My sister had her ds at 31 weeks pg....

[yeovalleyrocks]

Does anyone have any advice that I can pass on? Any advice for me?

She gave birth at the weekend and he weighed 4lb 8oz. She was exactly 31 weeks pg. He is doing great and is having no help breathing.

Also, if he does well and feeds well will they go home before 36 weeks?

Thanks.

Sounds like he is doing brilliantly. Different hospitals have different policies but it is certainly possible he will go home before 36 weeks. Your DSis will probably be discharged within a few days. What a good weight he is for 31 weeks! Hope all goes well.

When DS was in hospital it was really helpful to have people do practical things like washing and cooking so we could spend all the time with him.

Is your sister planning to BF? There is a really helpful booklet on the Bliss website (bliss.org.uk) about expressing and BFing for prems.

HTH

Hi - tell her not to buy too many tiny clothes! We made the mistake of thinking we'd need loads of babygros, vests etc for DS when he was born weighing 4lb 4oz at 32 weeks, and sure enough he grew!

We could bring him home at 35 weeks, when he was feeding well and putting weight on nicely.

Good advice about the BFing (if she is planning to), I found it difficult to get a good latch seeing as his mouth was tiny, so if she finds it hard perhaps she could see a bfing counsellor - mine was wonderful and I'd have given up without her help.

Also, does she have any other 'mum' friends already? Like an ante-natal group or similar? When I went into labour early one of my biggest fears was not having any friends seeing as we missed the NCT course!!!

Sounds silly but things like this can weigh on your mind so maybe if you have time you could find some local things for her to sign up for when they are home and settled. I joined a baby massage group for instance when DS was about 7 weeks old. You could put her together a little folder to flick through for when she's home with him and feels ready to get out and about.

Thanks both. He is still doing great and is off of everything now and just has a feeding tube for milk!

I will look into classes/groups for her. She is expressing so I will have a look at the Bliss site for that.

Thanks again, I feel like a spare at the mo and want to help as much as I can.

Congrats to your sis Fab weight! My dd was born at 30+5 weighing 3lb 10 and that was thought to be a good weight for gestation so your nephew is positively huge dd came home at 36 weeks. She was a bit slow feeding - otherwise it would have been earlier. Hope all goes well - certainly sounds like things are moving along in the right direction

He will grow very quick! I look after triplets who were 1 yesterday. Born at 30/40. Smallest was 600g. She is thriving sitting unaided although still under 14lb so quite diddy.

Hope your nephew is home soon!

My DS was born at 31 weeks, we were home at 35 weeks, when he weighed 4lbs, so your nephew is a good weight. The feeding can take a while to establish, but I did manage to breastfeed Some positive encouragement with the expressing was helpful, it was hard going waking up every 4 hours in the night to express. It worked well holding him as he was tube fed, to get the right associations. Also having some company in the hospital was nice, once my DH had to go back to work. Hope they are all home soon!

My DS was also born at 31 weeks - 4 lbs 8 and came home just after 35 weeks, after we managed to establish breastfeeding. For the healthy ones, it all seems to be about the feeding, and they will discharge as soon as they are confident it can be maintained.

Always worth seeing a proper bf consultant - I found that the nurses on the unit were full of (often contradictory) advice, but later discovered that none of them had any training - so encourage her to ask to see someone who has.

Hope they are all home soon. Your sister is lucky to have your support!

Oops - just seen how old your post is - hope they are home and healthy,