Parenting | L'il Aussie Prems Blog

Pregnancy after Premmie Baby

November 28, 2008 By Sally 1 Comment

Just a bit of background info for everyone. My first bub, Brendan was born in Feb 2007 at 30 weeks, due to PPROM at 28 weeks. In Nov 2007 I suffered a miscarriage at 17+1 weeks.

In September 2008 we stared trying for our second child. I got my BFP on the 12/11/2008, 3 months after we started trying. I’m so happy and relieved. I haven’t had much m/s only a few very mild feelings. Mostly I am tired. Today I am 7+1 weeks pregnant. There is no word that can accurately describe how I am feeling about the possibility of another prem, scared doesn’t even come close. I had my first Dr’s appointment on Wed 26/11/08, referral has been done and sent to KEMH. My first u/s will be done at 12 weeks. I cannot wait to see my little bubble.

Things I’d like to do different this time:

Make sure I am always feeling reassured
Trust my instinct and follow what my head/heart is telling me
Be more informed about what tests they are doing, what they are for ect, I will NOT be a pin cushion
Relax and take things easy
Ask for help when I need it
Make it to at least 36 weeks
Hold my baby immediately after birth
Take my baby home with me!!

Until next update, take care

Filed Under: Pregnancy Tagged With: Pregnancy

Premmie Mums – Amazing Help!

November 25, 2008 By Julia Toivonen Leave a Comment

Since starting L’il Aussie Prems in March 2007 the site has grown more than i could have ever imagined. I created the premmie forum hoping that the site could offer some premmie baby parents hope and courage whilst going through life of having a premature baby but it has turned into more. With over 660 members registered on the forum and growing everyday the forum has become a community for families who have faced the battle of having a premature baby or a baby who spent time in SCN.

With the premmie forum growing and thriving over time i have had many ideas, most have been implemented on the website. The site covers so many things from premmie birth stories to premmie galleries, premmie forum, premmie birth announcements, premmie buddies, premmie of the month, monthly newsletters, directory, premmie baby tickers and more so the site needs updating quite a lot due to so many stories, photos and submissions emailed in everyday. I can spend up to 4hrs a day updating and adding new information/images/stories onto the website but thankfully i don’t need to everyday.

With the workload that the website brings i needed help with not just updating the website but also with help finding information for the next premmie newsletter, contacting a forum member and asking them to be premmie of the month and arranging details and photos with them, running premmie buddies each month, moderating the forum, administrating the forum (with me), organising and running premmie kris kringle and much much more. After a year and a half of doing all of these things on my own i realised that i really couldn’t do it all, i wasn’t superwoman (although i wish i was). With having just recently giving birth to my son i have 2 more helpers on hand helping with the running of the website and it could not have come at a better time.

The women who organise, update, arrange and implement things on the site are all so AMAZING. There are around 11 mums who give up their time to help. I cannot thank them enough for their amazing help, efforts & generosity in helping the site being kept up to date and the premmie forum being “watched/moderated” because without you it would be a struggle everyday.

premmie thank you

Filed Under: L'il Aussie Prems, Parenting

Premmie Parent – Pregnant Again “Pregnancy Is Over”!

November 18, 2008 By Julia Toivonen Leave a Comment

Well we finally had our little boy! I made it to 36+6 weeks. It was an amazing achievement considering i thought so many times that i was going to have another premature baby. What an experience it was this time around, just everything about the pregnancy even though i was considered high risk.

I faced the fears that premmie baby parents think about after having a premature baby who wish to have another baby. The fear of “we will have another premature baby”, “will i have the same complications that i did the first time around”, “what are the chances” and the unknown of what the outcome will be.

Throughout my pregnancy as the weeks went by i kept wondering when things were going to take a wrong turn. After i reached 32 weeks i felt very relaxed and knew that “if” anything happened now the outcome would be so different to our first son who’s premature birth was at 27 weeks.

Towards the end of my pregnancy things started to change. My blood pressure started to rise and i was put onto tablets to help control the sudden rise. The rise wasn’t too serious as my results were 145/90 but the doctor felt that it was best to control it now. Apparently it is very common late in pregnancy to have a rise in blood pressure so it wasn’t anything i was stressed about.

For a month prior to our son being born it was believed that i had suspected PPROM (preterm premature rupture of membranes) only it was a hind leak so i wasn’t gushing water, i just felt damp everyday. When the blood results came back after my 34 week appointment it showed that my white cell count keep rising so i was put onto antibiodics to be safe.

