baby coming at 34 weeks any tips

[summerdreams]

due to a neurological condition and me urgently needing an operation im having an elective c section at 34 weeks i will have steroid injections before to mature babys lungs and he is estimated to be between 4lb8 and 5lb2 any tips or things i need to know ive been told he may be in special care for around a week and i may be taken away from him and moved to a diffrent hospital after 3 days for surgery but should only be away from him a couple of days im formula feeding due to the situation but what are 34 weekers really like he's my 1st baby and everyone i know has full term bulky babies so anything any one can think of will be welcome

Good luck with it all

Oh I had a 34 weeker. He was awesome, the cutest littlest thing ever!

It's not really that early anymore, so try to relax and enjoy the experience.

When you get out of hospital, you won't be able to go anywhere without people cooing over him

Good luck!

Good luck! I'm also due to have a 34 weeker imminently. Mine is due to the placenta failing, so he/she is teeny tiny (only about 3 and a half pounds). I've had the steroid injections already. They bloody sting!

Did you know there is a premmies board on MN? It's not very busy, but I have had some helpful advice there and learned a fair bit from reading through threads.

My friend had a 34ish weeker - he's fab. Well ahead of his milestones for his birth (non corrected) age. Hope everything goes as well as it possibly can for you.

I have twins who were 34 weeks. They were in nicu for 2 weeks then on a ward for another 2 weeks. I was ill and had another op after c section, about 2 weeks after. Is there no way you can be kept together at same hospital? Practicalities:
Buy smallest size nappies you can
Use hospital baby clothes
Dh take paternity leave when you come home not when in hospital, but try to manage work hours to come to hospital for 4pm visiting time
Dh bring you in nice food!
There isn't a lot to do on the nicu, do not feel you have to be there 24 hours a day, get some rest
Phone charger and money for the tv
Hospital let me heat up own ready meals in microwave
Breast feeding, do not feel guilty about not doing it, this can do your head in

My dds were 4lb each. They were late walking and sitting but are now very sporty. They were very hard work to feed, one had reflux etc. they are at the top of the class academically very bright. No long term problems.

Good luck x

After we went home, we weren't allowed to go out anywhere due to germs etc for quite a while, several weeks. I remember first trip to john lewis, had to keep rain cover on as germs people looking into buggy!

unfortunately cant be in the same hospital have to go to neuro hospital but they've said they would let me out day after so i could be wiith baby as much as possible they're only 15 mins away from eachother but still gonna be hard

If you want to offer colostrum you can express in advance and freeze (not sure of this would be possible at 34 weeks but worth a shot near the time?)

thanks everyone just little things like small nappys and hospital clothes so helpfull thanks

Also we (me and OH) slept with a blanket and the baby had something that smelt of us to stay with them even when we couldn't.

Our little motto was 'when he is sleeping he is growing'.

They sleep a LOT. He won't even know you aren't there for those couple of days, I promise

My hospital provided nappies so we didn't buy any until we were home. I think we had pampers size 0, they were adorable!

Oh, and I didn't breastfeed either, not one little drop, and my 5 year old is now miles (and I mean freakishly miles) ahead of his peers. So don't let that worry you!

Aww I'm jealous. I want a tiddly new person

My little girl was born at 32+4 and weighed 4lb 14. She never seemed that small to me, you get used to it very quickly. They will prob want to keep your baby in SCBU until he can feed, maintain his temp, and is putting on weight. They can usually suck at 34 weeks, so you should be able to bottle feed him ( if they are earlier they tend to be fed through a nasogastric tube). SCBU are very good at getting you involved in 'cares' ( nappies etc) and you'll have plenty of skin to skin. Good luck, hope all goes well and don't forget to take plenty of pics of your little one because you very quickly forget that they were once so tiny. Mine is now 21 months and is amazing, she doesn't seem to have any probs from being prem

DD was born at 35 weeks due to pre eclampsia. She was 3lb 15.
Have you done a visit to the NICU where they'll be looking after her? I didn't take much in, but it was reassuring to have met the staff and seen the area, especially as I was so poorly I didn't get to see her for a couple days.
DD was there 2 weeks, but the second week was to establish BF. These teenies are far more resilient than we think they'll be!
I second the pampers micro - but check whether you need to provide nappies. They will provide clothes, but we chose to take some in - just make sure the nurses know they are yours! We were allowed to take in a teddy for her to have in her cot too.
If you are at different hospital, don't be afraid to ring whenever you want, the nurses won't mind. (Unless it's every 5 minutes!)

DD was born at 33+5, was a chunky 5lbs 4ozs and was absolutely fine. She needed a little help with her breathing for the first couple of hours, but after that it was just a case of getting her feeding and we could leave SCBU. She was in SCBU for 2 weeks in total, and the second week of that was trying to get her to take enough milk to leave (she was a lazy little thing that got used to being tube fed).

I'll also second the comment about them sleeping a lot, I was able to spend much of the day in SCBU with her after the first week (I was isolated for infection reasons on and off throughout the first week) and I ended up just sitting by her sleeping much of the time reading.

Good luck with everything.

Boots Newborn size 0 nappies are great and cheaper than pampers (and you get 10 advantage card points per pound).

HI, My ID twin girls were born at 34 weeks, they were 4.5lb each and needed a feeding tube for a couple of weeks as they couldn't suck initially. There was never any need for anything more intensive. We bought prem baby clothes but in the NNU they only wore nappies and by the time they left they'd increased size enough to fit into 'normal' newborn clothes. They looked like little sparrows when they were born, huge eyes, no fat, but this quickly changed. They are still petite at 9 years old now! I did express milk for them for 2 weeks but found it hard work and unrewarding, but felt at least I was doing something. They had formula too.
I found the whole NNU experience fine, the staff were amazing.
Good luck!
xx

Oh, and make sure you keep one of the tiniest nappies and a babygro/vest from those first few days. When they're all big and chunky it's amazing to have them to look at to remember how small they were!

thankyou so much everyone even though ive got my c section date but for various reasons might be earlier and it looks like he's finally had enough and may have stopped growing so waiting for an emergency scan appointment but im only 30+1 weeks so just hoping that we can make the 34weeks as was just coming to terms with that