Preterm pregnancies

I'm glad your son was ok. I was 18 years old when I was pregnant with my first daughter and went through the preterm labour for about 3 1/2 months before she was actually born. I was on bed rest in the hospital, given that IV medication to stop my labour 3 times in one day, and thank god the nurse was attentive...my blood pressure dropped drastically while on the IV. She was born 5 days before her due date, and my second was born right on her due date.

I have 3 babies..all had preterm labor from 4 months on. Its was a struggle to keep them in. My daughter was born 3 weeks early she had to spend a week in the neo natal. My middle son wasnt born early though he wanted too. My last son was born 7-11 weeks early. My docs where not sure of my dew date. Believe it or not he came home with me at 5 pounds. Well just about 5 pounds.

Wow he was a tiny little thing :-) my son was about 3 weeks early, for no reason other than he was an impatient little thing - and still is. My girls (twins) were 6 weeks prem and ended up staying in the neo-natal unit at the hospital for 4-5 weeks - they were 4lb 1oz and 4lb 2oz - and I figure they were just running out of room - they had to stay in hospital to get their weight up and initially needed feeding through a nasal-gastric thingie tube. But all three of them are fit and healthy :-)

I had very hard pregnancies with both of my kids. My son--who is 5 now--had to be taken 6 weeks early due to my kidneys trying to shut down and I got preeclampsia. They induced me and he came out just fine. 6 lbs so he would have been big if he went to term. LOL In my rpegnancy, I bled with him really bad. I was on bedrest from the time I was 5 months pregnant until I gave birth. With my daughter, she had to be taken at 8 weeks early due to Preeclampsia and my liver shutting down. With her, I had developed gestational diabetes, bled some (not as much as with my son) and just felt horrible the whole time. I was on bedrest with her from 4 months pregnant until they induced me 8 weeks early. When they induced me, she came out and was not breathing. Apparently, when you use insulin during pregnancy, the lungs don't develop a hormone that keeps the lungs from sticking together when you breath in until the very end of term. Anyhow, her little lungs didn't develop right and she had to be emergency flown to a children's hospital about 3 hours away from me. I got so sick after giving birth and they just knocked me out so I really wasn't very aware of anything until the next day. I got out of the hospital early and went down to the Children's hospital to be with her. She was on a respirator and feeding tube for 7 days. I couldn't hold her for 7 days or feed her or anything. when she got off the respirator and all, she had a hard time eating and lost some weight. We were there for about 2 weeks. it was a hard time, but she is fine now...almost 3 years old now. You sure can't tell she had anything wrong with her lungs at birth. LOL

I had my daughter at 27 weeks, which is 3 months early. doctor's still don't know why i had her early she just was impatient and wanted to come out i guess. i started contracitons one morning, the next day my water broke and then day after that i had an emergency c-section. she was 2 pounds 2 ounces. she spent 2 months in the hospital. she's 3 now and she is perfect. no medical problems what so ever.

my son was three weeks earlier. He's just like an 8 oz bottle. The baby stayed for two weeks in the incubator. I wasn't that worried because the doctors assured me that he will live. I just prayed really hard. I was out of the hospital two days after he was born then I came to visit him everyday. It was quite hard work for me because the neonatal section was in the third floor and the hospital's elevator was not available during that time so I really had to use the stairs. I felt my knees went wobbly. Anyways, it's for my child and I thanked GOD for he lives. And he's more than a gem for us now.

My best friend had her baby at about 30 weeks along. She weighed just over 3lbs I think and spent a couple months in the hospital. She is now 7 1/2 and the smartest little girl I have ever met. She was slow on the physical development (didn't roll until 6 months, didn't crawl until 11 months, didn't walk until 18 months, etc) but she was talking by 8 months and knew her entire alphabet before she turned 2. She is still small for her age and is only slightly taller then my 6 year old who is small for her age (so I guess she is about 45" tall at 7 years old). She is so smart the school asked if my friend wanted her tested for advanced classes or to skip a grade when she was only in Kindergarten but my friend said no.

My oldest was born at 30 weeks (10 weeks early). He stayed in the hospital for 28 days, I think. He weighed 3 pounds 9 ounces. There was no reason why he came early, he just did. So when I was pregnant with my daughter they really watched me. She ended up being born 5 weeks early but weighed 6 pounds 9 ounces and they just let her come out early because she was so big. We weren't in the hospital long at all. Only a day and a half, I think.

