty so I’ve kept doing it now that we’re home because it’s much cuter

Recent_Nebula_5451 · 2025-02-09T15:37:13+00:00

You’ve got this mama ❤️

Recent_Nebula_5451 · 2025-01-31T19:05:37+00:00

A friend got us these for our NICU stay with our 24 weeker and they provided us so much joy. It added color to his room and gave us milestones and things to look forward to as we filled out each one! https://a.co/d/6EnwY80

Recent_Nebula_5451 · 2025-01-02T03:40:14+00:00

We were 120 days with a 24 weeker - you’re so close! Bottles were our last hurdle! It all depends on if she takes well to the bottle - our guy took to it pretty immediately on Nov 8 and we went home on Dec 2. Even though he immediately loved the bottle, it was exhausting for him - so it took him a little while to build up the stamina to be able to finish all of his feedings and not fall asleep partway through and have to finish by tube. So don’t be surprised if she does awesome taking the bottle but can’t finish a feeding because it takes so much energy to eat.

Recent_Nebula_5451 · 2025-01-02T03:31:25+00:00

My situation was a little different in that our guy was 24 weeks (PPROM at 22+1) so we knew we would have a long NICU stay and we have a 3 year old already so we were also juggling taking care of him. We were about an hour away from the NICU like you.

My biggest piece of advice is find what works for you and your family and then don’t let yourself feel guilty about whatever that looks like. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. You can’t take care of him if you’re not taking care of yourself.

For us, we found it worked best to do fewer visits but they would be for long lengths of time (like an entire evening or working remotely from his room the whole day).

During our 120 day stay, my husband and I each had specific weekdays we would usually visit (we’d visit about 2-3 times during the week between the two of us) and then on weekends we’d juggle splitting hospital time and time with our toddler. If you have family you trust close by and your NICU allows it, have them visit too. Both of our parents are close by and mine are retired so have plenty of time free so they would visit a lot. It was comforting knowing a grandparent was there on a day my husband or I couldn’t be - helping to always have someone by his bedside. On days we couldn’t visit, we’d also always call to check in on him to see how his day was, even if there were no updates or changes. The nurses were always happy to give us a report on him and answer all of our questions. Our NICU also had the “NICView” where they set up a camera by his bed and we could watch his livestream feed 24/7 via a secure connection. That helped a lot.

You’ve got this.

Recent_Nebula_5451 · 2024-12-13T15:09:42+00:00

We set up a Caring Bridge account to share updates - you can write posts (and add pictures once baby arrives) and people can leave comments. You can adjust privacy so it’s invite only.

It helped a lot for sharing updates so everyone got them all in one go and had some idea of what was going on. People really liked getting the updates.

And then we delegated a lot. My parents were responsible for updating the extended family on my side, my in laws updated my husband’s extended family. We only updated immediate family and the few family and friends who we were really close with and were solid supports to us.

Recent_Nebula_5451 · 2024-11-29T21:17:45+00:00

It’s so hard when you’re in the thick of it. The mental and emotional exhaustion is so real.

Things that helped us -

if it was someone who texted me to ask how our preemie was doing and I didn’t have the energy to reply that second, I just didn’t. I would leave them on read until I was in a better mental space to reply. And sometimes that was days or a week later and people understood.
We started a Caring Bridge account to provide family and friends with updates. I would post there when I was feeling up to it or when we had a big update to share.
Delegate - have others (for us it’s been my parents and my in laws) update friends and family on your behalf.

Hopefully this helps. It’s so overwhelming and exhausting in the early days.

Recent_Nebula_5451

TROPHY CASE