I have learned that premies need to be on a three-hour sleep schedule to allow them to release enough growth hormones.  Years ago, I was also told that premies spend so much more energy just to maintain state (temperature, respiration rate, etc.) that they need to sleep more because they wear themselves out.
 
However, I have run into many parents who have been taught that their premature baby should eat every 3 hours, and then as baby matures, these same parents lament how baby is "fussy" because he cries before 3 hours, or they must be losing their milk (same reason).  So I have learned to "pre-teach" them when they come to my office for a rental pump to maintain supply.  I tell them that it is normal for their premie to sleep a lot now.  Then I tell them that the average full-term baby eats every 2 hours.  So as the baby matures, expect him to begin to pull his feedings closer together.  I tell them this is not a sign of trouble, but a sign that the baby is maturing into the condition he would have been had he been a healthy, full-term baby.  So I head off that anxiety and "holding off the baby" at the pass.  Works pretty well.
    Dee Kassing, IBCLC, RLC
   Collinsville IL in central USA

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