DD was born at 35 weeks - what to expect in the future

[FrozenNorth]

DD was born suddenly at 35 weeks about two weeks ago. She was 5lb 8oz and didn't spend any time on SCBU - it was threatened at one point during her hospital stay, but never materialised. We are very fortunate that we were able to go home after two nights on postnatal. She's breastfeeding well and gaining weight.

My question is, what should I expect in terms of milestones? Is it likely that she will be later to smile, control head etc.? My first DD got to 38 weeks but was IUGR (born at 5lb 1oz) and as far as I remember was about on-time with the milestones, but the paed stressed to me that prematurity was a different scenario. Unfortunately I didn't really get any more of an indication of what to expect.

DD is rather sleepy and slightly jaundiced, but she looks less yellow every day and is getting more alert. I guess I'm a little concerned that it might all start going pear-shaped further down the road: contributions from anyone with any ideas or experience of this kind of prematurity very much welcomed. Thank you in advance!

[Wigeon]

Congratulations on your new baby! And fantastic that she didn't need to go into SCBU. A friend's DD was also born at 35 weeks (and did spend some time in SCBU).

From what I can remember (their DD is now almost 2), for the first few months the docs said that the baby's parents should look not expect her to meet milestones at her real age, but should consider her adjusted age. But to be honest, she seemed to develop completely normally, and you would now have no idea that she was premature. Even as a baby you couldn't tell - she was on the small side, but by no means tiny, and behaved very much like any other baby.

If you consider that 37 weeks is considered full-term, then 35 weeks is very close.

I'm sure your health visitor should be able to tell you what to expect - I'm only going on one friend's experiences (although I don't think they were out of the ordinary).

[CMOTdibbler]

DS was born at 35 weeks, and spent a week in SCBU, but he met all of his milestones OK. TBH, apart from adjusting where they plot the weight in their red book, no one seemed bothered about when he was born once we left hospital

[MollieO]

Ds was born at 33 weeks and spent 4 weeks in SCBU and missed all his milestones. He is a very healthy 5 yr old now. The hardest thing I found was watching all my friends babies of the same age do things that ds couldn't. I wish I'd had the foresight to know that everything would be okay in the end, even if it took a while.

[bearcrumble]

Sorry I posted on the wrong thread - sleep deprivation.

[tvfriend]

DD was born at 36 weeks and met all her milestones except crawling and walking. She didn't crawl until just 1 and walked at about 22 months. However, I don't think it had anything to do with her being early, just that she was a late walker really. One of her legs was weak and she needed a bit of physio.
(She didn't spend time in Special care and was 6 pounds).
DS was born at 34 and a bit weeks and was 2 days in special care just to keep an eye on him. He was 5lb 4oz. He rolled early, crawled early, is cruising quite happily now and is a big chunk of a boy at 14 months now. To be honest, once he was about 3 months old there was no real difference between him and his peers.

[tvfriend]

Sorry- meant to say until he was 3 months ish it was just that he was small compared to his peers. He soon caught up

[wheredidmyfeetgo]

DS1 was born at just 35 weeks too and weighed 5lbs 7oz. He spent 2 weeks in scbu. He didn't miss any milestones, but we were told to consider his adjusted age and the health visitor also plotted that in his red book.
He soon caught up weight wise and was a really chunky baby. The only thing I really struggled with was BF as he didn't have his sucking reflex. But I expressed for him for 6 months instead. That said DS2 was born at 39 weeks and I expressed for him too as I couldn't get him to latch on either, so may well have just been me?
DS1 is now 3 and you wouldn't know he was any different.

[wheredidmyfeetgo]

And congratulations bye the way!

[evitas]

Hi FrozenNorth, my baby was also born with 35w+6d. He's now 2 weeks old and I've been wondering the same things: how is it going to be? The Paediatricians didn't seem very worried, apart from jaundice (he had 2 stay 2 days under the lights). One of the nurses said that they will catch up at some point, so don't look too much at books and what they should be doing at 1 month, etc.
I know it's easy to say but: relax (as much as possible) and enjoy the new baby
Good luck

[mears]

My DS3 was born at 35 + 4 weeks gestation and was on a ventilator for a week. He was 6lb 1 oz and got home age 2 weeks. He met all his milestones and is now a normal 19 year old!

[SingleMum01]

My DS was born at 33 weeks. Spent one night in SCBU. Like yours, was jaundiced for a while and sleepy. He spent most of his first 6 weeks or so asleep apart from feeding etc. He missed his first milestone of smiling, so we had to go back to the dr and he passed it the second time. I was told it may take a year or 2 for him to catch up, but in reality he did everything on time. He is now 7, top sets in everything at school, so if I was you I wouldn't worry. Don't compare your child to other children and just enjoy them. I had a very good health visitor who didn't worry me needlessly too.

