Thanks Kirsty & Tiff, I think he's pretty gorgeous too but I'm more than just a little bit biased! And Kirsty, can I just say I love seeing that ticker under your signature!

Tiff, the answer to pretty much all of your questions in your last post is yes. Josh did get the steroids. It all happened pretty quickly. I was admitted to hospital on a Wednesday at 32+1 because of high BP. The idea was to get my BP down and send me home - ha! I had an ultrasound on the Thursday morning to check on Josh. It showed that there was resistance in the blood flow from the placenta, so they gave me the first steroid injection at 1:30pm that afternoon "just in case". I had another ultrasound on the Friday morning which showed that there was increased resistance in the blood flow and so I had the second injection 24 hours after the first at 1:30pm on Friday. On the Friday night my OB rang to tell me that he would be delivering Josh the next day. He must have been pretty antsy because he actually timed the c/s to the exact minute that the second lot of steroids would have taken effect. At 1:30pm on the Saturday, 3 days after I was admitted, I was lying in theatre, ready to have a baby!

The reason that my OB took it all so seriously is because resistance in the blood flow, combined with my severe PE is what caused Georgia to die. There was no way he was going to let that happen again. My pregnancy with Josh was basically headed exactly the same way as my pregnancy with Georgia and he wasn't going to take any chances. (He's not the OB I had for Georgia - I wouldn't see that guy again in a pink fit). Basically, Josh was better off coming out early than he was staying in.

And yep, he was on CPAP, although not for too long. They put him on it straight after he was born and he stayed on it for about 6 hours. After that he was able to do all his breathing on his own. He was on the monitors until 35/36 weeks. I found them reassuring and hated them at the same time. I liked seeing that he was breathing and his heart was beating etc but I hated all the beeping and false alarms so in that respect I was glad when they came off. I have to admit though, that I spent a lot of time checking on his breathing once they did.

As for did I worry when I brought him home...at first, yes! Perfect example: his first night home. During his time in hospital Josh was perfect - he ate, slept, hardly made a sound. The day we brought him home he continued that way. Until it was time for us to go to bed that night. He started doing this snuffling thing and his breathing started sounding really funny. (We've since discovered that this is normal for prems). We had never heard him do it before and got a bit freaked out. We were too scared to go to sleep in case he stopped breathing! We lay awake listening to him snuffle and snort until about 3am. At that time, we remembered that we had one of those Angelcare sound and movement monitors that we hadn't had time to set up yet. We realised that if the monitor was on, it would set off an alarm if he stopped breathing. So, at 3am there we were, assembling a baby monitor in the dark so we could feel safe to go to sleep! As time has gone on though and he has grown bigger and stronger, I have relaxed a lot. I still check on him constantly when he is sleeping, but I'm getting better!

So, Tiff, how are your little miracles going today? How are they going with the alternate feeds?

Gwen, you're right, the end result is sooo worth it! And it's exciting that you are TTC again! It is still pretty daunting too though, I know. My doctor has told me that because it has happened to me twice now (the preeclampsia), there is a pretty strong chance that it will happen again. My dream would be to have a full term pregnancy next time, but I don't like my chances. I guess I can live in hope though - stranger things have happened!

Louise, Hi! It's great to have you posting in here in too. What date was Maria born? Looking at her ticker, it looks like she and Josh might have been born on the same day! Were you happy overall with the Royal Womens? I had Josh at RPA. I love the midwives on the antenatal ward there, I wasn't as impressed with the postnatal ward though. The staff in the NICU are fantastic, although Josh was transferred out of RPA to a hospital closer to home a week after he was born.