Friend in labour with prem bub how can I help?

[BekZ]

Well bub did not stay home for long. She has jaundice and has lost too much weight. I knew they went home too early.

I don't know much more than that but I am sure the hospital will be trying to get bub to feed as much as possible.

[*Beema*]

BekZ

Gee I can't believe they let her go home only for overnight in the end.. poor mum it must be very hard.

I hope she can just have some more time to get things happening

We didn't have a weight gain until day 23, which was 12 days after leaving hospital, infact on the day if disharge she lost 40grams and was 10 grams above her lowest weight but her Paed was happy for her to go home (on a Friday). The following Wednesday we had her weighed and she had lost another 10grams, so was back to her lowest weight. We were lucky that the RN wasn't too worried (albeit I was shattered) and we went back the next week and got a decent gain!

DD also had jaundice, was under lights for a couple of days. It also got worse when we were home but we hadn't realised how bad (as she was really yellow and we didn't know any different and our private MW/LC wasn't concerned until it had returned to her torso) at 10 weeks, we had her Bilirubins done and they were the same level as they were when she had just finished her phototherapy, so we were lucky we didn't have to go back in, but it also meant that she wa probably above that for quite some time and had just gradually come down by themselves.

DD's Paediatrician said that in breast fed infants, the same thing that breaks down the breast milk also resolves jaundice, he referred to it as breastfed jaundice. So it is common for Breast fed babies to be jaundiced for 3 months or more (especially premmies).

I hope that with a bit of phototherapy and adjustments with her feeds that they can return home and stay there. xxoo

[Liz]

Oh dear. Sorry to hear this. Must admit I thought it was early to let them go home too, I thought they liked to keep them until they were close to 37 weeks?

Jaundice is a common problem, I hope it's just a mild case. Kayla had to go under the lights, but then hers went away. DS tho, who was born at 37 weeks had breastfeeding jaundice for a long time, but never needed the lights.

Weight loss.. that's pretty common too with prems. They're not meant to be burning all this energy eating and breathing and all that comes with being born. They should still just be floating and growing!

I hope she's not too disheartened. Tell her to hang in there, bub just needs time to rest and catch up with things. Hope it's all sorted soon for her. It's such a waiting game really with a prem.

[Janie]

Oh I'm really sorry to hear that Bek. I hope she can come home soon.

Gosh, I never really thought about it too much, I just thought we were a bit lucky bringing our 35 weeker home with us. I guess we were REALLY lucky. DS was jaundiced, and we did think he would have to stay in, but his last BT on the day we were going home showed some improvement, so we got to take him with us. Yeah, I guess we were very fortunate.

[BekZ]

Baby Maja is home...for good!!!

They got home yesterday and so far she has gained 90g since being at home. Mum is breastfeeding really well thankfully.

Thanks so much for support.

[Janie]

Yay, that's great news! Thanks for letting us know Bek

[rufalina]

Bek that is great news. Well done to your friend and her little Princess.

[*Beema*]

Fabulous news Bekz, so thrilled for you, I hope this is the end of their hospital journey and they can relax and grow together at home. xxoo

Must admit I thought it was early to let them go home too, I thought they liked to keep them until they were close to 37 weeks?

I thought that too until I had a prem, the WCH (where i had her as I was too early to go to any of the Private Hospitals in Adelaide) wanted her for 4-5 weeks which would have made her 37-38 weeks, but we transferred to our Private Hospital only because a specialist Paeditrcian agreed to take on her case and monitor her daily (they would only accept them from 36 weeks she transferred at 34 week 2 days, we brought her home at 35 weeks 1 day old, was only 10grams above her lowest weight (which she lost that again her first week home). But as soon as she had been on all suck feeds for 24 hours, they are generally happy to have them go home, where as it wouldn't have been possible to do that at the WCH. I boarded which allowed all suck feeds, with at least 50% on the boob. I would have been comuting a few times a day into the WCH if we didn't get the transfer.

mind you having the head of the NICu at the WCh as your paeditrician certainly has a lot of pulling power!!

But even so, every prem is different, we have a prem playgroup with the bubs ranging from 24 weekers to 35 weekers, it is amazing to see the differences, especially of those that are the same gestation. Most look like normal babies, others are on oxygen, NGT's, quite underweight etc I have learnt sooo much becoming a mum of a prem, but there is soo much more to learn!!

[BekZ]

Beema - thanks to all of you lovely ladies and my friend now having a prem bub I have learnt heaps too!!!

[Liz]

Yeah, I boarded for 3 weeks We transferred from public to private.. well I transferred over as a boarder earlier than kayla.. i had to walk the distance to the public every feed!! She moved over once she was about 36wks I think. I was one day too early to birth at the private.. the public midwives were great.. but the food is terrible! LOL... was sooo glad to get over to the private I must say!

Anyway.. back to Kayla.. she was on monitors for a long time coz she kept having de-sats. So she was on caffeine treatment for that, and basically we had to wait for her to outgrow the de-sats. In that time we fought the paeds (me & the nurses lol) for all suck feeds.. she kept losing weight when all sucks.. but one of the weigh-ins we're pretty sure was wrong.. a loss one day of 20g to a gain of 140g the next?? something was wrong somewhere.. but the paeds all freaked at the loss. Ugh. But we got there in the end, and finally convinced them to let her off the monitoring. I was worried I'd be paranoid about her de-satting and had visions of me using all kinds of baby monitors at home, but I'm happy to say I didn't succumb! LOL.