Explain newborns awake time & getting them back to sleep?

ds was in ICU for 10 days when he was born premature... they had him on a set schedule every three hours wake him- change him- feed him- back to sleep....

now that he's home(since last friday night) he starts to rustle close to every 3 hours so we have been able to change/feed him on the 3 hour marker.... some times he goes back to sleep - but durring the day particularly it seems like he sometimes stays up-

how much is he allowed to stay up when he does durring the day?

and at night he seems ok with night changes except for the 3 am one he has issues with going back to sleep... any tips?

Re: Explain newborns awake time & getting them back to sleep?

you should probably post this on parenting

i don't know about NICU babies but as for DS, once he had gained back the weight he lost in the hospital the ped said we didn't have to wake him to eat (we never had to anyway, he woke every 2-3 hours to eat).

during the day if your DS is staying up longer that is a good thing. let him, and when he gets fussy let him nap.

the 3am back to sleep time was hard for me too. the one thing that finally worked was swaddling him. he also loved being in a sleep positioner (the curved on that cradled him a bit) that had the fake heartbeat sound.

also he started sleeping MUCH better once he was in his own room.

i hope this helps. as far as how often he should eat i would ask your ped.