Premmie Mums #2

Hi guys, you've clocked up enough chatting in here to warrant another thread being opened, so here it is. Feel free to keep on chatting & the last thread can be found here

Thanks Kirsty!!!!
Yay for us!
How are you, hun?

Hi all,
thanks for that Jess and Bel.
Bel - I did have a look and I've sone a little internet research but I think I'll have a chat to my pead about my concerns also.

Kyla's still off her solids, Bel, she doesn't actually have any comfort foods that she likes!! I did give the custard a go...but she didn't want that either. I did notice that her second tooth is cutting atm so maybe that's the problem!!

Hey Tiff - how are your beautiful munchkins going!!!

YAY on our needing a new thread!!! hehehehe

Carrie, yeah, I know, when Coby was teething he goes off his food too, its hard, because they are so small, you want them to get enough food and when they don't eat you worry that they are going to go downhill or something. What about yoghurt or something similar - you know lots of soft stuff....

About the immunisations, I just spoken with my GP and he calmed my concerns...

Hey Tiff, how are you honey? How's the kids?

Coby's going well, he's off his food a little bit too ATM but not really anything to worry about, just teeth coming. We have his aunty kim and uncle chris here atm and they are keeping him very amused, its great, I get a break!

Hey girls,
THanks for asking.
I'm not having a great day today.
Ivy and Noah are really unsettled and screaming down the house.
They've pretty much made a full recovery from the gastro.
Ivy's bottom is looking better but her reflux is awful. Last Friday, she did this huge hurl and it had blood through it. Scared the living daylights out of me.
We're going to see the paed in the school holidays for the reflux for Ivy and because Noah has exzema and a wheeze (typical Tregenza child).
We also have some assessment with the Early intervention centre up here coming up in the middle of July. I hate those things. They're going to tell us that they are developmentally behind and I am going to get the guilts and feel bad because they are struggling with their milestones. *SIGH* Like I said, not a good day, sorry for the whinge.


How are your little cherubs???

Tiff I am doing okay thanx for asking, sorry I'm not here much supporting you girls atm but I am reading & keeping up with you all.

Oh Tiff don't you dare think you are in any way to blame if your possums are a bit behind, you are doing a great job & I'm sure you know in your head that they will catch up all in good time.

hey Tiff, chin up honey, I know its hard, constantly worrying because your little ones are a bit behind, but like Kirsty said, they'll catch up. I had that same worry with Coby and still do, I still think he's behind what the other kids his age are doing, but you just have to remember that they were born way before they should've been and therefore they will be delayed for that amount of time.

They are doing well otherwise, eating, sleeping, interacting with you, so please don't question yourself.

Don't forget, if you need a break or want to get out of the house, please let me know....

Hey Tiff,
Gosh that must have been a bit frightening with Ivy's reflux - I hope the pead will help!
Ivy and Noah both look so good Tiff - they're both growing and getting bigger so don't feel bad. And didn't you say that Noah was rolling? Kyla still doesn't really roll so Noah MUST be doing ok!
We'll see the pead and the research people in July so will find out if there are any issues re: delays then.

hey girls, Pat was weighed today and he hasn't put any weight on, so here come the comp feeds! I feel so bad about giving up though!

Hi Jess - Hope you're doing well. When you say comp feeds do you mean that they will be giving some formula feeds? You'll still be doing BF though wont you?
When they were trying to put weight on Kyla they added calories to the breast milk - can they do this?

Hi Girls, how is everyone doing?

Kirsty...thanks for the new thread! Hope all is ok with you...your appointment must be coming up soon?

Carrie...how's Kyla going...any progress with the solids? Joshua initially went through a phase where he had little interest in his solids too - moreso vegies. He has always loved fruit and yoghurt though, so we just focused on those and gradually introduced more foods like vegies & Weet-Bix. He also loves nibbling on cheese, vegemite on toast, kiwi fruit, chunks of apple, banana. I know it makes it hard if Kyla doesn't have any favourites to start with though...hopefully she will pick up after the tooth pops through.

