Premmie Mums #8

[ladybird11]

yay - Caitlin is home where she is supposed to be!

I remember when DD came home she was 1770 grams and then lost 20 grams, I was afraid we'd end up in the hossy again, thank god we didn't!

[tk1999]

Hello ladies - I am so thankful for your experiences... whilst it is not nice that you had to go through this... I find myself drawing strength from you all as you have walked this path before me!

DD put on more weight today at the ECHN checkup... she is back to birth weight... infact she is 5grams over birthweight at 18 days old!

I am so happy!

Sally - thinking of you and Brendan for tomorrow's weigh in

[Early Kids]

Awesome news to be back to birthweight!! WooHoo!!

Thanks for your thoughts

We will be getting Brendan tested for PDD, which is on the Autism spectrum. I hope that he doesn't have that, but at the same time it will be nice to finally have our answer and to move forwardwith some proper assistance to help him. Will find out more on Tuesday when we see the speech and ot.

Hope everyone else is well

[tk1999]

Sally - will keep Brendan in my thoughts during the tests.

Ladies - can I ask a question re corrected age... ok so Caitlin's due date isn't for another 3 weeks... the nurses etc have explained this to me but I seemed to have got myself all confuddled!

From what I understand her actual age today is 19 days (my ticker doesn't change until after midday or so) and her corrected age is 36+6 weeks.... is that right? Her birthday was 09/08/09 and she was born at 34+1 weeks.

And when we get passed her EDD what does the corrected age become... so say she is actual 12 weeks does her corrected become 6 weeks???

[Early Kids]

You got it Tristan is 10 weeks today, but only 4+3 weeks corrected.

Well I have excellent news...Both boys got weighed and measured this morning...

Tristan is now 4.5kg (+750 grams in 4 weeks)
Brendan is now 11.75kg (+750 grams in 2 months) still needs to gain 330 grams to be what he weighed in May. He was weighed fully clothed.... refused to get undressed lol

Both boys sit exactly on the 10th percentile line for their actual ages (weight)

Tristan is now 56cms
Brendan is now 91.5 cms tall! (+4cms in 3 months)

I'm very pleased with both!

[nickers]

Awesome news to be back to birthweight!! WooHoo!!

Thanks for your thoughts

We will be getting Brendan tested for PDD, which is on the Autism spectrum. I hope that he doesn't have that, but at the same time it will be nice to finally have our answer and to move forwardwith some proper assistance to help him. Will find out more on Tuesday when we see the speech and ot.

Hope everyone else is well

good luck Sal.

we are going through the same thing at the moment. Nixon has seen a CHN, Paed, Speech pathologist all with concerns he could have a form of autism.
we are trying to get him into a diagnostic clinic for further review, it all takes so long

we started speech therapy this week

[tk1999]

Wonderful news Sally!! Yay to the boys for brilliant weight gains! Thank you for your reassurement re the corrected age... it can get quite confusing!! Will I always have to 'correct' her age?

nickers - will keep you in my thoughts during Nixon's tests as well.

[*Beema*]

Congrats TK on Caitlin getting past her birth weight!!

Great gains for both boys Sal!!

TK using the corrected age depends on who you speak to! Some say 1 year (our CYHN said she was only correcting weight until 1 year of age), others 2 years, depending on the "prematurity" we were told that by 2 years they should be "caught up". Our paediatric physio still use corrected age. So you get to celebrate their "0" birthday, or corrected birthday too!

Nic and Sal for the boys testing, hope you get the answers you are looking for and the support you need.

This week DD was diagnosed with Small Airways Disease, which is why she has had recurrent bouts of croup and brochiolitis (3 and 2), we were on a vetolin trial to see if that made a difference, which ended up being negligable, we now have an action plan for treated. At the onset of symtoms of either we are to administer the first of three doses of steroids over a 36 hour period, if at any time her breathing becomes significantly lobours, drawing in at the ribs, heavy wheezing and the steroids are not having an effect, we are to take her straight to the Dr's or Hosy for 02 treatment. Finally after months of respiratory infections we have an answer and treatment and we can go forward, she will be retested for asthma in a few months time, and she should grow out of the SAD by the time she is 6 years old.

Her physio session went well this week, the physio was really happy with her developments over the past couple of weeks, we had another student sitting in this week, you should have seen the look on her face when Nakita showed off her flexibilty, full side splits them going flat on her tummy, then sliding one leg forward and the other back into the "other" splits position. She did her first consecutive roll at home the night before, back, to front to back on the bed, which was very exciting, we are trying to get her to roll on the matt (with a thick blanket on it) but she isn't keen, so we are working more on the bed as it is more giving and she is more inclined to roll more, so working on the movement rather than the location at the moment.

Next session is Tuesday, we have a new student for the next four weeks, hopefully they are just as nice as the one's we have had

Have a good weekend!
Take care
xxoo

[Early Kids]

Beema, I'm glad you guys are able to move forward now. Hopefully Miss N will not get as sick anymore.

TK, Brendan is 2y6m and is still being corrected as he has significant delays. Tristan is not being corrected at all... so far he is 'advanced' gosh it's wierd saying that! If he should become delayed then we'll remind people he was early

Nic, keep me updated with how Nixon goes! We have our speech and OT appt on Tuesday.

