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November is Premature Awareness Month. Post your preemie's picture

17K views 71 replies 44 participants last post by  tbavrbab 
#1 ·
Post your preemie's pic and talk about him/her or both!

This is Maggie. She is almost 9 mos old. Born Feb 15th/Due June 1st, so 15 weeks premature (they say 16 weeks since she was 24 weeks 6 days and 18 hours but another 6 hours she would have been 25 weeks).
She weighed in at 1 lb 12 oz and is now tipping the scale at 15 lbs.

Her mission in life is to scare her parents. I am not joking but she is. She gave us a few scares before she was born and then really blew our minds when she kicked her self out and ruperting my sac by putting her foot in the birth canal. Although her 90 day nicu stay was uneventful by most standards, she really put the fear of God in her parents. She now amazes us daily by being a dare devil, reaching for anything and everything, pulling hair, kicking, laughing out loud, and getting ready to crawl. She had a slight cold this weekend and it terrified us but she seems fine. All I can say is Thank God she was not our first!!

Here she is with her big sister Liz in the portraits we had taken for the holidays. Yes we did them in Oct.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...157_110106.jpg

Now your turn...
 
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#2 ·
Sydney Jeanne was born at 34 weeks due to severe Intrauterine growth restriction. Her placenta was failing, and had been operating sub prime her whole pregnancy. She is quite the fighter. She had to fight the entire pregnancy. There were many times where we were told to expect poor outcomes. Here she is today, almost 6 months later happy and healthy. She weighed 2 pounds 13 ounces at birth, and although we know she was 34 weeks, she was developmentally and size wise about 30 weeks. We spent 48 days in the NICU, mostly uneventful, but still very trying for us. She had a very hard time learning to suck, swallow, and breathe.

Her favorite things to do are to be held, make a very high pitched scream and scare everyone, and stop traffic. She is very cute and throws people off by looking like a newborn size wise but by being basically on track developmentally. She has a wonderful smile and does those oh-so-cute full body smiles babies do. She LOVES being outside. Her day care provider has a baby swing outside, and Sydney could spend all day there.

I just love to share pictures of her.... so sorry if I'm posting too many. I have a good friend who loves to take pictures with her camera.

Sydney in the NICU

Sydney just after she was born, the first picture of her I saw:

Sydney nursing

Family Picture and here

Sydney and Daddy ana mommy here

Sydney and here
 
#3 ·
Sarah was born at 27w6d weighing 1045g and 35.5cm (2lb5oz & 14"). Her 82 day NICU stay was the classic rollercoaster that I am still recovering from. Sarah, however, seems to have put it all behind her! We had a particularly rough year with some diagnosis' that are not as positive as I would have hoped but she's showing everyone and is developing and growing AND Learning!!! Still a tiny little thing physically but she's almost standing alone and I'm sure she'll be walking within a month. Just last night she made the connection between her teddy bear's eyes and my eyes. My heart melted
She is my joy.

My 1st digital Pic at 1 day old

My son and daughter

Sitting Up!

Her 1st Birthday
 
#4 ·
Sydney Louise was born on July 27, 2006 at 24w5d gestation due to severe pre-eclampsia and IUGR. She was 1lb4oz at birth and only 11 inches long. She is still in the NICU - has been for 14 weeks and 3 days. Her stay has been a rollercoaster but we are beginning to see the end - she is currently in an open air crib, nippling all of her feeds by mouth, and is down to 0.1lpm - unblended O2!!! She weighs 5lbs11oz as of this morning and is about 18 inches long, and is 39w1d today.

Sydney - Saturday, July 29th - first time Mommy saw her
First time being held
Loving the pacifier
Kangaroo care with Daddy
Almost big enough to come home...
 
#5 ·
Look at all those beautiful babes!

