Is she at home? Is the prognosis good? Hang in there, your lil' girl needs you. thinkin' good thoughts for you ....
Sounds like she's growing well, chad. My boys came at about 33 weeks and were in the NICU for a little over 2 weeks. Yep, that was a sucky time--hang in there.
At 30 weeks, the prognosis should be very good. The sucky thing might be that she will probably have to remain in hospital for a few more weeks. A good friend of my wife had her child at 29 weeks, and although it had remain in hospital for over seven weeks after that, the child is now doing fine, and is completely healthy. Congratulations on the little girl, and I wish you and your wife strength.
Congratulations, family man (time to turn the amp down from 11). Used to play softball with a guy whose daughter was born at about the same stage. She went off to college a couple years ago. I hope that this is the hard part and it only gets better from here.
4 lbs, 4 ozs is a good thing! Think of the progress your little one has made. I can imagine that it's probably been one step forward two steps back for a couple of weeks. The physical and emotional toll that takes on you and mom is tremendous. Take care of yourself so when the time comes you have some energy left for when she comes home. Hang in there daddy, she's a fighter! Does this confirm that 11 really is louder than 10?
Congrasts,hope all goes well.A couple co-workers had a grandkid that came at 30 wks. All is now well there.NICUs rock.
Congratulations on the birth of your child. And yes, having a premature baby is scary. Our daughter was premature and spent about 2 weeks in the NICU due to low oxygen saturation. It's very scary seeing your brand new baby with all manner of wires and tubes attached. However, all turned out well. She is 21-months-old now and NICU is but a surrealistic memory. All the best to your and your daughter!
Good luck and congrats. All of my children have been technically "premature" but not by much (slightly under 37 weeks, and 36 weeks). When we brought out first ome from the hospital, we literally wondered how we'd know if the baby was okay without monitors and beeping and everything being gauged. After he went to sleep that first night, we both sat there staring at the crib afraid to fall asleep because there wasn't anything to beep at us if his blood oxygen went too low. The worst is probably the constant heel pricking for bilirubin counts. I hope all goes smoothly for you. Best wishes!
Thanks all. She's doing well, all things considered. She does a great job breathing. Every now and then, not often, she forgets, but she catches herself very quickly. She breathes a little bit rapidly, but that is hopefully just a leftover from the effect of having to breathe before she should have had to. After birth she was eventually intubated, but only for 3 days. All in all that wasn't so bad. She then had a heart issue common to preemies, but it resolved (although she didn't tolerate the medicine they intially gave her for it - that caused her to stop feeds for a bit early on). The new issues seem to revolve around feeding, but she is doing ok. The Dr's are of course watching closely. She had some issues with tolerating the amount she was being fed and they had to reduce her feedings. In the last 5 days or so she has done well. Once she shows that she can reliably "process" the amount of breast milk appropriate for her size (she's now almost 4.5 lbs), she can hopefully go off any iv's and move into an open crib. Shortly after that, if all goes well, she can go into a step down nursery and our 3.5 year old can finally meet her. And then after that, she just needs to be able to get all her food from bottle/breast. It is mindnumbing that she has been in the NICU for 3 weeks and is only just now 33 weeks gestational age. And to think that we are lucky if we are halfway done. Ugh.
Congrats man. Just think, soon she'll be out of the hospital and making regular trips to Toyota Park with her dad. Best of luck over the coming weeks.
Hey Chad... one of my former students' had a premature baby, and he got to go home pretty recently. Have you seen these pics and heard this story? Even THIS baby is heading home! The world's most premature baby. 21 wks!
Just had a premmie also. butvery premmie. He was born at 26 weeks. He weighted 1.1 lbs and measure 11". 3 months later, he's about to go home weighting little over 5lbs and measures almost 18". Many ups and downs but it was worth every single moment. Baby doing very well and prognostics is good
fantastic news! a new baby is alwasy so hard and you guys have it even harder. hang in there and best of luck!
My son was born 5 weeks early. 35 weeks? It was not so bad compared to everyone else here. He was 4 Ibs something when he was born. He got home at 1 week later than normal. In fact, he was more healthy than my daughter who was born 2 weeks early. In traditional Chinese belief(probably no Scientific proof), premature babies are smarter. I just want to make people more happy here if they really believe the myth. My son just passed his second birthday. He is actually smarter than my daughter at her age. He started walking around 9 months. He can speak better than my daughter at her age. He could understand the concept of numbers before he was 2. He can count up to 3 which I thought was amazing. My daughter certainly did not count until she was close to 3. And believe me.... he can actually understand three languages(we are a mixed family and my daughter is trilingual). We suspect that he can understand 4 languages because the nanny spoke the 4th language, but used mostly English in front us. My daughter did not really grasp the trilingual concept until much later.
Wow, just stumbled upon this thread. Congrats to Chad, and glad to hear your girl is doing well. Congrats also to metro fan. 26 weeks is scary. I know because my twins were born early - the girl came at 25 weeks and a few days and the boy came 10 days later. Yes, 10 days later. Both were in the NICU for about 8 weeks and came home still weighing less than 5 pounds, but neither needed a monitor or anything else. After some scares with Emilie she is doing VERY well. Trevor had no major issues. Both are starting to walk now at 13 months and change. The physical therapist that comes twice a month originally gave them a goal to be cruising by May. I think they beat that goal.
Wow! I've never heard of twins being born like that. Glad to hear they're both faster than Bobby Boswell already.
Fantastic to hear a crazy twins story! I could share one that happened last night involving a 10:30 p.m. car ride to get the twins called down while my husband was scrubbing their bedroom floor and airing it out and me calling my mom desperately to see if she had carpet cleaner I could borrow.... But that would be derailing the thread, which I hate. 10 days apart? That's crazy! It really is miraculous that my twins stayed put until I requested an amnio at 36 weeks ("Take them OUT please.") and then were almost completely healthy from the start. We got lucky.
So true! My theory is my boy girl the girl out so he could enjoy his bachelor pad for a while before entering the world.
Amazing you made it to 36 weeks with twins. That's pretty damn good. We were all set for my wife to give birth at 35 weeks or so, thinking that because our older daughter was a week late and we had no complications up till my wife had to go on bedrest things were fine. NOPE!! But they are healthy and happy, and that is all that matters.
I pray that your baby progresses as beautifully as some other premie success stories. I think its fascinating what the human body and brain can accomplish. I'm a true believer in the power of personality and positivity. Please stay as positive and hopeful for your baby and she will not let you down. Prayers and best wishes! www.sportskool.com