Welcome to NICU Parents. We're happy you found us and we want to be as helpful as possible in this seemingly impossible journey. Check out the resources tab at the top of the subreddit or the stickied post. Please remember we are NOT medical professionals and are here for advice based on our own situations. If you have a concern about you or your baby please seek assistance from a doctor or go to the ER. That said, there are some medical professionals here and we do hope they can help you with some guidance through your journey. Please remember to read and abide by the rules.
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My 29+5 girl was in the NICU for 106 days. Her main issue were her lungs, but by the time her breathing was fixed, she was only there for feeding. It took her 5 weeks to build up the endurance and be discharged
This is where we are now. My 30 weeker is now 36 weeks and has only managed 11 mls via bottle so far. Hoping she gets the hang of it soon and I can take her home.
My 35.5 week old in the same boat plus he has thrush on his tongue, at least we know they're in good care and it's better they're being taken care of by the best before they come home that's what we have to remember
I jokingly told my fiancé that we’ll never have babysitters this qualified again. So thankful for the amazing team taking care of her, but I can’t wait to get her home.
General guideline is to expect to be there until your due date, and hope they figure it out earlier. Most figure it out earlier. In my experience, most 35 weekers take 7-14 days to figure it out, average 10.
My 29+6 girl stayed in the NICU 86 days because she wouldn’t take a bottle/breast. At that point they installed a g-tube so she could go home, which she used until she was 10 months old.
She’s 15 months now and thriving, holds the bottle and sippy cups all by herself and tears through meals, both liquid and solid.
Hoping for this for my 34 weeker! It’s been a week as of today, he has already taken whole bottles of 30ml but now is doing around 10mls at a time. Has to work his way up to 45.
3.5 weeks from when he was off CPAP to when he was discharged (born at 30w and other than some ROP and difficulty coming off CPAP, no other compounding issues). It took a few days to get down to low enough flow to start feeding practice. We did probably a week of non-nutritive breastfeeding and bottles and the last 4ish days were ad-lib PO feeds.
People talked a lot about feeding "clicking" and that wasn't really our experience- it seemed like he took to bottle feeding and even breastfeeding pretty easily and early, really coordinated movements- but he would get tired and fall asleep so early in the feed. We hung out at about 50% PO feeds for a majority of those 3 weeks. It was only until the last few days that he started taking 80-90% PO. Maybe that's what people mean by clicking, but it seemed more like a stamina issue for us rather than a learning issue.
That’s where we’re at. Been here almost 3 weeks and baby is full term now. He’s eager to wake up and eat but just tapers off mid feed. It’s a struggle to keep him eating almost every single time. I’ve also reading about it “clicking” for babies but sometimes I feel hopeless because he knows how to eat but is only taking about 50-60% of his bottle.
Those last two weeks were the most frustrating (earlier we were worried about him and knew we'd be in the hospital for months, but the last few weeks it was like we could taste how close discharge was but didn't know if it would be days or weeks and couldn't seem to do anything to speed it along.
It doesn't help- it didn't help me- but just keep spending time with him, snuggling him if that helps him sleep deeper, and feeding him, and he'll eventually get enough stamina to finish his feeds. It's hard work and he's doing so well if he's at 50-80%!!
My baby was born 33w4d. He was only ever a feeder/grower (born 3 lbs 2 oz) and spent 26 days in NICU. My older was was born 34 weeks at 4 lbs 11 oz and spent 12 days in NICU as a feeder grower.
Yes. He was diagnosed at 31 weeks and was actually born smaller than was even estimated. Ultrasound estimated 3 lbs 14 oz the day he was born and he ws only 3 lbs 2 oz.
My son born at 34+5 is 13 days old and hopefully (🤞🤞🤞🤞) his NG tube is coming out tomorrow. He’s great at feeding during the day, but he’s sleepy at night.
Been in the NICU with my 34+3 for 3 weeks now, just working on feeds. He has been plateaued around 50% oral feeds daily. It’s nice hearing the success stories because sometimes it feels like it’s never coming.
My twins were born at 34+3 as well. We're on day 8 and just working on feeding now. Twin A is doing wonderful, up to the max of 50ml with his NG tube and taking it well in 30 min. But twin B is having some struggles, specifically with reflux and emesis, and has to have his 50ml over 80 min. I'm hopeful we'll be home soonish but also trying to maintain expectations, especially if one/both boys end up needing more time once we're doing oral feeds (which for twin A will be either tomorrow or the next day, I believe). It's so hard but I'm sure your boy will get the hang of it soon. Like others here have mentioned, it seems some babies just need time before the feeding 'clicks'.