Tiff...how are Ivy & Noah doing? Please don't feel guilty about their milestones - you haven't done anything wrong...and they will get there! What makes you think they will say they are behind? I don't know if it's any consolation, but although Josh was behind with a lot of his milestones, once he hit the 9 month mark things really came together for him. He just needed that bit of extra time. Your bubs will probably get to a point where things will just click into place for them too. I think you said Noah is practically sitting already? Josh didn't do that until 9 months. And he is rolling as well...it sounds like he is doing good things. How is Ivy going with it all?

Bel...how is Coby going? Any new teeth yet? How are his feeds going?

Jess...don't feel bad - you are doing a great job and are doing what is right for Pat! He will be putting on weight in no time.

Things are fine here. Josh is a pro at sitting up now and is crawling everywhere - still commando style. We saw my Mum the other day and she said it's exactly the same way that I used to crawl! He is constantly getting up on his hands and knees and rocking though and it seems that he really wants to take off...I don't think it will be long. I'm not sure if I've already mentioned that he has two teeth now? On a slightly sad note for me, my maternity leave has run out and I have to go back to work this week. :( Friday is my first shift back. Only part time though, which isn't so bad. I'll miss him though!

Becc my appointment is on Monday afternoon so we'll get some idea as to what we can do in the future then.

Hey Bec!
So good to hear from you! Glad to hear that our little Josh is doing so well. I love hearing about his and all the other babies' progress in this thread. It gives me hope.
Sorry that you have to go back to work, what do you do?
I'll have to go back soon ish too but I am hoping for night duty. It'll only be two nights a week, which I think I can handle.

Yep, Noah is definately doing all the right things. He sat on his own for 20 seconds the other night! Everyone was so excited. Noah just looked really surprised! I took some photos, I'll have to upload them!
Little Ivy on the other hand just seems to want to lie on her back and look at the world.
She flaps her arms and legs alot and is extremely cute. Having lots of reflux issues and scary ones at that. Sometimes blood in the vomit. Yesterday, she vomited alot and was refusing her feeds. We're off to the pead though so that will help. I'm pretty sure it's just irritation.

The ECHN is on her way out now, so have to go and clear the table of my mornings worth of clothes folding!!

When i get a chance to read about how you are all going i certainly will, for now please forgive me for no personals.. :D

Just an update on Ronan - He is up to day 97 and is almost home.. We started demand feeding today and he breast feed for the 3 i was there for.. He is awaiting his Hernia operation before he can come home but he is doing fantastic.. They took out his nasal tube for feeding today so he is only allowed bottles or breast and his breast feeds REALLY well.. He now weighs 4123 grams (9 pound) and is 41 weeks this week.. He has been totally off oxygen for the past 2 weeks and hasn't really desated once, so he does not need to come home on any oxygen.. His hearing and eye tests have been performed and he passed them with flying colours.. :D

I have to say whilst this 14 week wait is soooooo worth it but i think i need a holiday before he comes home (not that i can have one) :p

Hey Tiff :)

It sounds like Noah is going great! Clever boy sitting up on his own - you will definitely have to upload the pics. Ivy sounds like a little lady of leisure! I've said it before, but she has such a pretty little face. (I just had a look at their pics). The reflux must be terrible for her - and scary for you too. I hope the paed has some answers for you. So you're back to work soonish too, hey? I'm trying to gear myself up for tomorrow...it's been too long...I haven't been at work since the week Josh was born! I'm a police officer...I'll be doing 2 x 12 hour shifts per week...one day and one night.

Woohoo for Ronan too! What a little champion. It will be so lovely to have him home, hope it's soon!

Kirsty, I hope your appointment goes well on Monday. How are you feeling about it? I hope you get some answers and a workable plan for the future. Will be thinking of you...

hey ladies... i have just had a premmie (30w) she's 2 weeks old now. i've just posted my birth story, what a marthon that was... she's doing well, got a bit upset as she's only put on 38g in 3 days, but the nurse reassured me you dont have to worry until they have a week of small weight gains. She's taken to the breast when its offered to her, and she's on 25mls of ebm every 2 hours, but thats going up to 3 hourly this arvo... still in a isolette, but oly due to there being no kammed beds available, and she's not holding her own temp well enough to go into an open cot...

