BabyandBump - Premature Babies

we're hoping this baby won't be early aswell

roosterdude — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 03:55:04 GMT

My partner and i have been trying for a baby since time immerable (10 years) and have had two nearlies.. (14 weeks and 23.5weeks).
The last one at 23.5 weeks was downright awful as the hospital we were eventually rushed to put monitors and tubes in place as they thought we were > 24 weeks but then removed them when they worked out the dates properly and said something along the lines of "we thought you were 24 weeks so we were obliged to do everything we can but you are 23". Unfortunately they just let the baby die without any help at all. Thats not ok, but i can understand the law and their reasons however hard they are.

We are now on our 9th and final IVF attempt (age is against us unfortunately), but magically we are now got furthest we have ever been able to manage :-)

It still hasn't been plain sailing though. We had an elective cerclage between 14 and 15 weeks and all was going well until 20 weeks when we were
told that there was funelling (about 1.5cm iirc). From that point onwards my partner had complete bedrest and 2 weeks later we were told that that had helped.

However a week later we had a scan and were told that the funelling had come through the stitch by 4mm but surpisingly the result of a test (FFN) was negative.

Still, my partner was admitted to hospital. After another week however the rsult of another FFN test was positive :-(

At this stage also we were told that my partner has also a cyst in the amnoitic sac <-- we've no idea what that means.

My partner is now in hospital all the time as she has been admitted.

I'm really worried for a number of reasons. There are different midwives every night and most of them are disinterested in my partners symptoms....
For example they say "tightness in the tummy is not a problem, only call us if you get pain aswell". I know that from the last pregnancy that my partner
doesn't get pain until right at the last stages of labour, before that she is totally without pain. The midwives don't pay attention to this. My partner has tightening of the tummy with seemingly regular intervals and pain down there but it seems to be brushed off. To me this seems quite important; am I not right?
It just seems like they are waiting for "ok, you are giving birth" rather than "ok this is something we can stop".

The hospital she is in, while it certainly has a very good reputation and that is why we chose it, but heck the food is diabolical...
I have to bring food in as i'm sure my partner is not getting decent nutrician which IMHO is essential for pregnant women.

Anyhow i am not one to complain but would just like to hear if our exporeience is normal.

:-)

Babies who've had blood transfusions?

TashaAndBump — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 22:25:35 GMT

Do they need a second heal prick test?

Anna had to have two blood transfusions after she was born. When she was discharged my HV mentioned something about she would need a repeat heal prick test later on...

But nothing has been sent through and nothing mentioned about it since then.

To those whose babies have had transfusions after birth: Did they need a second heal prick test and when did they have it if so?

Thanks x

Perinatal Follow up

turbo_mom — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 06:46:37 GMT

Well today was Angelynn's perinatal follow up. Her last one was 6 months ago. But today it took forever!!! I was at the hospital with her for almost 5 hours :dohh: Lucky for me Angel did very well and was not cranky at all which was suprising because she had one large bottle for the whole time! I forgot her formula at home :dohh:

But she's doing very well. All of the doctors are very pleased with her progress.
SHe weighed in at a whopping 18lbs 2 oz 28 inches long. :happydance:
Her weight is within the 50th percentile which has been consistent throughout and her length is in the 90th percentile.
Also because of awesome growth she doesn't have to be on the preemie formula anymore. We took her off it a month ago because it's just too expensive but now we can eliminate it altogether!! YAY!!!
But I do have to work on her tummy time. I have a few excercises to do with her during the day to get her from a sitting position onto her hands and knees. She always wants to spread eagle when she's on her knees so we have to hold them in under her which really pisses her off. But I know she'll catch on!
I also picked up a few new foods for her to try since shes not too partial on chunky textures. Over the last couple weeks she's gotten better and really starting to chew her food so now i have to work on getting her eating mainly solids instead of her formula.

