Premmie Mums #8

[Early Kids]

WTG Tristan!

Hope the meeting goes well for Brendan

Thanks hun

[shazzi]

Just an update on my little bub, not that i ever really did an intro.

Little K is 81/2 months, so 6 months corrected. We saw the Paed on Tuesday for our 3 monthly review (6 weeks late due to rescheduling). I had been getting anxious for no reason as DD has been great. They are so happy with little K that we do not have to see them for another 6 months. YAY. I no longer have to give her pentavite and iron daily as she has started solids .

Sally - (and any other BLW'ers) The paed had no problem with me doing Baby led. At least they did not say anything when i told them. I was nervous about that. But as long as she is putting on weight they cannot say anything really.

Quick background as i have never introduced myself in this thread but read it lots

DD was born via emergency c-section at 29 plus 6 weeks due to placental abruption. Luckily I was in hospital for a few days to monitior some bleeding. It scares me to think what would have happened if I had been home. I had not been prepared for a possible prem baby. I thought I was going home in 2 days to wait for a scan at 34 weeks. She spent 2 weeks in NICU (9 days on CPAP) and 41/2 in special care and always had laboured breathing due to a PDA. The medicine did not work to close it. DD was slow to put on weight at first, had laboured breathing and very sleepy. At 3 months she had the heart operation to fix it and her weight gain skyrocketed, and so did her development. At 8 1/2 months she is sitting on her own. loves assisted standing and babbles a lot. From 1707g she now weighs 7.2kg

Although she has always been a fighter and we have encountered few set backs or hurdles it is hard to ignore the anxiety of premmie parenthood. The heart operation was horrible but seeing how many kids were worse off in the ward put our issue into perspective. But it still hurt. At birth the hospital give you that sheet of paper saying what could happen now and in future for babies at your gestation and the stats. I read too much on the internet about possible problems for premmie babies etc. So now I am telling myself just relax and let her be. Or let me be really.

now to the harder part. Preparing for two friends births in July and August. I cannot stop that anxiety and sadly envy. I feel envious seeing their bellies and hearing their gestation and birth plans. But my issues again and ones I will deal with in time.

Thanks for letting me rant. Hope everyone and their little ones are well

[Early Kids]

Shaz, so glad to hear Miss K is doing so well I, as do most of us here, completely understand the envy you have for your friends.


Tristan is now 10 months old. He is crawling, sitting, kneeling, standing, cruising and taking some assisted steps. Everything he "should" be doing He is following his little curve on the developmental chart for Gross Motor skills (97th %ile for corrected age)

On Tuesday morning he finally did some babble too! And best of all it was "mumumumum"

He is eating everything we do and really enjoys his meat. He is a little savage when it comes to food, I'm sure people think I don't feed him. It's no big deal for him to eat an entire toasted cheese sandwich and most of Brendan's too. Tristan eats more than Brendan does in one sitting than Brendan does over an entire day. He LOVES water and drinks from a sippy cup like a pro. He still fits in 2-3 breastfeeds a day, but he treats them more like a snack now hehe.

He is still a petite little thing (gets weighed Tuesday) which I'm starting to get a little concerned about because he eats SOOOO much (yes I know he is more active now, but when you consider the following I think it's only fair I be a little concerned). Over the past 2 measures he has dropped 2 %iles (for height) His head circumference also dropped a %ile. If he hasn't grown in height I think I'll see about seeing a paediatrician.

His legs are barely noticeable now He is almost standing with his feet the right way! A few more weeks and I think he will be all good!

[tk1999]

Shazzi - Miss K is doing so fantastically - congratulations to you both!

Sally - WTG Tristan!!

Miss C is doing well. She was 8.1kg at 8 months on 9 April 2010. She is doing very well with BLS and will only tolerate us feeding her yoghurt though most times she has her own spoon and helps.

BM is still her main source of food - even though she is doing well with BLS she has not dropped any feeds and I am ok with that.

I live in awe of you ladies and your prems. It is so good to watch (read about) their growing up

[~Serenity~]

Wow little K had great birthweight my 2 littlest were 1.5kg serenity is almost 7months or 5 months corrected today lots of cooing and rolling and giggles and rasberries and mysteriously finding here on the otherside of the room when left alone to do things lol no teeth thankgod and still a booby girl not really starting solids yet

Hunter is 2.5 running jumping climbing needs speech therapy though he does talk alot but ppl can't understand him and he should be saying long sentences not just 3 word ones

Taniesha is 3.5 chatter box starting kindy next year about 15kg, hunter is 12-13 and serenity is about 6kg and now in 000

Sally glad the boys are doing great

[shazzi]

Sally - thanks for the words of support. It is hard to explain to others, and lots of my friends are not parents as well so they understand even less.

Thanks TK and Heavenly Mumma. Little K was quite a size for her gestation.

