@kimhimmel Their birth weight and gestational age, and single or multiple
29+5; 1525 g; singleton (boy)
The reason and circumstance of their premature birth (e.g. planned delivery versus emergency, pre-e, PPROM, etc.), including if the birth parent was able to receive steroid shots/magnesium drip in advance or not
I had a severe bleed from placenta praevia (placenta near or over the cervix). My son was born 2.5 hours after the start of the bleeding, by emergency C section. It was unplanned and unexpected. I knew I had placenta praevia but the expectation was that it would resolve later in pregnancy. My only other bleeding event was at 12 weeks so it seemed likely that my placenta would behave itself. That unfortunately wasn’t meant to be! I never expected this to happen. Due to the quickness it everything we didn’t receive steroids or magnesium.
Their progression with breathing support over time
He started on CPAP setting 8 and over the course of about 45 days was able to wean to low flow setting 1 or 2. I think at breathing support was stopped at about 37 weeks.
Their progression with feeding over time
He was able to start feeding orally at 34 weeks or so and immediately did well with bottles as well as breastfeeding. At 37+5 he lost his ng tube and the day after he went home all on oral feeds. Two weeks later we were able to ditch the bottles and breastfeed exclusively which we are still doing 9 months later.
Any major setbacks or complications, when those happened, and how they were resolved
He had more Brady’s and apnea than average. This was often the main limiting factor in things like reducing his breathing support. He just had so many, sometimes upwards of 20 a day. Even though we knew it wasn’t all that harmful and mainly a result of his early birth it was still very stressful to watch. A couple of days before his discharge at 37+6 he just stopped having them. We weren’t on Brady watch for weeks like some people they just stopped quite suddenly.
The other big issue was an infection with enterovirus at about 35 weeks. The virus was in his blood and brain so it was meningitis. He was really unwell from this and it was bad enough that he had to be intubated and transported to a higher level nicu in the middle of the night. This was the scariest time for us as there were a few moments we thought we might lose him. We had a failed detubation with a very difficult reintubation that I was present for. He probably got pneumonia as well. In the end he was at the other hospital for a week but after that week he was completely over it. He was home 10 days later.
How many days until discharge and what their criteria for coming home were
He came home at 37+6 and spent a total of 60 days in hospital. The main issue was that he had to outgrow his Brady’s which happened kind of quickly in the end, and either had to take all his feeds orally or we had to be trained for a ng tube. In the end that wasn’t necessary because he drank all of his feeds.
Any ongoing issues since coming home related to their prematurity, and how you’ve been managing those
Not a lot tbh. He’s a little more sensitive to busy environments so we try to keep that in mind. We haven’t taken him to public places during flu season to reduce the chance of respiratory infections. And we’ve kept him home for his first year, without daycare, also to keep him healthy. He’s going to start daycare in a couple of weeks. We’re also under extra scrutiny for possible cerebral palsy because some tests results have shown he had an increased chance. Fortunately his development is normal so far, so if he turns out to have cerebral palsy it will most likely be a milder form. His eating and drinking are going really well.
Anything else you’d like to share!
All the best of luck to your little one! I really hope everything will go smoothly.
nobody has any idea they were so tiny
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