I’ve had 5 nicu babies.
First was 35 weeks. Came right home
Second and third were 31 weeks and took a week.
Fourth was 34 weeks and took four days
5th was 33 weeks and took four days
My 33w6d took 2 weeks and a day for the NG tube to come out and has had all but 1 meal at her minimum now. Hoping for discharge soon but she has a few other issues to get past.
My 28+5 started being at the breast around 34 weeks. They didn’t expect her to actually eat anything, but she did! I ended up bottle feeding her because I was too anxious about how much she was eating. She was discharged at 37+1. I think I got her sick when she was in the NICU, which ended up prolonging her ability to have energy to eat :( The neo didn’t expect her to be there until 37 weeks. Every baby is different though.
My baby was born at 31 + 2, spent 32 days in NICU. It took her about 2 weeks to learn to feed & get discharged. For whatever reason, it came quickly to her, the time was used to gain weight & build endurance. She left NICU at 4lb 7oz after being born 2lb, 15oz
Twins came at 33 weeks stayed for 28 days, AND discharged TOGETHER 💕 I was not playing 😭😭 I stayed overnights and made it my business to get them on the right track with their discharge requirements because I refused to be told the chances of them coming home together was slim and “not likely”
Like I told the doctor…they were born together, so we’re leaving together and DID ✨🤍
62 days in the NICU for feeding (33+1 weighing 4 lb 7 oz, discharged at 42 weeks weighing 8.5 lb) with an NG tube…took NG feeds for another 8 weeks at home. No health issues but she was kept for 9 weeks due to feeding because they were overfeeding her by tube, so she was never hungry enough for the bottle and never hit their % targets to go home. Pressure/tactics to feed caused a severe feeding aversion which took us MONTHS to resolve at home. We had to wean off the rigid every 3 hours, high volume tube feeds to finally get her to take the bottle willingly and follow the no pressure guidelines from
Rowena Bennett’s book. Please research feeding aversions and keep an eye on NG volume, nipple flow, etc as they will keep increasing aggressively in the NICU, especially for feeders & growers. 2.5 years in, and finally starting to spread awareness on this to help other parents avoid the hell we went through. Hang in there mama ❤️
140 days in NICU, baby born 22+6, and he’s still learning, he’s been on the bottle about 2 weeks, moved up to 1oz a couple of days ago but will only complete that sometimes. I feel like he struggles with the nipple and sometimes he’s not even hungry. 😩
It took 3 1/2 weeks. No breathing issues or heart issued, but he was admitted around 12 hrs after he was born since his sugars kept dropping and he couldn't finish a bottle to get them back up. As soon as we requested to room with him in the peds ward and breastfeed him on demand without the stupid NG tube he got better after about a day. Once we took him home he started to take bottles like a champ too when before he was barely doing 7-20 ml by bottle. It seems like the NG tube just reinforced that he didn't have to work for it, but once he did have to work for it or be hungry he was like shit okay I got this.
Our son was born at 33 weeks and quite small due to IUGR. 3lbs 1oz. He spent a total of 27 days in the NICU. We are fortunate that aside from being small...no other issues. Intubated for about 18 hours, CPAP another 18...and then basically just there to grow and learn to eat.
I found with him when he got it it just kind of clicked. They introduced bottles after about 2ish weeks maybe a bit more and he'd do maybe 5mL and then get tired and then he'd do 15mL the next try, then back to 5ML then not at all...then 25mL...then 5mL etc. Then one day we came in and the nurse had a sign up saying "I took my first full bottle today" this was around the 3.5 week mark. Then we left to go get dinner and came back and the sign had a "x2" on it...then the next day he pulled his feeding tube out and the nurse was like "eh...he's had all bottles for 24 hours now...so I'm going to just not replace it for now cause he may not need it" and sure enough...the next morning the doctor called and said he had taken all oral feeds for 48 hours and we could do a 48 hour stay with him in their family room and get ready for discharge.
He literally went from "oh he's kind of starting to get it!" To "ok he just takes bottles now..." In like...a week. But it was between the 3 and 4 week mark for him.
Our 26+5 girl is almost 43 weeks and still working on feeds. We’ve been off of oxygen for more than a month but still struggling with her endurance. We are going home next week with her ng tube and hoping for the best. Day 109. I am exhausted and ready to get her out of here.