Hi Simone, welcome to our little gathering. Hope Anneliese makes a quick and strong start out of the NICU and is home with you soon. She already sounds like a little fighter.

If there's anything you need to know, please ask, Im sure that one of us will be able to help at least a little bit anyway.

Love to you and your family xxoo

Hi all,
Bec- Sounds like Josh is doing fantastically!! Waaa at having to go back to work :( I hope your first day back was okay.
Tiff- Yay Noah! What a smartie pants. I hope that the pead helped with Ivy today, poor little munchkin. Gosh, I don't know how you do it all Tiff... 7 kids and work also...I think you deserve the mother of the year award!
Rac - It's so great to hear from you!! I'm so glad things are going to well for Ronan now and that the loooooong hospital stay is almost at an end. Wow at his weight! That's great.
Simone- Welcome!! I had a read of your birth story - all a bit scarey for you! It's great to hear how well Anneliese is doing though.

We had Kyla's MCHN visit today - shes now up to 7.5kg, still in the 10th percentile for height and weight and 75th for head circ.
The MCHN said that Kyla should be having 3 meals by now and lumpy food - so is referring us to a speechie. She's also a little developmentally delayed in terms of gross motor skills (rolling and commando crawling), but we're seeing the physio next week from the prem study.
I'm not overly worried though as Kyla seems to love chatting and looking around more than the physical side and she's doing well with these things. I should get a better idea of how she's going when we see the prem people next week.
Tried Kyla with some yoghurt today which she actually ate, which is good!

Im so diappointed... after waiting a week for a kammed bed to come available (Anneliese is too small and not holding her own body temp well enough to go straight into an open cot) one finally dyesterday... but the nurse noticed she was looking a little yellow, and tested her sbr levels... she was dot on the cut off, 170. So they had to give it to the newhen next baby, and leave Annelise in her isolette, as there's no point in taking her outreal bad , to have to put her back in a day later to go under lights. That, coupled wit stinks h the fact that her weight gain was only 38g over 3 days... im feeling like crap today. How i wish she had just stayed in a little longer... they've fortified her feeds now, so hopefully that helps. She's still breastfeeding when i offer it to you, and one of the nurse, who i've talked a little bit to, and she knows how awful i've been feeling lately, has assured me that this is really good. I just want her to come home asap, and steps like this just feel like it'll be forever until she will be home... sorry to vent, i just feel like crap today. I want her to be fine.

Hey Simone,
Sorry to hear that you are feeling like crap. Having a premmie baby is really hard on the emotions.
Annaleise is doing so well, a gain is a gain after all, she could have lost weight. You will find she will pack on the weight now, with the fortifier. Ivy and Noah were struggling too but as soon as they started putting that stuff in their ebm they took off.
I know you think that she is helpless outside in the world when she should be still inside you but she's out now and she is doing well. You and she are both so strong. There are going to be lots of days when you struggle. I remember not being allowed to hold Noah for a week because of his breathing problems. By the end of that week I felt so withdrawn from him, like he wasn't my baby but finally he turned the corner and I got a really beautiful cuddle and it restored my faith in the NICU and in my baby and in the fact that their birth had happened for all the right reasons, just as Annaleise's has. You grew her to a great size for 30 weeks! I don't know what else to say, it's so hard but you have to keep the faith.:hug:

Carrie,

YAY that Kyla has put on weight and that she like the yoghurt!
You are right, you shouldn't be too worried. I bet Kyla will just take off soon and you won't look back!

AWWW thanks for saying that I'm a supermum, some days I don't feel super at all and as yet, I don't know if I can do work and seven kids heh, it'll be a trial and error kind of thing. :hug:

Thanks for your kind words, i have kept everything bottled up for so long, and i think that maybe im starting to get abit down. I've been so careful, as iv had such bad prob with depression, but dh just said to me maybe its time to get a check up, as its been consistent for like 2 weeks. Greta, another problem to contend with... but as i was once told - "God wont give you a challenge unless he thinks you can handle it." This is just another challenge to make me a stronger person... Sory for the depressing spin im putting in this forum today!!!

