Need help/advice about getting a NICU graduate to sleep at home

[Burnt Out]

Forgive me for posting this here but my husband and I are a little desperate. :imbar

We brought our daughter home from the NICU Friday: she was born at 32 weeks because I had severe pre-eclampsia/HELLP Syndrome. She never had to be on the vent, just o2 and CPAP :wink2:

When we were discharged, the NICU nurses told us to feed her and put her down-not to stimulate her a lot, etc, etc. Well, Alyssa will not sleep unless she is held. We hold her for a short time after she eats and then we put her down (we were told it is ok to hold her for 30 min-1 hr after eating) and she usually gets fussy in about 30 minutes to where she will start crying. She will not sleep in her cradle, I've tried everything I know to do: use a heating pad before laying her down to take the chill off of the sheet; swaddle her (she ends up wiggling out of her swaddling!); used a bear with the mother's heart beat; used a sleep positioner to make her feel more secure.

Is there any hints or anything you wonderful NICU nurses can tell us?

TIA,

A sleep deprived Allnurses mommy

[Nyoro]

Our NICU actually encourages cosleeping with preemies! (As in providing a lot of booklets about it when the baby is discharged.)

Apparently they did a study here (Japan) that showed babies who coslept hardly ever had SIDS. If I remember the figures correctly, the "cosleeping effect" more than tripled in preemie cases and was shown to drastically reduce abuse by stimulating bonding.

As cosleeping is the norm here, almost NOONE has heard of SIDS - even a lot of doctors. Most of the papers we give out about it say things like "Just because your baby slept alone in the NICU doesn`t mean that they should at home! Motherly instinct may keep your baby from having apnea!" According to the study info we have, over 80% of the test mothers woke within 20 seconds of their baby ceasing to breathe, usually only halfway, but enough to stimulate the baby... which is one of the possible things helping the low SIDS rate.

I know there is a lot of pressure for babies to sleep alone, but unless you have something preventing you from having "normal" sleep awareness (ie. medications, alcohol, medical condition) it is really not unsafe at all.

Cosleeping really is the norm here, in almost all situations, and the SIDS rate is less than 1/10th that of the US. Food for thought.

[SusanJean]

Our NICU actually encourages cosleeping with preemies! (As in providing a lot of booklets about it when the baby is discharged.)

Apparently they did a study here (Japan) that showed babies who coslept hardly ever had SIDS. If I remember the figures correctly, the "cosleeping effect" more than tripled in preemie cases and was shown to drastically reduce abuse by stimulating bonding.

As cosleeping is the norm here, almost NOONE has heard of SIDS - even a lot of doctors. Most of the papers we give out about it say things like "Just because your baby slept alone in the NICU doesn`t mean that they should at home! Motherly instinct may keep your baby from having apnea!" According to the study info we have, over 80% of the test mothers woke within 20 seconds of their baby ceasing to breathe, usually only halfway, but enough to stimulate the baby... which is one of the possible things helping the low SIDS rate.

I know there is a lot of pressure for babies to sleep alone, but unless you have something preventing you from having "normal" sleep awareness (ie. medications, alcohol, medical condition) it is really not unsafe at all.

Cosleeping really is the norm here, in almost all situations, and the SIDS rate is less than 1/10th that of the US. Food for thought.

Thanks for the info!

SJ