[tiffanny]

TK I never used the whole corrected age thing. Don't know why, (actually there was and is a reason but it won't sit well with others so won't say) but in a nutshell I just didn't think it was necessary for everyone I met to explain.

Sally and Nic, I hope everything goes well for you both and you get some answers.

Us- we have had a big leap in our toilet training with Feeb's wowing me with a big stinky poo and then topped it off with telling me when she needed to do another one and she stripped off and hopped on her potty again with the same outcome as before. YAY for us. I've been waiting for the warmer weather to start but never imagined she would take to it this quickly. Can't wait to tell her teacher at D/C.

[Early Kids]

Tiffany thats awesome about the toilet training! Brendan is no where near it yet.

With corrected age I only used it as far as development went, and only when seeing specialists ect. As for everyone else I just told them his real age.

[*Beema*]

TK I never used the whole corrected age thing. Don't know why, (actually there was and is a reason but it won't sit well with others so won't say) but in a nutshell I just didn't think it was necessary for everyone I met to explain.

You have made me curious as to why

I got a lot of comments about DD's size, especially when she was not even near the bottom of the charts and 3 months old, so I would either just say her corrcted age, although for a while that didn't stop the comments so I just made up and arbitory age, smiled, nodded and walked away if they commented

[Bee83]

Hi Ladies

Well my little boy Jacob was born a month early at 36 +2 and he was 2.8kg, we were very lucky as we were told he would more than likely go to NICU being early and small. The paedatrician said he was tiny but perfect and monitored his blood sugar slowly, but we were home in 5 days.He is now 4.5 months old and on 10th percentile for weight but feeding has always been a huge issue for us. I never got milk so Jacob went straight to bottle feeding which he did well at in Hospital but was a whole new story at home. He still only has about 100-120mL at a time and wakes every 3 hours during the night. I find it very frustrating as he wasnt that "premmie" so to speak and has been slower to reach milestones (ie still hasnt rolled).

He has also been plagued with sickness this winter resulting in no weight gain for a month. I spoke to a doctor at work who suggested i thickened his feeds and he gained nearly 900g in a fortnight but he has been sick again and stops feeding.

Any advice would be greatly accepted!

Love Bee & Jacob

[butterfly_warrior]

I feel a little bit odd finally joining this thread now that Sam is nine months old. He was born at 36 weeks and even though we spent 10 days in the SCN and I'm still traumatised by watching my son have NG tubes inserted, I never really felt that he was all that premmie, and well... Just didn't find it until Sam was older and bigger and didn't look like he was born prematurely at all.

But I saw Bee's post and I just had to respond...

Bee, Sam went straight to the bottle in hospital as well as my milk never came in either. Hours upon hours on the torture device they call a breast pump, all for nothing. Anyway, Sam's grown well (gone from 3rd percentile to 97th for weight), but he's still been somewhat slow in reaching his milestones. Don't worry! Sam didn't even attempt to roll until he was well over 4 months old. He was probably closer to 6 months old before he finally figured it out. Then he rolled both ways for about a week and then stopped completely. It's only now at 9 months old that he's started rolling regularly and is using it to get places. His fine motor skills are impressive, but his gross motor skills have been particularly sucky up until this point. Being sick certainly won't have helped, but try not to worry too much about meeting physical milestones and concentrate more on his feeding issues. I hope you get them sorted... I remember how stressed we were when Sam got sick and wouldn't take his bottles. He dropped a lot of weight when that happened, but as soon as he was well again his growth took off again.

BW

[tk1999]

Hi,

Bee, welcome! I am not much help to you as DD is 6 weeks old this Sunday so we haven't been through many milestones thus far. BW gave you some great advice though. Hope all goes well for your DS.

BW, hope the odd feeling is gone for you now. Glad to have you here! Sam is doing so well. Congratulations to you both.

Well... tomorrow is DD's EDD... my oh my how those time has flown from her birth date to now! I have been processing a lot of mixed emotions but overall I am ok with everything - it is just surreal watching my belly buddies go through the end stages of their pg, their labours starting and their bundles arriving!

[*Beema*]

Welcome Bee and BW, and it is never too late to join BW

I am not the best to comment on Gross Motor Skill Milestones as DD has Hypermobility (too flexible), she can tickle behind both of her ears with her big toes at the same time and giggle She has only just started rolling in the last few weeks

But every baby is different, and he is only 4 1/2 months give him some more time, he will get there in his own time.

DD was stuck on drinking only 100ml for a long time, the only way we got it up was by 5ml increments every few days, eventually she got up to about 180ml, but a majority of the time she was BF'ed and the toped up with F when she was losing weight

Happy EDD to Caitlin for tomorrow!!

Hope DD isn't getting ill again, she thew up all overherself in the car (TMI) this arvo, poor little poppet, she didn't even whimper just sat there Cleaned her up when we got hom 10min later as I had nothing with me After she had a long shower, gave her some dinner, which she proceeded to hide in the highchair when I was looking and before bed she drank 20ml of milk, and would only take tiny sips of water. Also had some diahorrea, hope what ever it is is very short lived!!

Hope everyone has a fabulous weekend!!

ETA: oo cool that was my 1500th post!
xxoo

[tk1999]

Hope Nakita is better soon Beema - fingers crossed whatever it is, it is short lived

[*Beema*]

Thanks Tk, I am hoping that the car upset her for some reason, although we have never had a problem before