She passed her hearing test with flying colors but I already knew she would :)
And her eyes are doing well no sign of needing glasses yet! :happydance:
She was so tired during the exam too she was sleeping while the nurse was trying to exam her eyes :rofl: she only briefly woke up when the drops went in. Than she fell right back asleep for 20 mins.
She's really surprised everyone. She's such a strong girl and i'm so happy that she's normal and doesn't have any setbacks. After her rough start in life it's just fantastic to know that she's OK and there's nothing to worry about.
ahhhh i'm so blessed :cloud9:

Sleeping

Bec L — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 16:54:09 GMT

Hi
Just wondered out of interst how many of your babies sleep through or only wake once in the night? Poppy is 11 weeks not (technically only 5 weeks) and she occasionally sleeps for 4 or 5 hours in the night but most often only manages 3 hours. In the day she can easily go 5 hours - sometimes I have to wake her for feeds.

All the advice I have been given is she is only 5 weeks/9lbs it will take time for her to learn to sleep for longer. But I don't know if I am just being fobbed off when really I am doing something wrong! Ie should I only let her have naps in the day and wake her more often for feeds? Also, around this time of night (4pm) she is starting to get tired and cross but if she sleeps now I know she won't go down easily tonight.

Do you all have a routine for your premature babies and if so, how do they work? Or do you make allowances for the fact they were early and just cope with the sleepless nights?!

reposting this here, hope you don't mind...

TashaAndBump — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 20:24:56 GMT

As the title says, I have already posted this in the photo gallery, and hope you don't mind me posting it here, too?

Anna wasn't premature, but she was very poorly when she was born. I made this video, about her amazing journey from there to where she is now. I can't believe how far she has come...

I wanted to share it with people who would understand (those who have been through having a baby in the SCBU), and also hope that it will be encouraging and inspirational to those who are only just beginning their journey.

(You'll need sound)
http://www.onetruemedia.com/shared?p...edium=text_url

Going back to work....or not?

nkbapbt — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 07:15:26 GMT

I know what trivial thing this is..but I have to figure it out because my husband and I are just about to close the deal on an apartment we bought (on the 13th) and frankly money is going to get tighter.

I am curious what did other preemie moms do while their babies were in the NICU? Did you work?

I feel bad that I have to even consider it. But I also want to take my mat leave when Lakai comes home..

So many details to iron out...all while my emotional state is in turmoil.

Thanks!

Poppy - 34+2 weeks

Bec L — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 20:15:23 GMT

Hi everyone
Poppy was born at 34+2 weeks and was 5lb 1oz. Now, 8 weeks on she is 7lb 14 and breastfeeds like a good 'un :happydance:

The first 2 weeks while she was in hospital were awful but now we feel so lucky to have her with us so early and every little thing she does feels so amazing. Here are (hopefully) some 'before' and 'after' pics of our LO.

Good luck to all of you with premature babies. I hope your stories end up as happy as ours have xx

Attached Images

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Other preemie moms..

nkbapbt — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 16:23:49 GMT

How did you do it? How did you leave the hospital without your baby? How did you figure out the next steps? I had planned to stay home with Lakai after he was born..but I also planned to have a baby with me. I dont know what to do. I dont know if I work and visit as much as humanly possible. Or I still stay with him. I cannot believe I have to even make these choices.

How did you cope with everything?
How did you pass the time?
How did you not completely LOSE your mind?!
:cry::cry:

She was born at 26weeks what are her chances of survival??

ellasmummy — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 13:24:00 GMT

Hi girls, a close family friend has polycysitic (sp??) ovaries and has extreme difficulties getting pregnant. She has had lots of miscarriages and never made it past 14 weeks. Well this time she made it past 14 weeks and started having hope this baby would survive and at 24 weeks she started telling people and even brought her 1st baby bits. She was so proud of her little baby bump and everything appeared well. Yesterday she had some discomfort that felt like baby turning and yellow snotty discharge so she went to delivery suite and they confirmed an infection and that she was in labour. They held off the contractions and blue-lighted her to Cambridge where she gave birth yesterday to a little girl, weighing 1lb 7oz.
She is on lots of monitors and machines but can breathe quite a bit on her own, doctors seem positive and said she had a healthy birth weight for her age. I would just like to know what are her chances of survival? If she does survive how badly will she be affected? My friend doesnt deserve this and i pray for her that her little girl survives. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers.

