my baby will be born at 36 weeks - advice?

[kickingking]

I have just found out my baby will be born by cs at 36+2 (due to concerns about fluid levels and my diabetic control.)

Had a cs before, not worried about that, but any advice on 36 weekers?! Bit scared here.

Ds born at 36 weeks, just over 5lb. Fine at first and established breastfeeding in hospital; did go through a phase of sleepiness and needing to be woken up for feeds about a week later, but we reckon that might have been to do with hypotonia rather than the prem issue, as his sister had exactly the same problems and she was 37+. No interventions required and he is a big 11yo now with no developmental problems other than the ones caused by his (genetic) hypermobility syndrome.

DD was born at 36wks 4 days. It was a surprise because my first two DCs were born almost bang on their delivery dates.

I'd planned a homebirth but had to go into hospital. The hospital seemed concerned - insisting I wore a belt thing for constant monitoring (and constantly fiddling with it which was annoying) and filling the room with extra people (paediatrician etc.) for the moment of birth.

However, the birth itself was pretty similar to my first two. Dd was 7.5 pounds, so a good size. And she was absolutely fine. Bouncing baby. She's now 9 months and a 19 pound whopper. All her development has been on the same schedule as my first two (40week) babies.

The only issue I had was that my milk came in late - 5 days rather than 3 days. DD got dehydrated and her jaundice level went very high. We had to go into hospital for 1 night and she went on a "sunbed" and had formula top-ups for the night. I was very worried, but she was fine - jaundice level immediately came right down. We went straight back to exclusive bf, and no further problems.

So, I would say just be prepared for your milk possibly being a bit slow to come in. If you want to bf, it might be worth talking to a bf counsellor or La Leche League beforehand to talk about how you'd deal with that.