My ds, Spencer, was born at 30 weeks, 3 days gestation. My water fully ruptured (PPROM) at 20 weeks, 5 days and I spent the next 10 very long, quite boring weeks on 99% hospital bedrest. My OB and peri weren't super hopeful but they never used the word "hopeless" or "induction" to me and for that, I will forever be grateful. I never went into labor but started having some heavy bleeding, which my OB (correctly) thought was the placenta beginning to abrupt.

Spencer was born via c-section and was 2 pounds, 14 ounces and 15 inches long. They had a very hard time stabilizing him and he spent several days on the oscilator before moving to the conventional vent and then the cannula. When he was 5 days old, the nurse inserted his feeding tube THROUGH his stomach (they called me and told me they thought he had NEC) and was transfered to another hospital to have surgery to stitch that up.

He is now 18 months old, about 22 pounds, and a ball of fire! He has no developmental delays and came home on no monitors or oxygen. I feel so, so lucky that he even developed lungs and even more blessed that he is the spunky toddler he is now.

Spencer's First Picture

After Surgery

Coming Home from the NICU

Getting ready to Trick or Treat
 
#6 ·
She's Beautiful.

Ok Emma was born at 27 weeks 2 days, 13 weeks early. I had been on bedrest for 3 weeks and had been in the hospital overnight on mag. The next day my water broke and within minutes I was in the OR having a c-section because I dilated from 2-5 within about 5 minutes and from 5-7 within another 5 minutes. She had her ups and downs in the nicu. Came home after almost 10 weeks. Went back for another week for eye surgery. Went back to another hospital for having blue spells from reflux, just got out again from having an endoscopy and we're still struggling with reflux related issues. She was born weighing 2 lbs. 2 oz. and is now wavering right around 13 lbs. at
8 1/2 months old. Her photo montage is http://www.onetruemedia.com/shared?p...edium=text_url

Then: http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5...100_2214.0.jpg

Now: http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5...ting%20016.jpg
 
#16 ·
Elaina-

Your montage made me cry


For some reason I can never open your photo links, LOL! But just 4 months ago I wasn't sure if Sarah would ever hold her head up and steady, let alone sit up, crawl, stand, cruise, and now standing alone (almost
)! Everything happened soooo fast. Emma will get there. BTW, at 8 mos Sarah was a little over 11 1/2 lbs and at 9 mos she was almost a pound heavier- a hefty 9lb7oz! She might be up to 15lbs now- maybe. Your Emma sounds like she's really growing well! Hang in there, it gets better


BTW- Sarah had that Frog outfit Emma wore home and she has a bunch of other clothes that Emma has- it was like looking through Sarah's closet
 
#19 ·
LOL bout the frog outfit, I love frogs, so She now has it in her size again. There's not a whole lot of preemie selection especially when they're micro preemies to choose from. LOL. She's actually losing weight now and only gained 2 ounces in a month. She's going in for a f-tube to be placed in another week or so.
 
#20 ·
I JUST (Like on Wednesday) bought that frog outfit at Kohls. I bought it in 3 months. Still too big for my almost 6 monther. In the montage, I saw a nightgown "bag" which was one of the first things we put on Syd, and the first clothing item she outgrew, still in the NICU.
 
#21 ·
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.
 
#23 ·
After reading about and seeing all these tiny preemies, mine seem like giants!

Here are their stories.

Caleb was born at 34w5d, for no known reason, he just decided to make an early arrival. He weighed 5lbs 7oz and was 18 inches. His lungs were healthy and perfect, APGARS of 9 and 10. All was well and we came right home. He was jaundiced and he was a sleepy baby. He wouldn't nurse well at all (I wish I knew then what I know now about bfeeding!).

When he was 10 days old, my stepmom, an OBGYN, noticed that his testicles were very swollen. I thought that was just from birth, but she suggested I call his pediatrician. I did, and took him in that afternoon. the pediatrician immediately called a urologist who came right over, looked, and thought he might have a twisted testicle and said he needed surgery right away. Off we went to the hospital. Once the sugery had started, a nurse came out to tell me that he did not have a twisted testicle, but he had a pocket of puss in his scrotum. It was very strange. they cleaned it out and then left the scrotal sac open to heal (so weird to see that!). He was admitted to the peds unit. No one knew where they pus had come from. They did find that it grew e.coli in the lab, but that wasn't so uncommon.

