35 week IUGR baby being delivered tomorrow

[theotherfossilsister]

He's only grown forty grams in the past fortnight and is about a kilo and a half. Just been admitted. It's a shock after we were told we could go to thirty seven weeks but I trust fetal medicine have made the right call as placenta Doppler also not great

My baby was born at 34 weeks and, although he was a really good weight (2.46kg), his sucking reflex was under developed and he wasn't able to maintain a good body temperature so we ended up in NICU for 2 weeks. He also had prolonged jaundice (which eventually completely resolved after about 3.5 months).

NICU is an absolute rollercoaster - one day your baby will make amazing progress and you'll feel on top of the world, and the next day things won't go as smoothly and you'll feel god-awful. The best advice I can give you is to look after yourself as much as possible, eat as well as you can and rest whenever you get the opportunity.

I was adamant that I wanted to breastfeed and I was very lucky that the hospital let me stay in one of their "parent accomodation" rooms for the whole 2 weeks whilst we got established; however, I really struggled with milk supply and I think lack of rest and not eating enough was largely to blame. Being in NICU is very different to being at home so it's easy to not make time to eat and to feel guilty leaving your baby while you go and sleep, but you absolutely need to look after yourself otherwise you'll be no use to anyone.

The other thing I'd recommend is to ask the nurses to help you get as much skin to skin time as possible. I didn't realise how important this is for breastfeeding and didn't ask about this, and we didn't actually get any skin to skin time at all until day 10. Even if you don't end up breastfeeding, skin to skin just feels amazing and is such a lovely chance to bond with your baby, so I'd definitely ask for some help to do this as soon as it's safe for your baby to be out of their incubator. Some hospitals encourage "kangaroo care" for premature babies, to help you get the skin to skin time.

We ended up using nipple shields for breastfeeding, as my little boy was struggling to latch, and they were an absolute god send. We stopped using them after about 4 months (he just decided one day that he didn't need them anymore), but there's no way I would have been able to breastfeed without them. If your little one is struggling to latch because they're so small, this could be something to ask about.

Also try to remember that breastfeeding isn't the be all and end all. I felt quite a lot of pressure to breastfeed/express when we were in NICU and really gave myself a hard time about it, and I wish I hadn't stressed so much. We ended up introducing some formula after 4 months at the instruction of the paediatrician as my little boy wasn't gaining weight quickly enough. At first I felt really ashamed of needing formula (stupidly!) but it turned out to be the best thing we ever did. He's now 7 months old and you wouldn't know he was premature to look at him - he's caught right up! We're still mixed feeding and it suits us really well.

I hope everything goes well for you today xxx 💚💚💚

Hello, I remember you from the August due date thread ❤️

Just wanted to say I hope it all goes well today. My baby was not IUGR but she was prem, born weighing 1.9 kg at 33+1 weeks. She was in NICU for three days while they built her up from drip feeds to tube feeds, then SCBU for another 17 days as we went from tube feeds to bottle feeds. She had expressed breast milk throughout but never got the hang of direct breastfeeding, so I just kept on pumping.

by the time she came home at equivalent to 36+0 weeks she was like any newborn.

Best of luck today. My one other tip re pumping, is to have a photo of your baby while you’re hand expressing or pumping. It’ll help with the hormones. But remember, don’t break yourself to bf. If the baby can get a bit of colostrum and some of your milk then that’s great! If not, it’s ok. Some hospitals have donor milk they can feed your baby for the first few weeks.

My IUGR baby was born at 36 weeks weighing 1.6kg. I had steroid injections before I was induced which I believe made the world of difference. She didn’t need any help breathing, she was maintaining blood sugars, temperature etc and only spent 5 days in NNU as she was tube fed initially then 2 days in transitional care and came back exactly a week after she was born weighing 1.78kg.

I couldn’t breastfeed as she was so tiny and I found it all too stressful. I expressed colostrum for her but formula fed. I just wanted to make sure she regained her birth weight.

She’s now a healthy 2 year old and still tiny.

I was an IUGR 34 weeker and had an IUGR 36 weeker, 2 kg. He was on the 96th percentile by three months after a massive growth spurt. His legs were like hams. Three months before I’d been crying changing his napping because he didn’t have an ounce of fat on him.

Hope it's going OK. I pumped and formula fed together until I could breastfeed once baby grew. By 12 weeks I was exclusively breastfeeding. So that's an option too.

Thank you all. He's wonderful and made little crying noises. He's slipped a bit this evening as was having spasms for low blood sugar and is now being tube fed and having glucose drip. He's in SCBU. We're in a private room. David is going back to check in on him before bed

I'm so pleased to hear he arrived safely. I imagine it has all been very scary and overwhelming, but he's in the right place and it's great that he was feeling strong enough to make some little crying noises.

I hope you all have a good night.

What did he weigh?

If you are still keen to breastfeed do ask the staff to show you how to hand express colostrum. I had to do this (or more accurately my DH had to do it for me) and it really helped my milk come in, and for me to feel like I was doing something productive.

So glad he’s here safely. It’ll be a bit up and down to start with. Hope you’re ok too. Don’t forget about the hormone drop around day three where you might feel even more emotional.

That’s an encouraging update @theotherfossilsister I hope the three of you have had a good day.

Congratulations! Absolutely ask somebody to help you hand express. Even 0.1ml of colostrum every 2-3 hours will be enough for the first day and will help your milk come in. In my trust, we encourage women to pump after 24 hours, 3 hourly to bring in their milk.

how much did baby weigh?

