Returning Home with a Preemie

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For the first few weeks, your baby will be able to sleep most of the time after arriving home.

Premature babies tend to have long periods of sleep and short periods of awareness. Premature babies sometimes don't cry for food like full-term babies do because they don't recognize when they're hungry.

Your baby may also confuse day and night just after leaving the hospital.

Realize how different his new room at home is from the neonatal unit. If you think your baby is having trouble sleeping, you can turn on a nightlight and play the radio at low volume; you can also slowly lower the noise and light to help your baby adjust to the atmosphere of your home.

When you feed your baby at night, don't play with him or her, and keep his or her attention focused on feeding. If your baby has trouble sleeping, and you are sleep-deprived, ask your family or a friend for help and, if possible, take a nap of two or three hours for a few consecutive days. You need to recover from your hospital stay too!

Usually, a baby between 6 and 8 months of age (corrected age) should be able to sleep through the night. Babies lie on their backs in bed to help prevent breathing difficulties during sleep. Ask your baby's doctor and nurse for advice on sleeping positions that can help restore a well-rounded head. To relieve the stress and exhaustion of the last few weeks/months, many parents set up a small bed in their bedroom for a few months to recover a little.

Fever is one of the ways the body fights infection. The body's "cleaning" cells (called macrophages) are on constant patrol. When they detect something (virus, bacteria, fungus), they work to eliminate it. They call for help by asking the brain to raise the body's temperature. Heat directly destroys certain types of bacteria. Fever also seems to accelerate the body's production of white blood cells and germ-killing chemicals.

Your baby's first teeth, the lower central incisors, don't emerge until between four and eight months. Don't worry if you see them coming earlier or later! The four upper incisors and two lower lateral incisors will follow, and after a few months, the first four molars will appear. The canines come out around sixteen/eighteen months, and the last molars around twenty/twenty-four months. In any case, the baby will have twenty milk teeth between the ages of two and three.

Premature children grow their teeth according to their "corrected age,” not their actual age.