My DS does suffer from ear inections - this isn't due to being premature, but is linked to small tubes so I self diagnosed it as linked!

HTH

[Bramshott]

Congratulations!

DD1 was born at 33 weeks and spent 3 weeks in SCBU. TBH, I felt like she was "behind" for her first year - didn't smile until 11 weeks, didn't crawl till 11 months, didn't walk until 15 months etc etc, but now, having DD2, who was "term" (38 weeks) and did many of those things at the same time as DD1, I can see that all children develop at their own rate.

You should probably "correct" her age for her first year (which in your DD's case will be about a month behind, won't it?) but it shouldn't cause her any long term problems. 35 weeks is a really good gestation in terms of prematurity, and 5lbs+ is a great weight.

Hope you can relax and enjoy your baby!

[IndigoSky]

Ds2 was born at 35 weeks and he was about a month later with his sitting and weaning but everything else all right on time. He was very colicky for a long long time and had a hernia which took a long time to sort itself (gp refused to refer him for an op) but who knows he might have been like that if he'd arrived on time.

Congratulations!

[elmofan]

congratulations , my dd now 4yrs was born at 36 weeks exactly & weighed 5lb , she did not need to go into scbu , & met all her milestones , she walked at 9.5 months so earlier than my overdue ds , the only thing different with her is she is very petite for her age ,
good luck

[ByTheSea]

Congratulations on your baby. DD-7 was born at 35 weeks, and was jaundiced as well. She was perhaps a little bit slow in some of her milestones in the first couple of years, but it wasn't very noticeable past the first few months. Since then, though, she's come on fantastically and even though she is one of the younger in her year, she is on top tables for everything and also quite sporty.

[FrozenNorth]

Thank you all for sharing your experiences; you've reassured me that things are likely to be fine and reminded me that all babies meet milestones in their own sweet time. I feel very lucky, reading your experiences, that DD needed no SCBU time. Now I'll try and relax and enjoy her (and all the concommitant sleep deprivation )

[lostlenore]

Congratulations!

This has made me feel better as well, my daughter was born at 32+4 six weeks ago and I have been worrying for her. She was fairly chunky at 5lb 9 though! Still had nine days on SCBU and then another week in hospital (during which I got norovirus, oh joy).

[jessiealbright]

I found with my premature twins (35 weeks) that the true six-week-growth-spurt happened six weeks after due date, not birth date.

[jessiealbright]

Damnation, pressed post too soon...

After adjusting for prematurity, my twins are pretty much inside the normal range for everything.

Most recently, they got the hang of crawling at 10 months, and are pulling themselves up on everything at 11 months. Yay! Including pc...

[jessiealbright]

Oh, and congratulations!

[cnda]

Hi all, I've had two early babies, my daughter was born at 34 weeks and met all her milestones about the same time as my eldest son (who was full term) and I've just had another baby who was born at 35+2, and he had a 4 month developmental check today and I was told he was doing everything that you'd expect any 4 month old to do.
I think (IMO) it depends more on the child then if they were early or not

[monkeymission3]

hi, like some of the other ladies all my babies have put in early arrivals - my daughter now six was born at 32 weeks and spent 5 weeks in scbu, DS1 now 4 was born at 35 weeks and DS2 now 5 weeks old AT 36 Weeks. my daughter and son are both in the top academic groups at school and apart from walking at about 14 months they hit all their milestones on time. my daughter was talking in sentences at 12 months....technically 10months! in my experience they seemed to do a tremendous job of catching up with their peers and both were ahead of some of them....it depends on the child i think. there is so much variation in milestones in term babies too! my main nuggett of advice after having three premmies is to try your hardest to forget they were early, don't wrap them in cotton wool and relax and enjoy them. with my daughter i spent her first year watching and waiting for some symptom of her prematurity to develop....its self torture and not good for them or you. easier said than done i know. wishing you a fun filled time ahead with your little girl.

[tvfriend]

Monkeymission- hope you don't mind me asking but did there seem to be any reason why yours were all early and did it make you think about having the third expecially?
Mine were 36 weeks and 34.5 weeks and I'm toying with the idea of a third but wouldn't want them to be much earlier. The MW did tell me that some women just have them earlier!

[Wigeon]

Just wanted to say that a friend of mine had her DD at 35 weeks and they spent a small amount of time in SCBU, but after that the baby developed pretty much normally, perhaps very slightly "behind" in the first few months, but certainly by a year she was completely average for her age. You certainly couldn't tell that she was premature, even when she was tiny. And now she is a very energetic and normal toddler!

If you consider that by 37 weeks the baby is pretty much fully developed, 35 weeks doesn't sound so early.

And many sleepy and jaundiced applies to many full-term newborns too.

Congratulations on your little one by the way!