Friend's baby born at 30 weeks

[blondiep14]

One of my best friends lives in Oz and has just had her first baby at 30 weeks after 5 weeks in hospital on bed rest.
All I know so far is baby's name and that Mum and baby doing well.
Obviously I'm not in a position to physically do much but what can I do from here? What should I send? What would you have liked people to do and send?
Any advice welcome please, I really want to be there for her as much as I can be from across the world!

You don't say where she lives but they're going into autumn aren't they. If her tot is very tiny, the hardest things to find in the shops are little cardigans, especially made of pure wool. And if the baby is tiny she will need help staying warm.

If you can knit or have a helpful mum, I'd make up a couple of tiny cardigans and send them. Most wool pattern shops keep baby patterns for prem babies.

They have the added advantages that they're very personal, really light to post and because they need to be tiny, they are really quick to make.

Hi, I am a mum to a 24 weeker and the strangest thing for me is that noone knew whether to celebrate the birth or not. I think it would be great if you just send a congratulations card and a small postable gift. At 30 weeks survivability is very good but i'm sure she's feeling shaken up and has been thrust into the strange world of the SCBU so she'll probably need to know you're supporting her and available to email/talk/pray or whatever you feel able to do for her.

Presents we liked were just "normal" baby stuff, it was really hard for us to know most of our friends didn't feel able to send a card because everyone thought our circumstances weren't worth celebrating.

You could also try pointing her at the Bliss message board (www.blissmessageboard.org.uk) which has loads of supportive premmie mums. it's currently down but is usually very reliable!

Good news is baby has now been home for a week and a half and is doing really well.
Mum seems really quite over-awed tho so don't know how to help with that. I will point her in direction of that message board, thanks.
In the end I sent a card and some teeny preemie stuff which she said she liked as it was ok for her to wear in the incubator.
Thanks for the help.