Baby at 34 weeks, what to expect?

[Miffyonline]

I'm 33+4 with DS2. Was being monitored a few times a week as baby's limbs weren't growing the same rate as the rest and now there are some concerns about blood flow to the baby. Been admitted to hospital for daily scans and monitoring now. Everything is fine at the moment and the baby seems happy enough. There's a real risk the baby will be delivered around 34 weeks.

Has anyone got experience with a premature baby? How did they do? How long did the baby stay in hospital/special care unit?

I had DS at 35 weeks due to PE. I was taken in for monitoring on the Monday night and given a steroid injection for his lungs. I was meant to have the next one 24 hours later but that was reduced to 12 as I deteriorated and his movement reduced so was induced the next morning. I think they made a big difference to him as medically he was fine.

The issue we had was that the placenta had actually been failing so he was only 3lb which is tiny for that gestation. He was in NICU for 2 days and SCBU for 14 days. It was just a case of waiting for him to be strong enough to drink milk as he had no suck reflex and was just too small at birth. He was on a premature baby formula and tube fed for 2 weeks and then finally started managing a bottle.

He's 16 months now and no lasting effects thankfully. He's still catching up size wise but wasn't even on the chart at birth and now between 25th and 50th centiles.

It is hard in SCBU but the nurses were amazing. I hope all goes well for you

I had dd at 33+5 due to preeclampsia. She needed lots of bits of help but none of them significant if that makes sense? She needed a bit of help with breathing so was ventilated for a couple of hours, which kicked off a step down pathway with cpap and then extra oxygen for a few days (was off cpap by the time I saw her at 24 hrs old). That meant she couldn't be fed normally for a couple of days, then was tube fed. Slightly jaundiced but the blue lights were switched off at 48 hrs. Some kind of infection marker in her blood so she had antibiotics for a few days. I'm saying all that because although it sounds (and looked!) fairly dramatic seeing a tiny person hooked up to wires and tubes, the medical team never had concerns about her. They'd also said there was a chance she could have gone straight into scbu for monitoring and growing so we were unlucky to need all that help. She spent a week in nicu then 3 weeks in scbu to get feeding established. That was mainly due to her reluctance to latch on though, combined with scbu's refusal to offer me the option of a bottle to put expressed breast milk into. We got there in the end though.

I hope the next few days go smoothly for you and that you have a healthy (if tiny ) bundle to hold soon.

Oh - and in terms of how she's doing now, we have a little 2yo bundle of energy and tantrums. She caught up with her actual age milestones and weight by a year and you'd never know she'd had problems at birth.

A friend of mine had her DD last year at 34 weeks and my cousin had her DS a few months ago at 32 weeks. Both were out of hospital after three weeks. Hope all goes ok.

I had my son at 36 weeks, which I know is significantly longer in terms of gestation, but in terms of the issues you're having it sounds really similar. He had asymmetrical IUGR, so his head was growing at a greater rate than his legs, which is apparently common when the placenta is compromised. I was eventually induced because the blood flow was intermittent, and tailing off between heartbeats. (I think I've got the terms right - he's almost 5 now and it was a bit of a blur at the time).

He was just under 5lb and struggled to maintain his blood sugar. He was also jaundiced for a couple of days. He needed some UV treatment, he had a glucose drip, and he was fed through a nose tube until he was able to suckle better. Both the prematurity and jaundice made him very sleepy. He was in SCBU for 8 days in total.

He's completely fine now - you wouldn't have been able to tell after a couple of months. He put on weight really quickly once he was home, and caught up on his centile lines.

Good luck. I hope it all goes well.

I had dd at 35 weeks i had steroids im assuming they have mentioned this to you she was in babycare for 10 days no suck reflex and was tube fed we did skin to skin for a few minutes every day for the first 2 days building up i didnt breast feed i expressed some milk but not a lot . The waiting in ante natal is horrible i was in for a while the hospital will only deliver your baby if its necessary

Yes Dd was jaundiced and her glucose was all over the place

I had ds at 32 weeks. No obvious reason for the early birth.
We were in hospital for 4 weeks but mainly to establish breastfeeding. He has jaundice for a couple of days. If he was bottle fed we'd probably have been out after about a week or 2

Ds was born at 32+5. No particular reason. Was in scbu for 3 weeks or there abouts and is fine. He had a feeding tube initially and I'd had one steroid injection.

Dd was born at 35+2 (again no particular reason) we were kept together in the postnatal ward for about 4 days then went home.