Premmie Mums #9

[shazzi]

Hi everyone

kat - my DD was a really slow feeder. When she came home at 6w4d she took 1.5 hours for a feed. Over the next month it went down to 50 minutes or so. But DD's breathing was laboured because of a PDA which surgery corrected at 12 weeks old. I think that it is quite common apart from the PDA issue that we had.

I am very excited to be pregnant again but really scared about having another premmie. I have gotten a bit depressed at times, especially about what happened at Miss K's birth but manage to pull myself out of it. It is very frustrating as the doctor I saw at my 12 week appt said he did not think i had a placental abruption as previously told. He thinks it was just the placenta praevia causing me to haemorrage and lose part of my placenta and cause DD distress (hence emergency c-section). Now i do not know what my risk is and I NEED to know. The hospital is good and already linked me in with the hospital psychiatrist that I see every 6 weeks. Just hanging out for the 20 week scan to see where the placenta is and then I can hopefully relax a bit.

Miss K is going really well. She started walking at 17 months but I am not so sure her speech is up to speed. I think I just need to wait and see.

Would write more but have a clingy child today with a molar poking through. In this heat too...poor thing.

[Early Kids]

Shaz, congratulations!!!!

Kat, I have never gone by the formula tin or what the books say, but what my kids do. DS1 was a very slow feeder, he fed every 2-3 hours for an hour until about 4 months old.

Sorry, gotta run again x

[~*Kat*~]

have you tried offering half the bottle, sit them up and burp them, change their nappy then do the other half of the bottle? might wake him up a little bit. if you are formula feeding him, go by what the tin says with feeding not with their corrected age.

I stop and burp him heaps cos he only goes so far before he will stop drinking then I have to burp him and try again
He will stop for a burp 3 or 4 times during feeding. I am going by what he will take. Sometimes he will drink 160ml other times 130 and as I said other time 100 or less.

I think 100ml is good for a 4 week old (corrected age). Is he having about 6 feeds a day?
It is not uncommon for prems to take longer to feed and for it to tire out quickly.
Have you tried the next teat size up so he doesn't have to work so hard...if he splutters on it go back tot he smaller one.
Is he putting on weight? Plenty of wet nappies?
If so then he is probably getting enough.
If you are concern it might be worth talking to you CHN.

He has heaps of wet nappies so I know he is getting enough (well I think anyway) and so far he's been putting on weight reasonably well. He has 4 to 5 feeds a day depending on what he feels like
I have just changed formula brands and he seems good with the new 1 and he's already on quiet fast flowing teats as he would fall asleep much faster with slow teats. I was thinking of putting some thickener in it cos he has been chucking a bit but I am wondering if thats a wind thing.
I have a health centre appt on Thursday so I might ask her what she thinks.
Thanks for the feed back ladies I am glad to hear it sounds normal to have a premmie feed slowly

Shazzi congrats on ur pregnancy. I was very worried too with DS as DD was 4 weeks prem (not much really) and DS came 8.5 weeks early but because of a completely different thing. Its very hard to know how things will pan out so my advice to u is to try to think positive thoughts and be prepared to have a happy healthy baby no matter what gestation bubs arrives at

[teresa]

shazzi - congratulations!

as for feeding, our paed said to go by actual age. i guess every paed is different.

[RainbowBrite]

Congratulations Shazzi...I hope you have a long uneventful pregnancy

as for feeding, our paed said to go by actual age. i guess every paed is different.

I think it may have to do with how prem your bub is.
My 35 weeker pretty much went with her actual age...but my 28 and 25 weekers went more with their corrected age.
It also has a lot to do with the individual baby.

[*Beema*]

DD1 ex 33 weeker was corrected by her Paed, but the same Paed hasn't worried about correcting our 35 weeker, which we are more than happy to agree with

Apparently the gut does start to work inline with their actual age, but it only grows as big as the baby gets, if that makes sense, so it would be unrealistc to expect a very early prem to be eating the same as the label on a tin of Formula says at that age, sometimes even taken their corrected age into account. Quite a few of the very early/very small bubs tend to encounter bigger stomach and bowel issues in comparrison to larger/closer to term bubs, because verything is that much smaller and wasn't really "designed" to carry food at that size..... Those are my thoughts anyway

[Early Kids]

Agree with RB and Beema, my 30 weeker is still being corrected, 34 weeker has never been corrected. Funnily enough though it's the 34 weeker that has the gut problems and lung problems. Each baby is different, even those born at the same gestation.