OMG Simone, You're not putting a depressing spin on things!
Don't get me wrong. Having a prem baby is so hard and, like you I have struggled with depression, so know how easy it is to spiral down.
It is so understandable that you are feeling this way and you vent, cry and scream here all you like, Lord knows I do :) That's what we're here for, to support one another.
Hang in there hun.

thanks
MIL is coming around, and as dh is working all weekend, she's lending me her car so i can go see bub, im going to get dh to take the boys so they dont run a muck in the nursery, and finally get some quality time with my daughter. i just hope my plans work out...

Simone- Hang on there hun, thats what we are here for,we understyand what you are going through.
Well Pat finally put on 100g, so the formula feeds are staying as well as the BF.

Great news Jess.
Simone - hope you have a nice day with your little bubba.

I didnt even get to have a cuddle, and i saw her for less than a minute. She's back under lights, her sbr level's are at 177... just over the cut-off. It does this every week. When i got there, the boys started running a muck, and i asked for a breast feed, and the nurse just looked at the boys and said "are you sure?" i told her their dad was coming to pick them up... then dh rang, whinging he was sore, and he was going straight home. I told him that i wanted to bf bub, and to come pick up the boys, and he said he was alost home anyway! even after he told me he would be going straight to the hospital. So after peering into her cot for like 20 seconds, the boys went crazy, and i had to leave. I cried all the way to the car, and for about 15 mins in the car. DS kept teling me to "calm down mum, dont cry!" And DH told me to put the kids to bed, and go in and spend as much time with her as i wanted tonight, and then spent the entire evening whinging he never see's her - he goes in after work most days. I havent held my bubba for 2 days, and i cant go in to see her tomorrow, as dh has to do overrtime to earn enough to buy ds some birthday presents... mooney has been so tight lately. So i wont even get to go in tomorrow at all. I hate this, is just wish she had stayed put so i could be like all the other mums that were in the ward with me, and had my baby with me, then taken her home. Instead i have to ask a nurse to take her out of the isolette for me, and generally it take about 1/2 an hour to get their attention just to ask, and im so priveledged (sp?) just to breastfeed her, which i've done about 3 times. Sorry to have such a long rant, i'm hijacking this thread!! but you guys are the only ones who understand how frustrating this is. I can feel myself spiralling into my pit of depression, my milk supply is disappearing, nothing seems to be going right for us at the moment, and all i can do is cry non stop... once again, sorry to have such a long vent, thanks for reading, if you managed to get this far... :) im sure things will get better.

Oh honey, you can come in here and vent and rant and rave as much as you like, we've all had our dealings with the insensitive women/men in NICU, and all the other trials and tribulations that you are going through, and besides that, we are here as a shoulder to lean/cry on whenever you need us.

Believe me, if I lived near you, I would come over there tomorrow and mind the boys and give you my car so you could go up to the hospital and spend as much time there as you needed to. Can you ask MIL to come and sit with the boys while you go up there for a few hours? That might make you feel a little better? Is there anyone else that might be able to help you out for the day tomorrow?

Jess,
That's great news about Pat!

Simone,
sorry that things didn't work out. Are you in a big hospital? Some of the tertiary hospitals have starlight rooms where the siblings of babies in the NICU can go and spend the day, while Mum is with bubs.
Have you got a social worker? She should be able to give you all the info on things like that. Hope there is something at the hospital that Annaleise is in...
ETA: Have you tried fenugreek to boost supply?
Thinking of you

