L’il Aussie Prems | L'il Aussie Prems Blog

New Look Premature Baby Support Website

September 28, 2008 By Julia Toivonen Leave a Comment

After almost 2 years our website has a totally new look! Our premmie support website is much more easy to follow and looks great. With everything now at your fingertips you can see why it has attracted much more reading on our site.

Everything that was on the website is still available to view including our premature birth stories, premmie galleries, premmie forum, premmie articles, premmie playgroups and more. We introduced premmie buddies on the forum about a year ago and it has been very successful with our premmie parents getting to know each other on a more personal level. It has really made the premmie forum become more of a community of premature baby parents and help to create great friendships australia wide.

We have our live chats every Tuesday night – starting at 9pm est and it has become quite a fun night. With jokes, chatter and stories about our premature babies it really makes the night entertaining.

We would like to thank one of our forum members/moderators for her gorgeous pictures of her daughter Talia which we have used to create our websites main banner. It really softens the sites look and also shows that the site is about premature babies and support on many levels.

Take a look around and feel free to add any comments and/or suggestions about the websites new look.

www.lilaussieprems.com.au

Filed Under: L'il Aussie Prems Tagged With: premature baby support, premature birth, premature birth stories, premmie babies

Premmie Parent Diaries

July 22, 2008 By Julia Toivonen 1 Comment

We have just introduced a new area on the forum for premmie parent diaries. They are similar to a blog but are kept on the forum so you can share with forum friends what has been happening with your premature baby. You can start threads on your premmie baby, premature birth, family life, your premmies milestone delays, your babies achievements, weight loss or anything you wish to talk about.

If you wish to start your own diary you need to be a member of the forum www.lilaussieprems.com.au/premforum . Once you have registered reply to the following thread and a diary will be created for you.

www.lilaussieprems.com.au/premforum/diary-sign-up-t3572.html

Filed Under: L'il Aussie Prems, Parenting, Premature Babies

National Premmie Day

July 22, 2008 By Julia Toivonen Leave a Comment

This Friday is National Premmie Day!

Being apart of the premmie foundations committee we have been working on this day since last year and time certainly does fly! We have received A LOT of support from businesse, other parenting websites, the media and families which have all been fantastic.

Being a parent to a premature baby i have to say that this community is one that i would have never known if my son was never born early. There are so many amazing people in this world who volunteer their time and energy on helping families who have been in the same situation of having a premature baby. There are 1000s of premmie babies born each year and the number is growing. Each baby has had a unique experience and been through so much which is why our premmie babies need to be celebrated.

For a list of premmie events around Australia you can visit www.prembaby.org.au . There are also events listed on the L’il Aussie Prems forum www.lilaussieprems.com.au/premforum/australian-premmie-support-groups-f49.html

We would love to hear about your celebrations for National Premmie Day so be sure to join the forum and tell us all about it but remember have a great day!

Filed Under: L'il Aussie Prems, Media Articles, Premature Babies

PREM OF THE MONTH – JUNE

June 10, 2008 By Julia Toivonen Leave a Comment

Lily, Ruby, Maddie and their mum Lucinda

Where was Lily born?
Lily was born at the John Hunter Hospital, Newcastle. I was transferred there from North Gosford Private once they realized there were complications. We also spent a week in the Childrens Hospital at Westmead while she underwent cardiac surgery for a Patent Ductus Arteriosus.

What was her gestation and birthweight?
30 weeks and 1300 grams

Do you know why she was born premmie?
Lily had major complications in utero, in addition to the fact that I have an irritable uterus and my placenta started to fail, resulting in IUGR.

How long was Lily in hospital?
NICU for 1.5 months, SCN for 1.5 months. 3 months less one day all up. She came home weighing 2kg.

Other interesting stats?
CPAP for 24 days (due to PDA we just couldn’t get her off it!) then low flow oxygen for 6 months. She finally came off it on the 1st of March 2007.

What do you remember most about your NICU journey?
Now I mostly remember how fantastic the hospital staff were to me and my family and continue to be today. At the time it was so unbelievably hard you wouldn’t wish it on your worst enemy but the bad memories have faded with time and now we are just thankful that the wonderful doctors didn’t ever give up on our precious baby.

What has been your proudest moment since Lily came home?
Probably when she started walking. She has only just started in the last two weeks and we were told that she wouldn’t walk for a very long time. She continues to prove us all wrong with her strength and determination!

How did it feel to be pregnant again with a high risk of premature birth?
Terrifying! I really wanted to have the “normal” experience I had missed out on the first time around. But then as each day passed I began to prepare myself for another NICU or SCN journey.

At what gestation and weight were your twins born?
35 weeks, 1800 grams and 2400 grams

Any idea why they were born prem?
Maddie (the bigger twin) was hogging all the nutrients so Ruby developed IUGR. The doctors were concerned about how healthy she would be if she remained in utero so they booked me in for an emergency c-section. The day I went in to have them I ended up in labour! Both were born via c-section that day which was lucky as Ruby was badly tangled in her cord.

How did it feel to be back in the Special Care Nursery with your twins?
It was hard too, obviously not as hard as when Lily was born but I had to have my twins at a different hospital than the one I had had Lily at and having to learn the different processes really got to me. I guess in a way I felt I knew how to do it all so didn’t need someone making me do it a different way. The nurses were used to parents that were unsure of their tiny babies whereas my husband and I were confident and experienced with little our babies.