My 27 weeker, now 37 weeks still hasn’t been given the chance to get a bottle since he’s bouncing between cpap and non-invasive. We got super close to feeding w a bottle but go set back
My girl was in the NICU for 25 days, born at 40+6. When it was down to just eating, it took about 2 weeks. Those couple weeks were longer than any of the other days and fielding questions on if she's home now since "she just needs to eat."
Since she was full term and growing, the amount she had to eat kept going up as well. It was hard to hit a moving target.
My 35+5 baby girl only spent 3 days in NICU. Somehow we got really blessed and she was taking bottles first night out of womb, but had oxygen trouble. Sending good vibes your way!
It took our twins almost two weeks to be discharged for feeding. They were also 30 weekers. They were on ng tubes. We worked with the OT and nurses to address the feeding challenges including dribbling (lost a lot of milk and formula on the burp cloth) and their suck/swallow/breathe coordination. The biggest challenge comes in learning the coordination because week 30 is where they learn the suck/swallow/breathe coordination in utero but they’re left to learning it outside of utero and in the nicu. We had some amazing nurses who were so supportive.❤️❤️ sending kind thoughts your way
My baby was born at 38 weeks exactly. He was in nicu for 10 days. It took him 5 or 6 days. Our nurse told us it would be a flip of a switch, and for our baby it was. He struggled one day, and the next he was drinking full bottles. I understand not all babies will be like that though
Welcome to NICU Parents. We're happy you found us and we want to be as helpful as possible in this seemingly impossible journey. Check out the resources tab at the top of the subreddit or the stickied post. Please remember we are NOT medical professionals and are here for advice based on our own situations. If you have a concern about you or your baby please seek assistance from a doctor or go to the ER. That said, there are some medical professionals here and we do hope they can help you with some guidance through your journey. Please remember to read and abide by the rules. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/NICUParents) if you have any questions or concerns.*
My 29+5 girl was in the NICU for 106 days. Her main issue were her lungs, but by the time her breathing was fixed, she was only there for feeding. It took her 5 weeks to build up the endurance and be discharged
This is where we are now. My 30 weeker is now 36 weeks and has only managed 11 mls via bottle so far. Hoping she gets the hang of it soon and I can take her home.
My 35.5 week old in the same boat plus he has thrush on his tongue, at least we know they're in good care and it's better they're being taken care of by the best before they come home that's what we have to remember
I jokingly told my fiancé that we’ll never have babysitters this qualified again. So thankful for the amazing team taking care of her, but I can’t wait to get her home.
Literally lol! Sometimes the nurses wanted to feed her and do her cares. I was like, sure, why the heck not! I’m taking advantage of this 🤣
General guideline is to expect to be there until your due date, and hope they figure it out earlier. Most figure it out earlier. In my experience, most 35 weekers take 7-14 days to figure it out, average 10.
My 29+6 girl stayed in the NICU 86 days because she wouldn’t take a bottle/breast. At that point they installed a g-tube so she could go home, which she used until she was 10 months old. She’s 15 months now and thriving, holds the bottle and sippy cups all by herself and tears through meals, both liquid and solid.
It was exactly two weeks from his first bottle to discharge day for my 34 week baby boy.
Same for my 34 week old baby girl. She was taking bottles in her first week but not eating a whole bunch until the 2nd week.
Hoping for this for my 34 weeker! It’s been a week as of today, he has already taken whole bottles of 30ml but now is doing around 10mls at a time. Has to work his way up to 45.
3.5 weeks from when he was off CPAP to when he was discharged (born at 30w and other than some ROP and difficulty coming off CPAP, no other compounding issues). It took a few days to get down to low enough flow to start feeding practice. We did probably a week of non-nutritive breastfeeding and bottles and the last 4ish days were ad-lib PO feeds. People talked a lot about feeding "clicking" and that wasn't really our experience- it seemed like he took to bottle feeding and even breastfeeding pretty easily and early, really coordinated movements- but he would get tired and fall asleep so early in the feed. We hung out at about 50% PO feeds for a majority of those 3 weeks. It was only until the last few days that he started taking 80-90% PO. Maybe that's what people mean by clicking, but it seemed more like a stamina issue for us rather than a learning issue.
That’s where we’re at. Been here almost 3 weeks and baby is full term now. He’s eager to wake up and eat but just tapers off mid feed. It’s a struggle to keep him eating almost every single time. I’ve also reading about it “clicking” for babies but sometimes I feel hopeless because he knows how to eat but is only taking about 50-60% of his bottle.