I'll try the fenugreek, where do u get it from?? MIL has been great, she takes me in to the hospital a couple of times a week, while dh is at work, and Anneliese is at the Royal Womens in Melbourne, and they have a child care centre, but its for a maximum of like 2 hours. But my FIL worked for the week (and did nights, he's a snr sargent for vic police and had to co-ordinate the police for Federation Square, so he's either working or asleep, and i can understand that when hegets a couple of days off they want to spend some time together!!) They said they might be able to lend me their second car tomorrow, so i can at least get out of the house, and im going to get DH to look after the kids so i can go in and spend all night, until the wee hours of morning with her. Breastfeed for a couple of feeds, loads of cuddles... cross my fingers this plan works out!! :)

Oh Simone....I hope that your plan works!
I know that at the RWH (that's where Kyla was) they allocate you a case manager - perhaps you should have a talk to her about what's going on for you. The stress and depression can't be helping with your supply. You can get the fenugreek from any chemist.

Simone Fenugreek only helped my milk by an extra 50mls so i am on motillium which gives me an extra 200mls as i have been expressing for 14 weeks.. If the Fenugreek don't help enough there are other alternatives.. :D

Hi Racca!
How is little Ronan going?
Hope you are both doing well.

Hi Tiff, how are you sweety? :D

Well Ronan is due to come home this week!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have been at the hospital for 8/12hrs per day for the past 3 weeks and his breastfeeding is finally coming along.. We are demand feeding him during the day and bottlefeeds at night whilst i am not there as he has NO more tubes! He now weighs 4150 grams and going great guns.. His breathing has been perfect for the past 3 weeks (no desats) and will come home with NO oxygen..

He is breastfeeding 3 times a day and coping REALLY well and putting on weight.. He is only still there because he has a Hernia operation tomorrow and he needs a few days to recover, but it's all getting exciting.. He has been in hospital for 15wks this week so whilst it's been a long road we are finally almost to the end of that chapter in his/our lives.. We were able to take him out in the stroller today for a walk around the hospital and even though he slept the whole day, we certainly enjoyed some time away from the Nursery..

That is SUCH good news!
I am so happy for you and DH and for little Ronan. Way to go on the weight! They really do take off, don't they?!?!?!
Yay that he is breastfeeding really well and that you got to take him out in the stroller. That must have been so wonderful!
I was so looking forward to going home with Ivy and Noah but when it came to d -day, I was shaking in my boots! It's such an overwhelming, exciting time!
I just looked at your wonderful site.
He looks just gorgeous!
You must be so proud of your little guy (and proud of yourself too, I hope).
I think of you and Ronan often.
Can't wait to hear that he is home.
Good luck for the op tomorrow!
:hug:

Rac - Goodluck to little Ronan for his Op tomorrow. Hope all goes well!
How exciting that he is coming home soon - he is such a little trooper and you must be so proud at how well he is doing.
That's great that you got to take him out in the stroller - it is so good being able to get away from the nursury for a while...it makes it feel like he is your baby and your baby only (that's how I felt anyway).
As Tiff said, it's such an exciting time when they finally get to come home...and a little scary. I found it wierd not having the nurses to ask questions every 2 seconds - I found that I became quite reliant on them!
That's fantastic with his breastfeeding Rac - I'm just so glad that things are looking good for you all.

YAY!! All the good things are happening at once!! First, Anneliese's sbr levels dropped by 78 (she was under the lights are the levels rose to 177, her cutoff was 170) by the next morning they were 99!! AND my dr (marcel, absolutely brilliant) gave her permission to go into an open cot, without the heated bit underneath!! Then yesterday, when i called, the nurse told me she has begun waking just before feed time - she is demanding, and could we feed her a bottle of ebm when youre not here? SURE!!! She's so close to home now, im so excited... its weigh day today, and she's grown into her 5x0 suits this week, so it'll be amazing to see what she weighs... last time she was 1840g...

Wow Simone, that's fantastic news, sounds like she's closer to coming home! YAY!!!

Hey girls, My name is Shell. My daughter was born at 26 weeks on the 23rd of Jan this year. She is now 9 weeks corrected and doing very well, has been home for 2 months. Look forward to chatting to all of you.
Shell

welcome shell!! What a beautiful name, Emerald Sunee. Hope you find lots of help and support in here :)