Premature birth. Positive stories needed.

[Lipsticktraces]

I’ve just had my section scheduled for next week at bang on 34 weeks. This is due to persistent absent endestolic flow to twin two.

Naturally I’m really worried. Would love it if anyone with premature twins could share their positive stories please Just want my babies to be OK!

I’ve reported my post due to my terriblr wording in the first sentence. I meant to say a baby born exactly at 34 weeks

Apologies to everybody for my insensitive words - blame my tired brain

@InNeedOfALieInNow We had a tour last week. Everyone is so lovely in there. I forgot to ask regarding what I might need to bring for babies though I’m having my pre admission on Tuesday, so will ask then. Actually I have to go today for my second steroid shot too.

It’s the caring for the babies I’m mostly terrified about. My baby knowledge is the total sum of zero. I also really want to try and breastfeed, so stressing about that. Plus my DH is due to start a new job in a fortnight, so I’m going to be doing a lot of it on my own.

I swear I might punch the next person in RL who tells me it’ll all be fine

No need to apologise. It is very early on a Sunday and we really should be asleep!

My 26 weeker is causing havoc currently. All fine health wise and developmentally.
ASDA make premature baby clothes as does Jojo Maman bebe and I think M&S.
They will have a feeding tube. And might be in an incubator to start with. The smaller twin might well need oxygen through a nasal cannula.
If you want to breastfeed you’ll have to express at the beginning. As they may be too small and weak to suck. I hired the Medela at home and it was great.

Your nurses will show you how to change nappies etc.
By the time my 26 weeker was discharged, just past 36 weeks I had:
Clothes
Nappies
Cotton wool
Books to read to him
A breastfeeding pillow (makes holding and feeding easier)
Baby oil
Sudocrem

Congratulations, twins are fab!

My twins were delivered at 34 + 4, the reason being IUGR, so there was a bit of an intake of breath when Twin 1 came out as he was 5lb 1 oz and they weren't expecting him to be that big. Twin 2 was 3lb 14oz, so was considerably smaller, although needed less support than his brother. He soon caught up weight wise though and is now the taller of the two.

They went to SCBU into oxygen for the first 24hrs, then were in normal cots in scbu. They were tube fed due to being born before the sucking reflex has developed, but I expressed and we got breastfeeding established before they left. They spent 2 weeks in SCBU.

They are now thriving 8 year olds. They are middle ability at school. In hindsight I think they would have benefited from starting school with the next year group, but it was not possible to do that at our school in that year. Given that your twins would be born in September if they had gone to full term, you have a good case for arguing that they should be in the next school year down if that is a route you want to take. I do feel that mine are less emotionally mature than their classmates, but other than that they are fine.

One other thing to note - when you go into theatre, there are LOADS of people in there as there is a team of medics for each baby (I had an emergency CS with my first and it was really noticeable how many more people were in theatre for the twins).

Looking at my boys now compared to their friends, you'd have no idea that they had been early and they hit all milestones as and when they should, so please try not to worry.

@Lipsticktraces We had a 4lb 15, 5lb 7 and a 3lb 6 born at 34+1 - they are triplets so may not be a like for like comparison. Ask for a tour of the neonatal unit as I found that it really put my mind at ease when I saw the fantastic facilities and the lovely staff there.

It’s good that they’ve spotted this now and are acting on it. My twin 2 had undiagnosed iugr and they were born at 35+1 by emcs when he stopped moving and his heart rate was static.

He was 3.5lb and his twin was 4.5lb. I’d not had steroids or anything. They discharged me after 36 hours. Twin 1 needed a 17 day stay to gain weight and establish feeding and came home with an ng tube. Twin 2 ended up having to stay 2 months as he was diagnosed with a rare illness and we’ve now found out he has some scarring on his brain probably caused by the health issues when he was tiny. I do wonder whether things would have been better if they’d been born a bit sooner before he got into distress.