Thanks girls xxx

:hugs:

Lakai's story

nkbapbt — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 06:11:15 GMT

Many of you have already probably read this in the second trimester forum but I wanted to post here so I could connect with other premie moms.

Well first of all I just want to introduce my son to the world! Lakai Hamilton Kraft was born at 1:50am on November 2, 2008 at the Children's Hospital in Vancouver. He is only 24 weeks and 3 days old..well now 4 days old! Or should I say officially he is a day old!

He came into this world early for reasons that are still some what unknown, but the main thing is he is fighting every single minute, growing stronger and stronger.

He weighs 1.63lbs right now and is in great condition aside from some minor things, such as a small now healing cut on his head from the very short birthing process and a bruise on his nose from the same.

I will mention now he was a very easy delivery in most respects, except that they had to induce me which made the labor come on a little faster and stronger than I was prepared for! But it didn't take him very much time to make his way into this world!

Currently he is on a breathing tube and in an incubator but he is actually doing most of his own breathing which is amazing for a premie of his age. He was getting caffine to sitmulate his breathing, but they stopped today because he is doing so well. There is even talk already of taking out his breathing tube! But that might wait and that's fine considering it is helping him and I do not want them doing anything that will stress him out.

He is also sporting some very cool bandage sunglasses right now because he is under a blue light for jaundice, which is very normal in premies. As the doctor says its "basic house keeping".

He did recieve a blood tranfusion last night but that is also some what basic housekeeping for a premie since they have to take so much blood from testing and because he is not creating his own blood yet, that he become ememic.

It went perfectly though...of course!

The doctors also say he is and I quote "a dream to work with because he is so easy to care for and has really no health issues beyond being premature". He does have a little bit of a temper like his dad though!

I have to admit beyond the temper thing, right now he is most like myself. He is stubborn, head strong, willful, strong, tough and sets his own rules to how he plans things to go for himself! Did I just admit I am all those things?

Plus he has black hair like me and my nose...even my toes actually.

He will most likely have to remain here until his due date of Feb 18th, 2009. But I have a very strong good feeling he won't stay a day or second longer than he wants too. He just isn't interested in being the average premie, he wants to show everyone what he is made of.

He is most certainly a little fighter!

Oh, about his name...Lakai is a combo of NicoLA and KYle..if you have not already figured it out. And Hamilton is my mom's maiden name and since she has always been the most supportive Grandma to him even before he was born and more so after we could not think of a better way to honor that and her.

Thank you so much Mom for everything you have done and all the love and support you have given me, Kyle and Lakai!

Thank you also to Ruth for being there through the labor and helping me focus on what I needed to get done. I really don't know what I would have done without you because I was for sure flying blindly...having not yet gone to birthing classes...and or prenatal!

And there is truly no way I could not thank the nurses, Angela and Ahmen for helping us through everything. And Dr. Shand and everything other single doctor and nurse at Children Hospital. It would be impossible to name everyone...there are just so many wonderful caring people who have helped us. An especially deep heartful thank you to the nurses in the NICU, everytime we go into to see Lakai you update us and tell us how wonderful our little warrior is doing. We know everytime we walk out the door to return to the hospital room that we are leaving Lakai in the best hands possible. THANK YOU!

I have to say its funny how I feel about everything. I mean you just never know what your reaction would be in this type of situation maybe because you never see it happening to you...or there is just no way to judge without it actually happening. But I am not scared or even that worried. I know in my heart Lakai is a fighter and he is strong like his mom and dad! And he will be just fine and no one will ever tell him otherwise.

I will admit it can be emotionally trying when I see other moms on the ward where I am staying holding their babies when I cannot hold him. But that day will come sooner than later, sooner than anyone will expect too!

Thank you to everyone who has left kind words and well wishes on my wall, emails and messages.

Even if I do not always have time to reply please know that every single word means everything. Its beyond comforting to know how many people are pulling for him. And its also nice for me to have a break and the chance to read them all. So please do not think because I cannot always reply that I do not care or I am not paying attention I am. Even after a long day I look forward to reading all the love.

Love Nic, Kyle and our little warrior Lakai Hamilton Kraft!