A few days later, he spiked a fever while on antibiotics. Many different docs were called in, no one knew what to do. We were then trnansferred to the children's hospital a few hours away. Once there, again, no one knew what the problem was. His body seemed fine, nothing structurally wrong with him, no idea where that pus came from or why he had a fever. We were almost sent back home until the infectious disease folks came on board. they immediatley ordered a spinal. Came back positive for meningitis. Bacterial - e.coli. We found that the meningitis/e.coli had spread to his liver and a tiny spot on his brain. We had many many tests: MRIs, EKGs, sleep studies, BAER tests, etc. He was put on some hardcore IV antibiotics and we stayed in the hospital for 5 weeks.

After that, we found he had toritcollis - a shortening of one side of the neck muslces. He started in physical and occupational therapy at 4 months. The OT was discontinued soon after as he showed to be on target developmentally. the PT continued until he was three. he had botox injections in his neck, had to wear a neck brace and a hemet to reshape his head. He then started on speech therapy at age 3.

Now he is a healthy, normal, 7 year old first grader. I don't see any lasting effects from his illness, thank god! So though his hospital stay was not necessarily preemies induced, I am sooo familiar with how that goes.

Pics are as follows: botton to top:
Caleb at birth, Caleb the day he got sick and had sugery and Caleb in the hospital - you can see his central line peeking out!

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f3...3/calebaby.jpg

Caleb now:

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f3...3/IMGP0167.jpg

Marlee was born a month ago today at 36 weeks. She weighed 5lbs 5oz and was 17.5 inches long. APGARS 8 and 9. She spent about an hour in the NICU for retracting while breathing. She was born after three hours of labor, and 13 minuties from when I walked through the hospital doors. She also had jaundice and some trouble nursing, but we are doing much better. So far, though she is a very sleepy baby, all is well. I am nervous about everything after what I went through with her brother, but I pray everyday that her life is uneventful as far as her health is concerned!

Marlee at birth:

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f3...3/IMGP0090.jpg

Marlee now:

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f3...lloweenbib.jpg
 
#24 ·
Thanks for starting this, Amy!

Samantha was born at 30wk2d. We don't know why. I went in to labor at 27w6d, was found to be 2-3cm and was put on the mag sulfate and in the hospital for three days. A week after I got home, I went in for a regularly scheduled checkup, and had dilated at least one more cm, and was stretchy to 2 more. I was in the hospital one more week on bedrest with bathroom priviledges, and they decided I had to have the glucose test.
: 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.

She weighed in at 3lb5oz, and was 17". She never needed any oxygen, and was only in the "high risk" portion of the NICU for 8 days. After that, she was moved to the "Satellite Nursery" which was for the babies that just needed to learn to eat and then to grow. She was only in the hospital for a total of 27 days, which I know is NOTHING for a 30wkr.

Now, she's 6 1/2 months, and was 15lb4oz and 26(!)" at her 6 month checkup. She is just now getting over her first cold, and I must say, the 102 temp was terrifying. I could handle it for my first two, but not with Sam, for obvious reasons.

My favorite picture...this was taken about 8 hours after she was born, once I finally made it down to the NICU.

Mother's Day...the first time she nippled an entire feed.

My three beauties, and yes I know I'm biased.


Here she is on Oct. 10, in a VERY good mood.

Here's the photo montage I made in August
 
#26 ·
finn was due may 27th, born feb 18th, due possibly to a placental abruption. weighed 1 lb, 14 oz., was in two hospitals for a total of 86 days. came home completely breastfed and on no meds 12 days before his due date at 5 pounds, 14 ounces (i think). now at 8 1/2 months is still 99.9% bf and has been doing great. weighed in at almost 16 pounds about a month ago.

dressed up as a scarecrow for halloween.

the best thing that's ever happened to me.
 
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