My son was born at 31 weeks and weighed just 2lb 4oz and like you, I was 41 when Sam was born.
Sam amazed everyone by not needing oxygen and for something so tiny, he soon developed a temper. We were only in SCBU for 6 weeks and Sam weighed just 3lb 15oz when he came home.
The 6 weeks in SCBU seemed to last forever. One lady in there coped by telling herself that she had chosen to leave her baby in there, that it was some kind of nursery.
Sam had a long line and antiboitics. At one point he had splints on both arms and looked so funny waving them about. It was heartbreaking to see my precious baby with wires everywhere, but they have to be there and the feeling of joy when they are removed is so great. Sam did not have CPAP in SCBU but had to have a couple of months ago when he caught broncolities. It looks as scary as hell, but it really is just two very short tubes that go into the nose. Sam also had TPN.
I was not able to breastfeed Sam as he was just too small to suck. However I used to express milk and this was put into his NG tube. Then one day a nurse suggested trying him on a bottle, as it does not take as much effort as breastfeeding. After that there was no stopping Sam, he had the feeding bug.
The SCBU nurses used to say that it went against all of the rules that something so small could knock back a bottle and then demand seconds! Three days after his first bottle, he pulled his own NG tube out and it never went back in.
When you come home you will gets a whole raft of new smells. There is Nuriprem baby milk, which smells like Stilton cheese. There is Dalivit the vitimin drops that are marmite smelling. Then there is Cytrone the iron supliment which does not come out of clothes!
Then there is the struggle for clothes. Buy them from the web. However Mammas and Pappas do a petite petite range which start at around 3lb and they were so helpful. A lady in Mothercare upset me so much. She said 'oh no, we don't do clothes that small, suggest you buy dolls clothes'! I wanted to hang her from a clothes rail and tell her he's not a doll, he's a real boy!
So lets fast forward. Sam is now 35 weeks old, or 26 corrected. He has a stiff valve in his heart and only has 50% hearing in one ear. However don't think for one moment that this causes him any problems. When it's sleep time he can hear a bird sneeze three miles away and he may or may not grow out of the heart problem. Yet it stops him doing nothing. He is now a strapping 16lb 13oz and has almost caught up with the weight for his age group. In terms of development in somethings he is ahead of 'normal' babies, in somethings he is behind. He will get there in the end.
Sorry for the war and peace, but I wanted to write everything I could remember. You will get there in the end, just take each step and hurdle as it comes. Celebrate the highs and share the lows. For Katherine to be on air at only 24 weeks is amazing, she is going to surprise you with how well she can do.
Lots of love to you all.
Em & Sam xxx