Prem baby, 6 weeks early!!

[everythinghappensforareason]

Hi Ladies, My waters broke new years day at 33 weeks and my baby will be born by section in a few days at 34 weeks. Was just looking for some shared experience, and maybe what to expect. How big she will be? if she would be poorly. Thannks x

Mine was 35 weeks, 5lb 9
Only problem really was jaundice, which they kept an eye on - she was under a lamp for a while in hospital, but it didn't really go for a couple of weeks - they were ready to readmit if needed.
SHe did not feed well, mostly because being so tiny she needed very little, as a result, my milk supply was all over the place and never really established. She suited bottles much more, although I persevered with BF.

Clothes - I am a babygro till 3 months kinda gal, but I know this doesn;t suit everyone - you may need smaller everything for a while. H had to go get prem size stuff as dd was so much smaller than even newborn - ditto nappies.

It is strange holding such a teeny baby, but you get used to it very quickly! Good luck with it all!

Thank you, Yeah I think she should just be comfortable for now, I have some prem baby things now, and micro nappies. so she should fit into those, I am scared of holding her, but she is my baby so I am sure I will be fine, it's all so much to take in x x

Mine was born at 35 weeks and weighed EIGHT POUNDS!!!! (thank God he never went to term!)

When was induced the Dr said that in her experience about 20% of babies born at that gestation would need some additional support but that outcomes are very very good.

DS was fine for the first hour or so after birth then started grunting a bit and getting blue lips so they whizzed him up to NICU.

He was there for 4 days on CPAP (pressured oxygen) and being tube fed as his lungs were a bit underdeveloped (typical premmie lungs) and one had a small hole in it from his 100 mph delivery (1 hour labour which is not uncommon for ladies with Obstetric cholastasis, nothing to do with being prem!).

Then we spent another 4 days in hospital on/off the lamp and getting the sleepy sod to feed as he had jaundice and lost 10% of his birthweight.

Once he was off the CPAP we had no probs establishing breastfeeding, infact he took to it far better than my first full-term baby. We did formula top ups as recommended by the Drs but then scaled those back til he was on just breastmilk by about 5 weeks. Warning - it did muck up my milk supply, you have to express loads to keep your supply up. I was doing it every 3 hours.

The Drs said that most babies don't need this level of care at 35 weeks and most are off home within a day or so. I guess we are just unlucky, made worse by my superspeedy labour and the Obstetric cholastasis. I also think my dates were wrong as I'd got PG straight after a m/c and never had a proper period to date the pregnancy from.

Good luck with everything, I bet you are excited to meet your baby!!

everything, FWIW gestation/maturity is more important than weight wrt how much support a baby is likely to need so don't worry too much about measuring small (measurements, even by ultrasound, are notoriously unreliable as well).

Hope you have a good day .

Thank you for that, sounds like u had a right few days of it, It's crazy how all you ladies have different experience and no 2 are the same. I'm getting super nervous now, i have my pre-op tomorrow then she will be here Wednesday, she will be 34 weeks 1 day x x

Good Luck!

You MUST let us know how you get on! Good Luck

DD was born at 33 weeks 4 days and weighed 7lbs 4ozs. No problems at all.

Nutty, could your dates have maybe been wrong? It would be unusual for a baby of that gestation to have no feeding or temp issues, and he sounds rather large. Not doubting you, just wondering.

Ds2 was born at 34 weeks exactly. He was on the post natal ward for the first day and then ended up in scbu due to low blood sugar. That came up after a couple of days being ff and then he was a bit jaundiced so was under lights for about 24 hrs then they wanted him taking a certain amount of formula before he could leave. I was offering my boob as well. I was expressing every three hours as well. We didn't establish bf until he came home at 16 days. Everyone in the hospital was lovely, but their advice was contradictory some times and the bf councillor was very good. Good luck with it all. As you had the steroid injections already it shouldn't be too bad.

Hey foof how you doing. I was on the nov thread. Hope all is good with you.

Oh and my little one was 5lb 1oz st birth

Good luck everything. DS was born in April this year at 31+5 weighing 4lbs 11.5oz - I think the steroid injections did an awful lot to help him, so it's great you have already had those.

Of course it is all a bit of an unknown until she arrives, but if you can, I agree with the suggestion that you ask to visit SCBU and speak to the staff, so you have an idea what to expect. Obviously you will need to recover yourself from the CS, but my main bit of advice would be to get expressing as soon as possible after the birth - in hindsight, I didn't try for the first 24 hours because I was a bit shellshocked, and poor DS really could have done with the colostrum sooner . If you don't know what to do (I had to guess a bit), ask a MW to show you - they should give you syringes or cups to collect it in.

