L’il Aussie Prems is featured in this weeks New Idea! We are all very excited and welcome all the new members that have joined in the past week on the forum.
We hope that our premature baby community can bring you comfort in knowing that you are not alone not only on your journey but also with home life and milestone delays your premature baby may face.
WHEN miracle twins Jaiden and Hannah Rhodes start school in a couple of weeks, it will be a day to cherish.
Mum Junelle’s wedding ring hung like a bracelet around their wrists when they came into the world almost six years ago.
Born at just 25 weeks at the Mercy Hospital, the twins weighed less than 800g each and were given a 40 per cent chance of survival.
Doctors warned that even if the tiny twosome pulled through, there was then an 80 per cent chance they would be severely disabled.
The bubbly pair have their problems, but not enough to stop them from starting prep on February 4.
Ms Rhodes said she and husband Nathan, who live near Frankston, never thought they would see the day they would wave their babies off to school. 
“They were so tiny when they were born, there was never a time that we were sure they would survive when they were in hospital,” she said.
“Even when Hannah left the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) for a ward, she stopped breathing and was taken straight back.
“They always went back and forth between scares.”
Mr Rhodes said flipping through the family photo album of the twins’ first months felt surreal now that he was dressing them in their new school uniforms.
“I looked through the album not long ago and I just thought, ‘My God. How did we get two beautiful children who are pretty normal out of this?’ ” he asked.
Jaiden proudly showed off his baby photos yesterday.
“That’s me! I weighed like a big packet of cereal!” he said.
The Rhodes were not even sure the twins could attend a mainstream school because of medical problems from their extremely premature arrival.
The twins were in hospital for almost five months after they were born, and Jaiden was on oxygen for a further six months at home.
Both have chronic lung disease, and Hannah underwent heart surgery to close a valve when she was only days old.
She cannot speak loudly because of a paralysed left vocal chord, and Jaiden tires easily because of low muscle tone.
Their condition could have been much worse if not for quick-thinking doctors who managed to avert delivery when Ms Rhodes went into labor at just 21 weeks.
Dr Nick Lolatgis pushed the twins back in and sewed a single stitch to keep them there for another month.
Despite their hurdles, the twins don’t let anything hold them back.
They spent summer camping at the beach, riding bikes and painting pictures, and couldn’t wait for school because they would see friends they made at kindergarten.
“I’m going to invite them to my birthday party. It’s going to be a pony party, when I turn six,” Hannah said.
Jaiden said he would have a Transformers party.
Article & photos from 
I browse a number of websites for parents of premature babies, and the topic of “when should I start my premature baby on solids” comes up time and again. Some people believe you should go by corrected age, others feel that actual age is appropriate because prem babies are digesting milk from very soon after birth. However, regardless of which side you take, the fact remains that if your baby is not ready to eat, no amount of coaxing and saying “yum, yum!” is going to help.
When Talia was not thriving on just breast milk, I consulted the lactation consultants from the NICU, who suggested I start Talia on solids at 4 months corrected (7 months actual) rather than offer formula. What a joke! Talia was nowhere near ready to start, and my efforts only ended in frustration for me and bewilderment for for my baby. In contrast, she took to the formula like it was nectar of the gods.
Time passed, and every few days or so I would patiently offer up a spoonful of Farex. Perhaps if I’d tried it myself I might have realised how unlikely Talia was to ever show any interest in it. Her expressions of disgust said it all.
I lovingly cooked up pear, sweet potato and pumpkin, pureed it and froze it into ice cubes. I could sneak a smidgeon past her lips – but no more and no further. I expanded the repertoire to include apple, carrot and potato, and suddenly she would eat a cube, and I would think “yes, we are making progress”… but then she would reject the exact same fruit or vegetable the following day.
Somewhere around 6 months corrected (9 months actual) Talia started to accept about 1-2 cubes per day. I had a hit with pumpkin and avocado, figured out how to put peas and corn through the sieve and was starting to feel I was making progress, although it was hardly going to put any weight on her compared to the formula, and her tongue reflex was still strong, so I was spooning in food then having it pushed straight back out again, even when she seemed to enjoy the flavour.
Then, at almost 7 months, something clicked for Talia. Maybe it was when I started to blend more flavours, maybe it was the introduction of roast chicken or maybe it was just the way the planets were aligned, but suddenly she wanted MORE FOOD and she wanted it NOW.
In the last week, Talia has eaten 3 or 4 meals a day, including at least 2 with meat and veg. (She seems to prefer this to fruit, either mashed with milk, with farex or with yoghurt). She demands to be fed, and leans forward with mouth open to take the next spoonful. It goes in and it stays in – and the proof is in the pudding, so to speak. I had her weighed on Monday and she’d put on 405g in 2 weeks. Not bad for a baby who regularly put on only 30g/week on breastmilk.
I feel as if a difficult chapter of Talia’s journey – the section where I worried myself to the point of depression about her lack of weight gain – is finally over. At the same time, our breastfeeding routine has dropped down to one feed per day, first thing in the morning. Its days are numbered, and I feel a tinge of sadness that this part of our relationship will soon be over, but I am happier to let it go knowing that Talia is making progress in other areas.
Watch this space as L’il Aussie Prems will be having a facelift. It has been months in production already and we are making the final adjustments. We are hopeful that by the start of February the new site will be launched.
After months of working on PIPA’s new website i am proud to say that it is now live!
PIPA was formed in 1980 to provide a support network for the families dealing with the Premature birth of their baby in Queensland and Northern New South Wales Hospitals. For over 25 years their work has been carried on by a large number of volunteers whose lives have been touched and changed by a premature birth. Their site provides support on many levels and is a place where parents can find information on all things relating to their premature baby.
It was a pleasure creating and working on their new website for them. Giving up my time to help groups that support premature babies is passion of mine. If i can help groups in anyway possible i feel that i have accomplished something huge and it is very rewarding to know that what i have done no matter how small helps the parents & families of premature babies.
L’il Aussie Prems has a new modern support forum for families of premature babies.
The old forum was great in the day but the security features on the new one are so much better which means less spammer sign ups (less strain on my email) and the backend features just blow you out of the water and the forum is now much more user friendly.
I spent 2 days working on the new forum because it isn’t a simple case of throwing it all together because you get errors along the way when trying to add/change things. When you get errors you then need to search for the solution but the first one you find isn’t always the right one. It can take hours to just do 1 thing but i am very patient and it has paid off with the new premmie forum.
I tried to find a template that either matched what was already there or find something that was easy to follow. There are 100s of templates available but i also wanted something to follow on with the sites pastels theme as it reminds me of premature babies, soft & gentle.
I hope you all enjoy the new premmie forum and i better get back to my email as i haven’t looked at it for a few days and have over 900 emails to go through!
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