My feelings (the anxiety and envy) about pregnant friends are made worse as a close and pregnant friend has asked for a c-section for no medical reason (she does not want to go through labour) and it upsets me. I suppose there are psychological reasons as well though. I never got a chance at going in to labour and I do not understand her decision. Less than an hour before her birth, I woke up and discovered that I was lying in lots blood, had not felt a thing, not what I had imagined at all. Dd's heart beat was very low when they got the machine on to it. Then a chunk of my placenta came out. Talk about panic. Once of the midwives was half lying on my body to stop me shaking so much. I did not know if little K would be alive after the emergency c-section.

Goodness, I started out good this week but ended up not so good.

Sorry everyone. Will go and have a bath with DD and cheer up. DH gets home at 7.30 and that will help. Gues it does not help that she is teething - BUt still no teeth!!! Anyway i will be fine.

Thanks all.

[Sally2]

Hey Shaz
I remember how hard itwas when Charlie was in the hospital and one of our best friends was pregnant. It was terrrible being soooo jealous of her pregnant belly and the fact that her baby was safe and sound while our little baby was struggling soo much. It's such a mix of happiness for her that she was getting her long awaited baby, grateful that her little girl WAS safe and pure, raging, green eyed jealousy that she got what we didn't have.
Hugs for your bad week

[Early Kids]

Awww Shazz

[tk1999]

Shazz - it is so hard... lots of hugs for you.

Sally2 - you are amazing coming into show support even with all you are going through!

[Early Kids]

Just got home from having Tristan weighed, at 10 months (+ 8days *giggle*) he weighs in at 7260 grams (up 220 grams in a month) he is now 70.5cms long (up 3cms in a month) and his head circumference is now 44.5cms.

For weight he is still WELL below the charts, for height he is back up to just above the 10th %ile and for head circ he is now just above the 10th %ile.

We discussed some options and rather than see a paed we are going to see a dietician first. I have some things to fill out including a food diary.
He has also been referred onto one-on-one speech as apart from the very random very rare "mum-mum" he is not babbling or making any noises.

Discussed Brendan's behavioural issues and CHN is going to get onto Brendan's new OT for me. But she said it's probably best to wait for the paed appt for now, which is in 2 weeks.

I got myself referred to physio too, not sure on the wait, but hey it's free!

So all up it was a constructive appointment, I'm very pleased with Tristan coming back up the graph for height and head circumference, just hoping his weight will follow soon too.

[teresa]

hi ladies, i thought i might join this group if thats ok. i had a premmie son at 34+3 weeks due to placenta previa and bleeding.
i have just read some of the posts and shaz i know how u r feeling. my friend is pg and is now 37 weeks and i recently went to her baby shower. there were other pg girls there and they were all talking about contractions and labour and going overdue. i was the same as u and i wasnt allowed to go into labour. i feel envious and in some ways jealous that they get to experience all of this. i thought it was me being silly and selfish and something was wrong with me but now i know that i am not the only one.
DS is currently asleep so i thought i would check out this forum. it would be nice to get some support from other premmie mums as they know what i went thru and am still going thru

[Early Kids]

Hi Teresa! Welcome and Congratulations on the birth of Hamish! He was a good size for 34+3 (Tristan was 3090 grams, 34+3) How long was he in hospital for? How is he going now?

[teresa]

hi sally, thanks
i had gd so they said his size was due to that. u can look up my bs and read it for more info if u like. he was in the scn for 13 days and is going great guns now!! so proud of our little man

[Early Kids]

Great to hear he is doing well! The nurses in NICU kept asking me if I had GD, but I didn't... Tristan was just a big boy! hehe We were lucky with Tristan, because he was my second and he was so big he was allowed out of SCN on day 6 and transferred to my local hospital so I could stay with him and they let us come home on day 8 with very strict instructions hehe and they fully discharged him when he was 11 days old. He would have been home earlier, but he had Jaundice.

I will look for your BS now

[butterfly_warrior]

Welcome, Teresa.

It constantly blows me away to hear about these earlier bubs way bigger than my 36-weeker, especially when my nursery went on about how big Sam was for his gestation - which he really wasn't! Did Hamish have blood sugar issues, Teresa? We had a lot of trouble with Sam's blood sugar levels in the early days, no GD here, but severe insulin resistance.

BW

[teresa]

hi butterfly warrior. no he didnt. they kept him on a glucose drip for 24 hrs then took it out.

[tk1999]

Welcome Teresa! I look forward to getting to know you and baby Hamish

hello to everyone else... I am so tired I forgot to say hi

[Early Kids]

*HUGE MUMMY BRAG*

Tristan is now walking along behind things!! Yesterday he did it at the CHN office and today he pushed a few things around I finally caught him on video too!! I uploaded it to facebook, so PM me if you want to see it (we don't need to be friends, I made it so everyone can view it. I just didn't want to post a link here)

Can't believe how quick he is doing things, it's surreal. He is 10m 1w 2d old or 9 months corrected (exactly). Sticking right to the top of the %ile graph for gross motor skills