Hopefully your DD will have the sucking reflex already - I think it develops around 34 weeks. If she is struggling to maintain her temperature, it may be better at first not to overtire her by putting her to the breast all the time - but the SCBU staff will guide you. I hope you will have supportive nurses, but if you need to you can always request to see the hospital's infant feeding coordinator.

DS was in for 2 weeks and 2 days, just needed to gain weight (he reached his birth weight again the day he was discharged), maintain his temperature and establish feeding. He did amazingly when he came out, put on weight like a total champ - he was on the 9th centile for his corrected age when he came home, and at 6mo he was up at the 50th (greedy baby). You should see the HVs' faces when I tell them he has been exclusively breastfed! So it is possible

You may want to invest in a good electric pump when you get home (especially if DD is still in hospital then) - I have the Ameda Lactaline - or else you can hire a hospital grade pump from the NCT or other places.

There's also a MN premature birth board where you will find an awful lot of people with similar experiences, and might be useful for more support after DD arrives.

Thinking of you

I second the ameda lactaline, double pumping, if you need to pump for a while , is the best thing!! If you want a new one they are £40 off on amazon if you join amazon family which is free for 3 months

I have the lactaline too. Really helped!!

Yep, I had a Lactaline too - did the trick

Very best of luck tomorrow. I hope all goes very well indeed and you get to meet (and hopefully hold) your daughter. I'll be thinking of you.

Good luck today everything. I hope your baby is one of those who copes amazingly well with being early & you get to be home in no time!

Been following your thead and just wanted to say I hope all goes/went ok. x

Hope all goes well, OP.

DS was born at 34+1, weighing 4lb 6oz, after my waters broke at 33 weeks. He was in SCBU for 3.5 weeks.

He was breathing well at first, but needed to go onto CPAP after 2 hours because his lungs weren't quite mature enough to keep up, despite me having steroids. On CPAP for 2 days.

Because my waters had broken a week before I went into labour, DS had a chest x-ray and blood tests to check for any infections, and he was put on IV antibiotics straight away, as a precautionary measure. Luckily his tests all came back fine, so the antibiotics weren't needed for too long.

He also needed to go under the sunlamp for a bit because he was jaundiced, and had some problems maintaining his temperature at first.

The main issue he had that was related to his prematurity, other than the breathing, was getting feeding established. He was fed by tube at first, because his sucking reflex hadn't developed by the time he was born. I wanted to breastfeed him, and the midwives and neo-natal staff were all very supportive with this, but it took quite a while for us to get feeding established even after his sucking reflex developed.

My twins were born at 34 weeks, they weighed 5lb7 & 6lb1. They were in the SCBU for 6 days. I had time to have both steroid injections to develop their lungs, which I think made a huge difference. They were in the SCBU for temperature regulation and for help with feeding (tube fed). Although they were big compared to the other babies in there, it was still a difficult time. They are healthy and strong and 14 weeks old now.

All the best.

I hope that all goes well for you. SCBU can be a pretty alienating environment with all the tubes and machines but the staff that worked in the one my son was in were amazing - I was just constantly in awe of how quickly and skilfully they cared for him.

My waters also went early, similar to you, and he did need IV antibiotics so that could possibly happen in your case as well. He was on CPAP for a day and tube-fed for a week, but you can express your milk if that happens - I did; there was an electric pump in a room adjoining the SCBU. He was also jaundiced for ages, which makes them sleepy and also I think weak.

Similar to MrsReiver's son, he didn't hit his milestones at the same time as his peers or even according to what would be expected of him with an adjusted date. It seemed like every time one came up, there was enough concern to 'monitor' and then he'd just do it anyway, albeit a bit late.

To look at him now you would never know he had such a difficult start. He is a massive strapping lad for his age - the tallest in his class actually, even though he's not the oldest. There are absolutely no concerns about his development in the slightest any more.

If your daughter does end up in SCBU, do push to be given a room in the unit so that you can be with her. I had to wait a couple of days to be discharged from the ward because I was ill myself, during which I spent most of my time up in SCBU anyway, but then the (lovely lovely) senior midwife whose care I was under arranged it so that I could stay up in SCBU with him for the rest of his time there, which made things much easier.

Good luck and keep us posted!

Oops I missed a page somehow and I see that your baby will be here by now! Exciting!

Just wondered how it went? Hope all is well x

Hoping all went well OP. thinking of you

Hi Ladies, just wanted too share that my beautiful DD Is home safety, she was 4lb 11oz (34 weeks 1day), was in a incubator,needed a little help from cpap, was jaundice, and suspected infection, turned out she didn't though. Needed help while regulating her temp, and established feeding (express/bottle + bf) home after 11days. so many emotions and ups and downs in those 11 days though, she was having apneas at 1 point. But so happy we are home, and thank you for all ure stories and lovely comments. xx

thats wonderful news so glad everything is ok and you are home xxx