Right now they’re almost two and chasing each other around the room fighting over a bottle - it has been tough but it’s completely worth it. If your doctors are advising they should come out, I’d follow their lead - I wish mine had!

Also, ignore the weights from the scans - they’re totally unreliable for actual weight, theyre using it to monitor growth and weight gain but it doesn’t necessarily translate to what weight they actually are.

Also nice staff are amazing, and actually I got a crash course in how to look after babies which was a relief as I had no idea what I was doing!

I think NICU/SCBU give you a safety net when it comes to caring for the babies - you’ve got nurses there all the time to help and advise you, so in that way it’s easier than bringing a newborn home and then thinking “now what?”

They’ll be supportive of breastfeeding and will help you. The night before your section, when you’re in hospital, ask for a breast pump and start pumping - if you get colostrum you can store this in the fridge in the NICU/SCBU, but otherwise even if you get nothing (pump each side for 3-4 mins) you’ll be helping to bring your milk in faster which can be delayed post section. Keep pumping over the first few days every four hours or so if you can’t hold/feed the babies. Even if your babies are being fed by nasal tube they’ll use any milk you can pump. You might want to have a think about requesting milk from the milk bank for your babies for the first few days (if this is important to you) - again do this in advance as it can take a few days to happen. If the babies are jaundiced they’ll want them to have more milk than you can produce for the first few days to help with the jaundice so either milk from the milk bank or formula will be needed at that stage.

Things to ask in terms of what to take for the babies - different units allow different things especially in terms of wipes (some are cotton wool only and some allow water wipes). Some units allow teddies by some prefer not due to infection risk. There will be nothing urgent the babies need as the unit will have blankets/clothes if they’re wearing them, and nappies - so you can start bringing things in after you’ve got an idea of size and what they’re needing. A nice thing to give to the nurses who’ll be at the section is baby hats - they’ll Def put these on them immediately (most supermarkets, plus m&s, Mothercare etc do tiny baby and preemie sizes)

Asda preemie clothes are great - inexpensive and I found them much better than the mothercare ones. We didn’t need clothes until they came out of incubators which was about a week for one, and around a month for the other, so there’s time to order stuff and our nicu has a stash of spare clothes if you didn’t have anything.

Nicu provided nappies and cotton wool at first until we could get some - we had to buy pampers size 0. I gather pampers now offer free smaller nappies for preemies in nicu - I read something about emailing them and getting a stash, look it up or ask in nicu.

@InNeedOfALieInNow I’m not being admitted until the morning of my section, so don’t think I’ll have a chance to pump in hospital (unless they let me try on the morning of the op?) I’ll have to ask them tomorrow. I have an electric Tommee Tippee pump at home I bought, so I could maybe try with that? I had hoped to be able to hire a hospital one ideally and sell mine as I’m sure the hospital ones will be much better anyway.

I’ve been told the NICU don’t supply anything apart from cotton wool! Which is why I’m having a stress about it. Asda etc all do look good for premie clothes, but they are all so gendered to blue/pink and I don’t know what I’m having! I’ve got a couple of premature size body suits, so I might just order some additional vests and some little hats for now. The hats suggestion was an excellent one

@SinkGirl I’ve been stocking up on nappies, so that’s one thing off my stress list. I’ve been getting the Asda 2 to 5lb ones, as they are much cheaper than Pampers (everything becomes such more of a money issue when there’s two to buy for) My local supermarket doesn’t seem to stock many of the size 0 either, but loads of their own, I guess it would really given it’s an Asda

I’m so sorry to hear about the issues your little boy has had. It’s truly shocking that your hospital didn’t pick up there was an issue. I hope he continues to thrive from now on

@BarbieBrightSide That’s an excellent suggestion regarding arguing they would have been born in September anyway. I think I would prefer to hold off on them starting school. Although I should probably just concentrate on getting them here healthy first!

