Oooh, fun! I love preemie pictures, and seeing how they grow and change. And I can never resist a chance to tell my stories and show off my cuties!
Nicholas Armand was born on Nov 25, 1996 (holy cow, where does the time go??) at 32 wks by emergency c-section, due to severe pre-e and HELLP syndrome, and unexplained massive decels in his heart rate. He turned out to have mild IUGR too, at 3lbs and 16.5 inches, which is more typical of a 30wkr. We were incredibly lucky, the steroid shots "took", even though it should have taken longer for them to work, and his lungs were mature. He spent the first 24 hours under an oxygen hood, but that was it, room air from then on out. After 17 days, they booted him out of the NICU, and sent him home, even though he was technically still too small (3lbs 12oz at this point) because he was doing pretty well, and they were way overcrowded with much sicker babies. He's now almost 10, and still a bit small for his age, and having some minor sensory issues, but doing really well in school and health wise.
Nick then about 4-5 days old, I believe. Yes, that's my hand next to him, almost the length of his whole body.
Nick now 5th grade school picture, just shy of 10 yrs old.
Aidan Daniel was born July 9, 2001 at 36 wks, a giant of a preemie at 6lbs 12oz and 20.5 inches. Another pre-e baby. My body just doesn't like boys I don't think,
because in between, I had a full term baby girl. I was on bedrest from 29 wks on, with home monitoring and a plan to induce at 37 wks, but the boy had other plans. On July 8th, my bp readings spiked, and wouldn't go down, so we were off to the hospital. Long story short, they started the induction after an ultrasound to make sure he was vertex, some hours later they do an internal to check my progress only to find he's turned transverse, so I ended up with another c-section. I wish I had asked for an hour or so to try to turn him by natural means, but I was sick, I was exhausted, I was worried about my baby, and I just went with it. Unfortunately, his lungs were NOT mature. Very shortly, they had to transfer him out to Children's Hospital because the one we were in didn't have any ventilator beds available, and the CPAP was not cutting it. They did bring him by my room first, which was nice. He spent a week on the vent, another 6 days on nasal cannula, and came home exactly 2 wks after he was born. He was big enough to keep up his temp, and old enough to have the suck-swallow-breathe thing going pretty well, the little bugger just had to learn to breathe without help. He's doing very well now. Physically, he's healthy as a horse (we once again got very lucky and he nursed like a champ after just a couple days of trying, yay for 18 mos of mommy milk!). He was dx with autism at 22 mos old though, and I think the prematurity/NICU experience did have some effect on that, especially the sensory issues. He's making great progress now in kindergarten though and we couldn't be happier! 
Aidan then Kangaroo care at 3 days old.
Aidan now Kindergarten school picture, 5 yrs old.
Nicholas Armand was born on Nov 25, 1996 (holy cow, where does the time go??) at 32 wks by emergency c-section, due to severe pre-e and HELLP syndrome, and unexplained massive decels in his heart rate. He turned out to have mild IUGR too, at 3lbs and 16.5 inches, which is more typical of a 30wkr. We were incredibly lucky, the steroid shots "took", even though it should have taken longer for them to work, and his lungs were mature. He spent the first 24 hours under an oxygen hood, but that was it, room air from then on out. After 17 days, they booted him out of the NICU, and sent him home, even though he was technically still too small (3lbs 12oz at this point) because he was doing pretty well, and they were way overcrowded with much sicker babies. He's now almost 10, and still a bit small for his age, and having some minor sensory issues, but doing really well in school and health wise.
Nick then about 4-5 days old, I believe. Yes, that's my hand next to him, almost the length of his whole body.
Nick now 5th grade school picture, just shy of 10 yrs old.
Aidan Daniel was born July 9, 2001 at 36 wks, a giant of a preemie at 6lbs 12oz and 20.5 inches. Another pre-e baby. My body just doesn't like boys I don't think,
because in between, I had a full term baby girl. I was on bedrest from 29 wks on, with home monitoring and a plan to induce at 37 wks, but the boy had other plans. On July 8th, my bp readings spiked, and wouldn't go down, so we were off to the hospital. Long story short, they started the induction after an ultrasound to make sure he was vertex, some hours later they do an internal to check my progress only to find he's turned transverse, so I ended up with another c-section. I wish I had asked for an hour or so to try to turn him by natural means, but I was sick, I was exhausted, I was worried about my baby, and I just went with it. Unfortunately, his lungs were NOT mature. Very shortly, they had to transfer him out to Children's Hospital because the one we were in didn't have any ventilator beds available, and the CPAP was not cutting it. They did bring him by my room first, which was nice. He spent a week on the vent, another 6 days on nasal cannula, and came home exactly 2 wks after he was born. He was big enough to keep up his temp, and old enough to have the suck-swallow-breathe thing going pretty well, the little bugger just had to learn to breathe without help. He's doing very well now. Physically, he's healthy as a horse (we once again got very lucky and he nursed like a champ after just a couple days of trying, yay for 18 mos of mommy milk!). He was dx with autism at 22 mos old though, and I think the prematurity/NICU experience did have some effect on that, especially the sensory issues. He's making great progress now in kindergarten though and we couldn't be happier! Aidan then Kangaroo care at 3 days old.
Aidan now Kindergarten school picture, 5 yrs old.
: About 5 minutes after I drank the solution, I went in to hard, active labor and Samantha was born 33 hours later on April 20, 2006.
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