Baby born at 34 weeks

My ds was born 34+6 days on the 10th of April. He is in wellington Neonates and doing really well I was just wondering if anyone else has been through a similiar time and how long their little one was in hospital, how long it took to establish breast feeding etc.

Hi Shelly.
Firstly, congrats on the arrival of your DS Pleased to hear he is doing really well.

I can't really help with your questions, but just wanted to let you know I'm here if you want someone to talk to. My DS was born at 26+1 weeks and we spent about 3 months in NICU Wgtn. I found the staff to be fantastic, hope you do too.

It can be extremely hard to have your baby in NICU and away from you. Fingers crossed he will be home in no time

My wee girl was born at 34+1 in December 08. Was a huge shock so I can imagine what you are going through. My girl had breathing difficulties and was on CPAP for 2 days and then oxygen via nasal prongs for a few days after that. She also had jaundice and was on a bili bed. We were told at the begining that she would be in hospital till her due date but we were out of there in 10 days. Gabrielle started breastfeeding two feeds a day on day 5 and was fully BF by the time we went home. However, she was a crappy feeder and got really really tired and often fell asleep before the feed was over, took well over an hour to feed and then at 3 weeks old started screaming with reflux (which took me a while to work out that was what the screaming was).

I was lucky in that my midwife knew I wanted to BF and so tracked down the hospital lactation consultant for me and we worked with the nurses to get Gabrielle going on the breast. It was hard at first because she had trouble latching and a very weak suck but with the help of nipple sheilds we got there and I breastfed till 6.5months (could have gone longer but she was really sick and in hospital and ....long story).

Anyway, good luck and I hope everything goes well for you and your bubs. PM me if you want to chat or anything. I found the shock of what happened really hard to deal with and that talking to people who had gone through a similar thing really helped.

One of my old workmates son was born at 34weeks. He was in SCBU for 2weeks if not less and she bfed until 4.5months.

I know she pumped to feed him while in SCBU. She was back at work by the time he was 4mths

Thanks guys.
The nurses in wellington NICU are great they are really kind and know their stuff.
We knew he was coming early as we had major placenta problems and had been in hospital for a couple of weeks before hand. They weren't expectiong him to have any problems and that he would be sent home with me when I was discharged but his lungs had other ideas.

My DD was born at 28+1in August last year. She was in level 3 NICU at Auckland hospital for 4.5 weeks until we were transferred back to SCBU in Whg for another 4 and a half weeks. She was on CPAP for the first 3 weeks, which seems like a heck of a long stretch now!

She didn't start exclusively breastfeeding (no NG feeds) until the week before we went home, at 36 weeks. The lactation consultants were great, they spent alot of time with us and were very helpful - I've even been back to see them once since we've been home.

All the best, PM me if you would like to talk, I also found it a great help talking to other mums/dads who had been through a similar situation.

My DD was born at 35 weeks plus 4 days. Stayed out of NN ward, as she is a determind little thing. She struggled to latch on at first and was feed via a tube for a few days. After 4 days was chopping on the boob and I think we were established by the day 5.

It was a big shock having her come early, I was expecting a big, late baby not a small early one.

Congratulations Shelly

Callum was born at 32wks exactly, we had a little bit of warning too as my waters broke a week earlier, but not much! It's still a shock dealing with NICU and not having your baby come home with you I think

Callum did really well considering his gestation. He was 1.92kg born and came home after 10 days when his weight got back up to 2ish kgs. We started BF on day 3 and C took to it pretty well although I did need to use nipple shields. I BFd him till he was just over 5mo. Feeding does take forever in the early days!

At about 8m Callum was pretty much caught up to his wee friends born at the same time in terms of weight and development. Now he is 15m and thriving. He's awesome

Good luck xx

Thanks everyone, we finally got him home yesterday after 17 days in NICU. I have to say Wellington Neonates were amazing and really looked after us. Now we just have to get the little fella to sleep at least a little bit at night!!

Hi Shelly, glad to hear everything went well and you have your wee boy home.    As per Tastic's message earlier, I had Harlow at 24wks + 6days on November 19, he was due 5th March. We've only recently come home and have had to make 3 trips back to NICU. Did you manage to get the feeding sorted? We've found it incredibly difficult and I gave up attempting to breastfeed but he's still on EBM until it runs out of the freezer!   Even bottlefeeding is a mission.

Aren't the Wgtn NICU team fabulous???!!!!!!