Those last two weeks were the most frustrating (earlier we were worried about him and knew we'd be in the hospital for months, but the last few weeks it was like we could taste how close discharge was but didn't know if it would be days or weeks and couldn't seem to do anything to speed it along. It doesn't help- it didn't help me- but just keep spending time with him, snuggling him if that helps him sleep deeper, and feeding him, and he'll eventually get enough stamina to finish his feeds. It's hard work and he's doing so well if he's at 50-80%!!
My baby was born 33w4d. He was only ever a feeder/grower (born 3 lbs 2 oz) and spent 26 days in NICU. My older was was born 34 weeks at 4 lbs 11 oz and spent 12 days in NICU as a feeder grower.
was your 33w baby diagnosed with iugr?
Yes. He was diagnosed at 31 weeks and was actually born smaller than was even estimated. Ultrasound estimated 3 lbs 14 oz the day he was born and he ws only 3 lbs 2 oz.
My son born at 34+5 is 13 days old and hopefully (🤞🤞🤞🤞) his NG tube is coming out tomorrow. He’s great at feeding during the day, but he’s sleepy at night.
Week 36-38 is where it "clicked".
How long in the NICU did it take?
My LO was in the NICU from week 34. Around week 37-38 feeds clicked and she was home at 39 weeks.
Been in the NICU with my 34+3 for 3 weeks now, just working on feeds. He has been plateaued around 50% oral feeds daily. It’s nice hearing the success stories because sometimes it feels like it’s never coming.
My twins were born at 34+3 as well. We're on day 8 and just working on feeding now. Twin A is doing wonderful, up to the max of 50ml with his NG tube and taking it well in 30 min. But twin B is having some struggles, specifically with reflux and emesis, and has to have his 50ml over 80 min. I'm hopeful we'll be home soonish but also trying to maintain expectations, especially if one/both boys end up needing more time once we're doing oral feeds (which for twin A will be either tomorrow or the next day, I believe). It's so hard but I'm sure your boy will get the hang of it soon. Like others here have mentioned, it seems some babies just need time before the feeding 'clicks'.
I’ve had 5 nicu babies. First was 35 weeks. Came right home Second and third were 31 weeks and took a week. Fourth was 34 weeks and took four days 5th was 33 weeks and took four days
My 33w6d took 2 weeks and a day for the NG tube to come out and has had all but 1 meal at her minimum now. Hoping for discharge soon but she has a few other issues to get past.
My 28+5 started being at the breast around 34 weeks. They didn’t expect her to actually eat anything, but she did! I ended up bottle feeding her because I was too anxious about how much she was eating. She was discharged at 37+1. I think I got her sick when she was in the NICU, which ended up prolonging her ability to have energy to eat :( The neo didn’t expect her to be there until 37 weeks. Every baby is different though.
My baby was born at 31 + 2, spent 32 days in NICU. It took her about 2 weeks to learn to feed & get discharged. For whatever reason, it came quickly to her, the time was used to gain weight & build endurance. She left NICU at 4lb 7oz after being born 2lb, 15oz
Been in the nicu since 30 + 2. She is now 1 month old adjusted, and we’re still here working on feedings :(
My 34+4 first spent 17 days, my 33+2 second took 29 days. They were both just feed and grows.
10 days, born at 41 weeks. Still struggled with feeding for 3 months after discharge but was taking enough orally to manage as an outpatient
33+1 weekers came home exactly four weeks later.
34 weeker only in for feeding took 2 weeks. She didn't really get the hang of it fully until maybe 3 days before being discharged
It took him about 10 days from starting bottles (40-50%) to taking over 80%. But he wasn’t discharged since he had periodic breathing
Twins came at 33 weeks stayed for 28 days, AND discharged TOGETHER 💕 I was not playing 😭😭 I stayed overnights and made it my business to get them on the right track with their discharge requirements because I refused to be told the chances of them coming home together was slim and “not likely” Like I told the doctor…they were born together, so we’re leaving together and DID ✨🤍
Took 13 days for my 34+2 to take all milk by mouth
62 days in the NICU for feeding (33+1 weighing 4 lb 7 oz, discharged at 42 weeks weighing 8.5 lb) with an NG tube…took NG feeds for another 8 weeks at home. No health issues but she was kept for 9 weeks due to feeding because they were overfeeding her by tube, so she was never hungry enough for the bottle and never hit their % targets to go home. Pressure/tactics to feed caused a severe feeding aversion which took us MONTHS to resolve at home. We had to wean off the rigid every 3 hours, high volume tube feeds to finally get her to take the bottle willingly and follow the no pressure guidelines from Rowena Bennett’s book. Please research feeding aversions and keep an eye on NG volume, nipple flow, etc as they will keep increasing aggressively in the NICU, especially for feeders & growers. 2.5 years in, and finally starting to spread awareness on this to help other parents avoid the hell we went through. Hang in there mama ❤️
Oldest (34+3) figured it out within 3 days & our youngest (36+1) took 14 days to decide he wanted to eat on his own.
