Babies Born at 34 weeks?

[Chrispe]

Our baby is going to be delivered at 34 weeks & 3 days via CS due to vasa previa. I looking to get feedback from other ppl who had babies at 34 weeks & how the baby was & length of stay for baby in hospital.
Thanks

Hi. My DS2 was 33 weeks +3 days, he was huge weighing in at 2750g & 49cm long. Which is big for the gestation. (the size of a 35-36wk baby)

Day 1& 2 days were in NICU (neonatal intensive care unit, as you have probably already been told) and he was in a humdicrib (isolet) for 4 days. He was lucky that he didn't need extra oxygen, but was on a CPAP to help his lungs inflate as he was born without cerficiant Surfactant (that lines the lungs & helps inflation) he BF on the second night, but it exhausted him so much.

Day 3 he was moved to SCBU1 (in isolet) & Day 4 he went into 'the big bed' (newborn hospital cot)
Day 6 he moved up to SCBU 2 & was there until Day 18 when we finally got to take him home.
Rule of thumb is the doctors usually like to monitor bub until they are 'term' and then they will assess when they can go home.

Best of luck. Lots of cuddles helps to make the time go faster.

[KittyK]

Just sharing my experience.

My DS was born 34 weeks exactly due to complications with placenta previa via csect. He weighed 2.66kg, they didn't measure him. When he was born he was breathing quickly so he was taken to the Special Care Nursery and was placed in a humidicrib thing overnight with oxygen. Before he was born I had already had 3 steroid shots to assist his lung development due to a few bleeding scares earlier in my pregnancy. By the next day his breathing was regular and he was allowed out of the humidicrib into a normal newborn cot. I also had gestational diabetes so he had a needle in his hand checking his blood sugar level for about 3 days before he pulled it out himself. They also had a sleep apnea machine on him at all times to make sure he didn't stop breathing, just a little machine that fits in your palm, wires and then those sticky pads that go on their chest.

When he was born I was able to see him breifly before they took him away due to the fast breathing. The first time I was able to hold him was about four hours later when they wheeled my bed into the SCN (special care nursery). I was allowed to hold him for 15 mins before he had to go back into his humidicrib and I was taken back to my room. The next morning I was taken in a wheelchair to go see him and from then on I was able to visit him whenever I liked though for the first two days it was a bit painful to walk up and down the halls, that wore off after a couple of days and panadols. It was definitately hard not to be able to hold him and snuggle him the way that I wanted but just being able to sit there and look at him and hold his hand was enough.

He also had to have a feeding tube in his nose. The nurses were telling me that the babies only learn the sucking reflex at 36 weeks so to start off with they expressed milk from me and fed it to him through the tube. When I was released from the hospital but he was still there the nurses told me that I had to wake up and express every 3 hours so that my boobs thought the baby was feeding to keep up the supply and every day I bought in the expressed breast milk that I expressed over night. The nurses encouraged me to breast feed as many feeds as I could but DS got too exhausted, we tried stopping the feed halfway to wake him up a little and we actually undressed him so he was cold and awake enough to feed. Some days he was just too tired to even try to feed, some days it felt like we were taking two steps back some days it felt like we were taking leaps forward with the BFing. Basically the dr said once we established breast feeding only without any tube top ups for 24 hours we would be able to take him home. It took nearly two weeks of me getting dropped at the hospital at 9am and sitting by his bed all day attempting to BF for every feed then home at 9pm before coming back the next day to do it all over again. The last two days I did the overnight stays with DS in my room and to show i could BF him every feed then i was allowed to take him home.

hope that helps and good luck, enjoy snuggling ur baby. The best advice I can give is not to give yourself any time limits, just try and relax as much as possible and just trust that baby will let you know when he/she is ready to go home. If you want any more information feel free to PM me

[Early Kids]

All the best x

My second was born at 34+3 and a whopping 3.09kg. He was intubated (put on the ventilator) at birth, then moved to CPAP before coming off breathing support after around 8ish hours. After that the only problem was jaundice. He was tube fed for two days and home by day 8 on early release, discharged completely on day 11.

My first was 1.545gm (30+1) and he was in hosp for 6 weeks.