I will try and make this a short story(but probley not) I just turned 16 in december and had my son 2 months early on jan 29 I went into labor and they sent me home later that evening I ended up going back and they admitted me this time I was in labor for 3 days and my dr finally induced my labor (2 months early HELLO!) he was born with the cord around his neck and his stomach his lungs were collapsed and had fluid on them.. he was airlifted to a hosptial where he stayed for 1 month to learn how to suck swallow and breath at the same time. after having him I proceeded to have problems myself now 3o years old and I have had 30 surgeries my last one was in september which was a hysteroctomy due to an ectopic pregnancy in march of 06. that was the 3rd miscarriage I had in the past 6 years so yes I had many problems having my son who is now 14 and is healthy ..

My son was born at 28 weeks due to preclamsia they feel was brought on by an unknown blood clotting condition I had. He was very tiny at 1 lb 14oz...and he spent 3 months in the NICU. They took him by c-section when my kidneys started to shut down and his heart rate dropped. That was in 1999...now my little miracle boy will be 8 on March 3. He has no health problems and perfect vision...I couldn't of ever hoped for a bigger miracle. The first year was the hardest as he had some feeding issues and had to have a double hernia repaired before he was released from the hospital, I was so worried about him having health problems or catching something and not being able to fight it off with him being so small. We went sled riding yesterday and had a snowball fight the day before (he has a good pitching arm, I'm still hurting). LOL

Well my pregnacy was full term however my brother and I are both premature, my brother being the eldest is whom I will start with. he was born 6 weeks early and had to under go blood transfusions, and stayed in the hospital for about 3 weeks. he was about the same size as your baby. However it is now 26 years later and from what i see of him he is fine. I too was premature i was about 5 weeks early however I was not as small I was 5lbs 6 oz which really is ok. but I do have asthma and have my whole life, my mom says that honestly if she never told anyone that we were premature that no one whould notice and i am sure she is right. Though as a mom i think that the issue of premature labour was my biggest fear concidering that my brother and i are both premature ourselves.

Mine weren't considered preterm because I think that's before 36 weeks or something like that but one was born 2 weeks early. I had a placental abruption and it wasn't good for me or him. He's great now though and getting ready to turn 3 in April. My 2nd was 2 1/2 weeks early and he was a big boy. He was 8 lbs. 5 oz. at 2 1/2 weeks early. He's fine. He's 1 1/2 now and a smarty pants. I have to say though I didn't like having them that early becuase both had reflux and my 2nd had colic. I really think it was b/c they were born early.

Everyone I know (except me) has had good luck with preterm pregnancies. One lady at work had her baby at 28 weeks! And she's fine, although she had to stay in the hosptial for 3 months. Another man I know has a daughter who had her baby early and he had to stay in the hospital for 6 months! And my aunt had her son 4 weeks early, he required 3 surgeries, but is now 21 and is perfectly fine. I had a baby early but she waas stillborn.

As a diabetic mom, my doctor induced my labor. My little boy was born 6 weeks early at 7 libs 10 oz. My doctor was afraid he would get too big. The poor little baby has almost no body fat and couldn't regulate his temperature or blood sugars and he stayed in the NICU for a week. Then the doctor said he could go home, we just had to keep a heat lamp pointed at him for a few weeks until he could regulate his temp. Then about a week later I noticed that my baby was turning yellow. He had baby jaundice and it took 3 weeks of letting him "lay out" in front of the picture window to get some sunlight and horrible heel sticks to check his levels to cure him of it. The doctor told me it was perfectly normal and that about 80% of all babies suffer from it. HA!! I haven't met any other mom who's baby had it yet and it has been 5 years. I think he just said that to keep me from freaking out! The only things other problems we were ever had when he was a baby was that he got constipated very easily. Our doctor ended up "prescribing" 4 oz of prune or apple juice every day when he was 2 month old. At 3 months the doctor told us to add 4 oz of water with 2 tsp of karo syrup everyday. We still have constipation problems every now and then, but we use 1/2 tsp of fletcher's rootbeer laxative every other day. (at that dosage as per our doctor it's a stool softner). I hope things go great for your baby and I will keep him in my prayers.