One drop of colostrum every couple of hours is fantastic for baby.

instagram.com/kathrynstaggibclc?utm_medium=copy_link

I'd highly recommend following this lady Kathryn Stagg. She's got great videos on how to hand express, and in her highlights reel there's what to expect by age and stage, definitely worth a look and stops all the I'm not doing this right/enough worries.

Congratulations! I'm so pleased he arrived safely for you. Sending you lots of good wishes and hoping he has a smooth journey getting strong enough to come home with you xxxx

Congratulations!

My baby was delivered at just over 34 weeks, weighing 1.8kg, due to pre-eclampsia and IUGR. He had no problems breathing and we were able to stay in transitional care throughout and came home after 2 weeks. He did have jaundice, which meant they had to put him under a blue light twice for 12h or so - I found this quite hard but it fixed it and no further problems. He also had trouble maintaining his temperature as he was so tiny, and had to sleep on a hot cot on and off for the first few days. He also had to be tube fed, initially formula but when my milk came in I expressed (though failed completely to express colostrum). I keep trying him on my breast with very little success for the first few days as he was too tired, but in the second week he just got it, and was breastfeeding exclusively within 24h. I think I actually got better support with feeding than many friends with term babies. I did have problems with cracked nipples etc over the first few weeks, but it became very easy after that and I breastfed him exclusively until he was over a year. So it's entirely possible, but don't beat yourself up if if doesn't happen - it's really individual whether it works for people or not and your wellbeing is always most important.

The only thing we had to deal with after leaving hospital was an inguinal hernia which needed very minor surgery. He's now nearly 7 and a lovely happy healthy child.

Good luck - there will be some ups and downs but I'm sure your baby will be fine!

Thank you so much. We are now on a scheme called keeping mother's and babies together, where he is with me but being seen by neonatal care every three hours. I'm trying to pump but only getting about 15ml and it's day four now. He's mainly tube fed but trying little bits of eating. They've fitted him on the breast once with a nipple sheild and he sucked so we'll try that again. He's 1.6 and terrifyingly tiny.

@theotherfossilsister glad you're both doing ok. Keep persevering with the pumping (if that's what you want to do). It should kick in very soon. I struggled with milk production and was prescribed Domperidone. You could ask about that

So glad you're together.

Don't panic about the milk production. It's still early days. If you want to just keep pumping and once he's able to latch your milk supply will increase. Lots of women get less pumping than baby does direct from the breast.

Very glad you're together, that makes a huge difference. Try not to worry about the milk- I don't think I got much at all for at least 4-5 days, it's really not the most efficient way of getting your milk supply in (so much quicker with my second who was term). But after a couple more days I was expressing more than I needed, and it was very different once he started feeding himself. Babies are very effective at regulating their own supply!

So glad you’re together! That’s amazing. Don’t worry about 15ml. That’s all I could ever get. But once I got him to latch properly, my supply was enough. Some people just can’t pump. Even when I was breastfeeding him when he was older and having much more milk I still couldn’t pump. So we combi fed with formula. I think my body just hates the pump.

To get 15ml on day 4 is amazing! A lot of women don't get their milk coming in until day 5 and it causes a huge hormone change so be prepared to be totally weepy and a bit all over the place. I only ever got about 30ml at a time even when my milk was fully in.

A pp above mentioned domperidone but there are lots of things you can do before then too. The hospital should be able to loan you a hospital grade pump, which are miles better than most pumps. I hired the medela symphony for £47 a month for 6 months. If you want to keep pumping, make sure you do a pumping session at 2-4am when milk production is at it's highest. Eat loads of oats / porridge and drinks masses of water. Like 3-4l per day. Sleep is important for milk too (though i known very hard!). But your NNU should have a breastfeeding specialist who can come and help. My DD was tube fed for a week whilst i hand expressed and the bf nurse was amazing at getting her to start latching etc so that she could feed and then i pumped for her top up (we also did formula top ups for 6 months as she wasnt gaining weight and thats totally fine too!)

I found bf really tough on my mental health and in hindsight probably should have switched to formula much earlier than at 9 months so be kind to yourself and don't put too much pressure on if bf isn't working out.

You got this, mama!

Hey OP hope you are doing ok.

I know this thread is a few weeks old now but just wanted to add that my baby was born by emergency c section at 36 weeks weighing 4lb, they said he stopped growing round about 31/32 weeks. I wasn’t able to breast feed him as my boobs are huge and he was so tiny. He also had tongue tie. I pumped instead and by 3 months old he was big enough to latch on to my boobs. He’s now nearly 5 months and I’m breastfeeding & bottle feeding 50/50. So even if you can’t breast feed now, pumping will help keep your supply :)

Thank you @MrsS89K that's amazing

He's been on fifty percent expressed breastmilk and fifty percent nutriprem for a while but today the health visit came and he's lost thirty six grams since last weigh in on Sunday so they are changing him to seventy percent formula. He's just started feeding properly on the breast for long durations but she's discouraging this for now until his weight goes up. He's amazing though and I love him so much. It's amazing it worked for you in the end.

I’m so pleased it’s going well for you. Hope you’re getting a little bit of sleep and lots of cuddles.

It's sounds like both of you are doing brilliantly! You're a fantastic mum and should really proud of what you hear achieved.

I hope you are trying to catnap where possible and eating and drinking plenty!

I remembered when I was constantly expressing that it was handy to have a spare set of pump parts and using a manual pump was surprisingly quite easy to use. It meant i could pop a boob put and express without to get everything together for the electric pump.

Take care of yourself x