oooooh and tell her not to google. The best thing i did was come here and read stories,namely Dona's as my alex was about the same gestation and it gave me strength and helped me know what was to come. googling only brings up thingss you just dont want to hear.

great advise. Google scares me

I was stupid and on google in my hospital bed

and here of course!

We'll welcome your friend with open arms!!!

(You're such a sweet friend hunny!)

GRRR I had this huge reply typed and my little stinker 24 weeker erased it some how on me with one finger!

Anyways, Im a mom to a 24 weeker, Lakai as someone already mentioned. My son was born at 24+4 weeks and weighed 1.63lbs. He was born on Nov 2, 2009 and came home on March 9, 2010.

I am amazed that your friends baby is only being ventilated at night, that is truly remarkable due to his age. I have never ever heard of that before with a 24 weeker...or even a 26-27 weeker and Ive done a TON of preemie research..as I did go looking on Google (I agree..tell her to stay away from it!!). So your friend has a FIGHTER on her hands! Bless him.

I have to ask for my own personal curiousity....is the baby being intubated and extubated each night? In other words, are they sticking the breathing tube into his throat and taking it out when needed?

I just ask because it's not a pleasant process. I can't imagine that would be easy for momma and especially baby!

Im nosey, pay me no mind.

Anyways. I think everyone has covered everything I would have said! We have an awesome group here. I truly urge your friend to join.

I will say having a 24 weeker is not easy, its as preemie as they typically come. There are a lot of possible issues, my son faced most of them, from bleeding in his brain to heart surgery. The hardest thing will be that no one can tell you this is how your baby will turn out, no one can tell you for sure if your baby will be "ok". When we found out Lakai had a very serious brain bleed they told us HORRIBLE things, like he would be delayed, disabled and basically never normal. They told us stats and numbers, shared other outcomes from other babies they had seen with similar bleeds and issues.

They even asked if we wanted to stop his life support, numerous times. And this was in a wonderful, cutting edge and caring hospital!

I can happily say my son is 11 months corrected (so the age he would be going from his due date) and over 14 months actual (going from his actual bday) and he isn't delayed, he has no disablities...while he does have some feeding issues, you would NEVER guess he had any issues in the NICU. Even the doctors who seldom say "miracle" have called him such on numerous visits.

The point Im trying to make is...its very trying and hard, its easy to loose focus and faith. Its a test of your strength and ability as a parent in some ways..but there are positive stories out there!

And each day is a step in the right direction...home.

If your friend wants to talk to someone who also had a 24 weeker, she can FB me (Nicola Shylo Kraft) or email me nkbapbt@yahoo.ca or at luckylakaifoundation@yahoo.ca <--- which is the email for my NICU foundation that I created in honor of my son to help in situations just like this.

If you would like to read about my journey..My ask a Mum who had a 24 weeker thread...=) Lots of info there

And Lakai's Story from the very beginning day by day basically. Its a long read!

If you have any questions you can PM me too! =)

I will be thinking about this little guy LOTS so you better come back and update us!

^^knew you'd be able to sort her out some words of wisdom bird

Im so pleased that everything turned out so well for you considering how scary the experince must of been. Im gonna let her no everything you have told me. I have mentioned the site to her, but she hasnt used a forum before. But i will let her no that she can ask you all any question.

Her baby is spending a few days in bristol childrens hospital as the kidneys where not working as they should. But a day later and they are better already. The baby has no other problems as of yet and mummy got her 1st cuddle today.

Its amazing me how well he is doing. The doctors are very pleased with his progress so far. She was told he mayt not survive birth but he did and came out at 1lb8 and by the end of the 1st 24 hours he had put on a 1lb.

I have been feeling a bit guilty about things lately as i keep thinking about my little one tucked inside, and then i feel guilty if that makes sense. When the family ask me how i am after we have talked about there baby i feel like i cant say. But i think this is probably my hormones.

Thanks to you all for your kind words and advise. If nothing else it has helped me advise them more. You all seem a wonderful group of ladys , and if anyone i no is ever in a similar situation (i hope not) then i noi i can send them your way. Its so nice to here so many sucsess storys , when i normally find a lot of what i read ends in sadness. Its impotant to no what can go wrong but it great to read how your Little ones are doing so well.

When i had bleeding on my 1st trimester i made that mistake, ad it scared me , especailly wikipedia. I have since found out that anyone can answer on that. But i have conveinced myself i have all sorts of problems and infections.

Google is not a friend to a scared pregnant woman or preemie parent! Its beyond full of negative information, I swear they have some "positive" information filter that sends positive info into cyber outer space. I had myself so f'ing scared when Lakai was in the NICU I swore I was never going to have a "normal" baby. Honestly? Preemie information in general can be very negative, as are most preemie forums! Which is SO SAD, I love it here because the focus is on the positive!

Ive been BANNED from a preemie forum because I was posting positive updates about Lakai's outcome and the admin claimed I was "bringing other moms down". I couldn't believe it!

I think that the positive preemie outcome parents, either give up trying to post online...or they find niche places like this or just don't bother posting.

I try my best to flood the net with Lakai's story in hopes people in my shoes when I was in the NICU will find hope in his story. I wish more preemie parents with our outcome would start blogs/websites and spread their positive stories. So parents don't do what I did, and scare themselves silly reading negative after negative outcome and story.

I suppose in the end, negative is all how you see things. Im sure my story isn't 100% positive to everyone...but it's beyond what we could have ever hoped for and were told we would ever get.

wtf???????!!!!!!!!!!!!!

you and lakai fill me with hope!