Also the hospital didn’t make any exceptions for the fact that my babies were in SCN. I was put in a ward with 5 other women and their babies and listened to their babies cry all night while mine were a 1km walk away (which I couldn’t do as I had had a bad c section). Because I didn’t have a screaming baby with me I was left to my own devices a lot, which also meant I could wait up to an hour to have a nurse just answer my call button.

One of the biggest challenges was having Lily as well. I lived at the hospital for 2 weeks until I could bring the twins home (weighing 1900 grams and 2500 grams) but I felt guilty as Lily wasn’t coping very well at home without me so there was that challenge too.

What is your top tip for other mothers of premmie babies?
I guess I could say try and “normalise” things as much as possible. So cuddle your baby/s as soon as you can and feed them, and bathe them and just love them, even if they feel tiny and fragile and you are scared to touch them in case you hurt them. They need to know you are there for them from the very beginning.

Filed Under: L'il Aussie Prems, Parenting, Premature Babies

Premmie Baby Health

June 10, 2008 By Julia Toivonen Leave a Comment

When you have a premature baby, suddenly you find yourself in an unfamiliar hospital environment where staff talk about medical conditions you may never have heard of before. L’il Aussie Prems is pleased to bring you a series of short articles which aim to explain some of the conditions which affect premature babies. You might find these overviews useful when you want to tell your friends and family about issues faced by your premature baby.
Remember that each baby is different, and you should always consult a medical professional about circumstances which relate specifically to your child.

Newborn Jaundice

What is it?
Jaundice is a yellow discolouration of the skin and the whites of the eyes caused by hyperbilirubinemia (which means increased levels of bilirubin in the blood). Jaundice occurs in both full term and premature newborn babies, but is much more common in premature babies.

Why does it occur?
In the human body, new blood cells are being made all the time and old blood cells die. Soon after a baby is born, its body will start replacing foetal haemoglobin (the blood used by the developing foetus which enables oxygen to be transported via the umbilical tube) with adult haemoglobin (normal blood). One of the products of blood as it breaks down is called bilirubin. Bilirubin is normally filtered by the liver and then leaves the body via a bowel movement.

Premature babies tend to develop jaundice because their livers are too immature to remove the bilirubin from their blood, so it builds up and spreads to other tissues in the body. This is also known as physiologic jaundice. Bilirubin is a yellowish colour, which is why the baby’s skin takes on a yellowish tint.

Jaundice can also be made worse in a small number of babies by certain health problems such as having a different blood type from the mother.

Why is it a problem?
Jaundice is not usually a serious problem, although premature infants may be more sensitive to the ill effects of excess bilirubin. Extremely high levels can be toxic, as bilirubin may enter the brain, causing hearing problems and brain damage. However babies in hospital are carefully monitored and treated quickly before their bilirubin reaches dangerous levels.

How is it treated?
Doctors use a blood test to check the bilirubin level.
Moderate jaundice is treated by placing your baby naked or near-naked (with a protective mask over the eyes) under a special white or a bluish-coloured light. This is called phototherapy and can be delivered in many different ways safely, including via the use of special fibre-optic bili-blankets. The light breaks down the bilirubin in the skin into a substance that the body can excrete more easily. Usually phototherapy is needed for about a week, and after that, the liver is mature enough to excrete bilirubin on its own.

In cases of severe jaundice where phototherapy is not effective, a baby may need to have a special blood transfusion in which their blood is replaced (exchanged) with donor blood to wash the bilirubin out of their system.

Are there any long term problems from jaundice?
There are usually no long-term problems following jaundice in babies. Babies who have had high levels of jaundice should have their hearing checked at regular intervals. This is best discussed with your doctor or early childhood nurse. Brain damage due to very high levels of jaundice is now extremely rare because the levels are carefully monitored while babies are in hospital.

Filed Under: L'il Aussie Prems, NICU Life, Premmie Baby Health Issues

Premmie of the month – April

April 1, 2008 By Julia Toivonen Leave a Comment

Charli and her mum Jodie

Where was Charli born?
At Canberra hospital by emergency caesarean. I did have a drug free water birth planned but I guess things don’t always go as planned.

What was her gestation?
31 weeks + 4 days

And her birth weight?
800g, less than half of what it should be for her gestation.

How did it feel to have a premmie after 3 full term babies?
It was pretty bloody scary. It’s one of those things you always think might happen to someone you know but will never happen to you. Especially after having 3 big overdue babies, I just thought I’d go overdue again, give birth to another big baby & leave the next day. I would never have thought that I’d end up with a c/section and then have to leave my baby at the hospital.

What do you remember most about your NICU journey?
The excitement of going in and finding her moved out of critical care when she was still under 1kg, that was definitely my best memory. Otherwise I remember silly little things, posters on the hallway walls, the view into the car park, walking through those doors everyday holding my breath hoping for the best but expecting the worst.

What has been your proudest moment since Charli came home?
Coming off oxygen after only 6 days at home. They had spent weeks and weeks trying to get her off oxygen at hospital but she just couldn’t do it, all she needed was to be home. But every day she makes me proud

What is your top tip for other mothers of premmie babies?
Take photos everyday while in hospital. While it may not be the happiest time it is amazing to see the difference day to day and is a good way to remind yourself that they are growing.