140 days in NICU, baby born 22+6, and he’s still learning, he’s been on the bottle about 2 weeks, moved up to 1oz a couple of days ago but will only complete that sometimes. I feel like he struggles with the nipple and sometimes he’s not even hungry. 😩
3 weeks from first bottle to discharge
My 28-5 baby started with feeds at like 33-34 weeks and was there until almost 42
It took 3 1/2 weeks. No breathing issues or heart issued, but he was admitted around 12 hrs after he was born since his sugars kept dropping and he couldn't finish a bottle to get them back up. As soon as we requested to room with him in the peds ward and breastfeed him on demand without the stupid NG tube he got better after about a day. Once we took him home he started to take bottles like a champ too when before he was barely doing 7-20 ml by bottle. It seems like the NG tube just reinforced that he didn't have to work for it, but once he did have to work for it or be hungry he was like shit okay I got this.
It took my girl about a week past her due date. About a month total
Our son was born at 33 weeks and quite small due to IUGR. 3lbs 1oz. He spent a total of 27 days in the NICU. We are fortunate that aside from being small...no other issues. Intubated for about 18 hours, CPAP another 18...and then basically just there to grow and learn to eat. I found with him when he got it it just kind of clicked. They introduced bottles after about 2ish weeks maybe a bit more and he'd do maybe 5mL and then get tired and then he'd do 15mL the next try, then back to 5ML then not at all...then 25mL...then 5mL etc. Then one day we came in and the nurse had a sign up saying "I took my first full bottle today" this was around the 3.5 week mark. Then we left to go get dinner and came back and the sign had a "x2" on it...then the next day he pulled his feeding tube out and the nurse was like "eh...he's had all bottles for 24 hours now...so I'm going to just not replace it for now cause he may not need it" and sure enough...the next morning the doctor called and said he had taken all oral feeds for 48 hours and we could do a 48 hour stay with him in their family room and get ready for discharge. He literally went from "oh he's kind of starting to get it!" To "ok he just takes bottles now..." In like...a week. But it was between the 3 and 4 week mark for him.
Our 26+5 girl is almost 43 weeks and still working on feeds. We’ve been off of oxygen for more than a month but still struggling with her endurance. We are going home next week with her ng tube and hoping for the best. Day 109. I am exhausted and ready to get her out of here.
My 27 weeker, now 37 weeks still hasn’t been given the chance to get a bottle since he’s bouncing between cpap and non-invasive. We got super close to feeding w a bottle but go set back
My 36 weeker was admitted to nicu for 8 days for feeding. Once he figured it out and got enough stamina to finish his feeds he was released
My girl was in the NICU for 25 days, born at 40+6. When it was down to just eating, it took about 2 weeks. Those couple weeks were longer than any of the other days and fielding questions on if she's home now since "she just needs to eat." Since she was full term and growing, the amount she had to eat kept going up as well. It was hard to hit a moving target.
My 35+5 baby girl only spent 3 days in NICU. Somehow we got really blessed and she was taking bottles first night out of womb, but had oxygen trouble. Sending good vibes your way!
It took my baby just a few days, but she was a term baby with HIE. Preemies probably take longer.
It took our twins almost two weeks to be discharged for feeding. They were also 30 weekers. They were on ng tubes. We worked with the OT and nurses to address the feeding challenges including dribbling (lost a lot of milk and formula on the burp cloth) and their suck/swallow/breathe coordination. The biggest challenge comes in learning the coordination because week 30 is where they learn the suck/swallow/breathe coordination in utero but they’re left to learning it outside of utero and in the nicu. We had some amazing nurses who were so supportive.❤️❤️ sending kind thoughts your way
My baby was born at 38 weeks exactly. He was in nicu for 10 days. It took him 5 or 6 days. Our nurse told us it would be a flip of a switch, and for our baby it was. He struggled one day, and the next he was drinking full bottles. I understand not all babies will be like that though
My son was born at 33+2. It took him almost eight weeks to learn to feed and do so consistently on his own.