Thank you so much for all your kindness and suggestions. You’ve all been so lovely

Yes you can start pumping at home - one to two days before section and as regularly as you can (even better if you can pump overnight at least once) this is a great pump if you’re hiring one

M&S do some more neutral clothes eg <a class="break-all" href="https://www.marksandspencer.com/7-pack-unisex-printed-pure-cotton-bodysuits/p/p60129303?extid=ps_gglpla_Kids_1343701611_55546316284&s_kwcid=AL!2750!3!262233796545!!!g!374324748157!EFKW&device=m&cvosrc=ppc%20shopping.google.Kids%20%3E%20Baby%20Up%20to%202%20Yrs%20%3E%20Newborn%20&%20Unisex%20%3E%20Baby%20Grows%20&%20Bodysuits&cvo_pid=55546316284servedby.flashtalking.com/click/1/37735;928990;369310;252;0/?ft_section=60129303011&ft_keyword=googleshopping&url=www.marksandspencer.com/7-pack-unisex-printed-pure-cotton-bodysuits/p/p60129303?extid=ps_gglpla_Kids_1343701611_55546316284&s_kwcid=AL!2750!3!262233796545!!!g!374324748157!EFKW&device=m&cvosrc=ppc%20shopping.google.Kids%2520%253E%2520Baby%2520Up%2520to%25202%2520Yrs%2520%253E%2520Newborn%2520%2526%2520Unisex%2520%253E%2520Baby%2520Grows%2520%2526%2520Bodysuits&cvo_pid=55546316284&gclid=CLmq2fm16dwCFQEdGwodLdUL_w&gclsrc=ds&pdpredirect" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">bodysuits Their tiny and prem sizes are listed after the biggest size in the drop down list which is a bit confusing

I expect the hospital will have nappy bags - they use bags that you can stick on the side of an incubator to hold nappy/cotton wool while you change the baby and then they can be sealed closed for disposal

Oh - regards school. My preemie was born mid Aug instead of beginning Oct, however 2 years on I’m pretty sure she’ll start school according to birth date and not adjusted date as you’d never know now that she was prem

Can I ask why you would start pumping early? I had a very prem baby and didn’t start until day two because I was in HDU.

What about colostrum? Would you produce that early and if so wouldnt you waste it?

No idea, I only did this once and was pretty clueless about it all but wouldn’t want to waste colostrum.

Good luck OP .

Pumping early because a section can delay milk coming in and breastmilk is amazing for premature babies so the sooner you can establish a supply that can be fed to them the better. Colostrum or milk can be collected and frozen then it’s ready to give to the babies asap. Normally 1 or 2ml syringes to store colostrum and then moving onto storage bags or bottles once you have more milk

Well, no one suggested I did that with a baby born at 29 weeks and I was in hospital for months beforehand. My milk came in, on day three and I carried on for nearly three years!

The stuff I got from Asda was white and grey (vests and matching sleepsuits), plus a set of red, navy and teal which were my favourites... but I did find they had a few unisex options.

Wow, even 2 years ago there weren’t any other brands of preemie nappies, as far as I remember - pampers was it, and they only came in tiny packs. Definitely look into getting free pampers ones as well. I’ll be amazed if the nicu don’t have nappies and spare clothes, they get lots of patients who don’t know they’re about to have their babies (my bags were all in the car when mine were born!)

Quite a late response and I hope your bundles of joy are doing well.
I had my identical twin girls are 31 weeks and 3 days and I felt so lost with everything around me. My smaller little girl Hallie had to have open heart surgery at 2 days old and my heart broke to hear that her twin sister and my slightly bigger baby Lillia had to have that same open heart surgery at 5 days old.
Due to the surgeries they were both in the NICU until they were both 3 months old but they continued to grow through all of the hurdles and came home both weighing around 6 pounds. While in the NICU I took all of the help that was available and I will give out the advice to be open and cry sometimes as holding it isn’t good for you or your babies.
They are now 2 years old and thriving, they are quite small compared to the other children in their nursery but they are doing well in school and no problems, they have just recently started dance which they love and are excelling just like their big sister.
Congratulations on your babies and I hope they are well and happy.