Due to my white cell count rising it was decided that i was to be induced and our son was to be born at 36 weeks. I had fetal monitoring a few times a week and my doctor booked me in to be induced on Monday 27th October 2008. This time we were more prepared and my mother came from Sydney to be there for our sons arrival and my husband was in the room when he was born. Sadly he missed the birth of our first son due to him arriving so early. I have heard many stories of premmie fathers missing the birth of their children due to it all happening so quickly.

I have written a birth story about our sons arrival and will add it to the blog.

I am so glad that the journey is over as there were many times of “what if” & “when” will it happen but we made it so much further than our first experience and we are so ever grateful for the doctors & midwives that looked after my pregnancy so carefully at Monash Medical Centre.

Our sons name is Tristan and here he is:

Filed Under: Parenting, Premature Babies Tagged With: Premature Babies

Reading to your baby

October 16, 2008 By Finisterre Leave a Comment

Some parents read aloud to their baby in the NICU. It is the sound of the parent’s voice and not the subject matter that is important, so you can read anything you like. The nurses at KEMH told me about one father who read his premature son “The Silence of the Lambs”! My husband and I preferred to sing to Talia, and only started reading to her some months after she came home.Here are some of the things I love about reading to my baby.

- Board books . Wow, such a big change since I was a kid. Now you can safely leave books at floor level without the risk of them being torn to shreds because your child loves the sound of ripping paper. (Use junk mail for that activity!)

- Books with flaps, textures and mirrors . Even more wow! Talia cannot get enough of looking under flaps, putting her fingers through holes, touching squishy/fluffy/scratchy things and (best of all) looking at her own reflection.

- Making up new words . Some books just have too many words per page, especially for a baby who likes turning the pages quickly. It’s good to have “the short version”, especially if you’ve read that particular book three times today.

- Finding things in the pictures . Some days the illustrations are more fun than the story line. Point out the mouse, the boat, the sun, the flower, etc in the background. When your child is slightly older you can ask them to find these items for you.

- Silly noises . Reading to a child gives you complete freedom to make as many silly animal noises and other sound effects as you like. So mooo, pop, bang, miaow, grrrr, brrroom, woof, oink, squeak and boo to your heart’s content. You know you want to!

- Opportunities for karaoke . Are you on a page with a star? Launch into Twinke Twinkle. Is that a picture of a frog? Start singing “Glug glug went the little green frog”. Your baby will love it. Well, mine does anyway. If you’re in WA and you received a copy of Baby Ways from your local library or child health nurse, you can sing the entire book to the tune of Here we go Round the Mulberry Bush.

I’m listing some of Talia’s favourite books on Talia’s Bookshelf – this will be updated as time goes by.

Some other links you might like:

Mem Fox’s Read Aloud Commandments

“Reading with babies”

Filed Under: Parenting Tagged With: premmie baby books, reading

Premature Birth/Babies Forum

September 28, 2008 By Julia Toivonen Leave a Comment

Our premmie forum has become one of Australia’s busiest support communities for premature babies families & friends. Our forum has a member base of over 630 members from Australia and beyond so you can be sure to find other premmie parents in your state or even parents who had their premmie babies at the same hospital as you.

Our forum offers families support, understanding, parenting advice, hope, friendship and networking. Our members have many “meet ups” with other parents in the same state and some parents have even started their own premmie morning teas due to the lack of support in their area.

There are many areas on the forum where you can write about your premature babies and their journey. We have parents with premmie babies in NICU, SCN, high risk pregnancies, babies who have just gone home to premmie babies who are toddlers and in school so you can be assured that there are parents who understand your situation.

We have a specific area on the forum where you can write about your premature babies journey whilst going through NICU/SCN, you can have your very own parent diary, write about your babies milestone achievements or delays, post photos of your gorgeous children, ask questions or talk about your premmie baby in our specific gestation areas. There are specific areas when you can chat to parents who have had a premature baby between 23 – 26 weeks, 27 – 30 weeks, 31 – 34 weeks, 35 weeks +.

We look forward to seeing you on the premmie forum and becoming apart of our free fantastic premmie parent community.

www.lilaussieprems.com.au/premforum

Filed Under: L'il Aussie Prems, Parenting, Premature Babies Tagged With: newborn babies, Premature Babies, premature baby, premature birth, premmie baby, premmie support forum, premmie support network, preterm birth

Premmie Parent ~ Pregnant Again cont…

September 28, 2008 By Julia Toivonen Leave a Comment

Well here i am at 32 weeks pregnant! I cannot believe that i am still pregnant after having such an early premature birth with Ronan.

A lot of things have been happening including still going to my high risk clinic appointments at Monash every 2 weeks and we actually found out the reason WHY Ronan came early after a few blood tests and an AMAZING doctor who is looking after me. She is just the BEST and i couldn’t have asked for such a more gentle person to look after me throughout this pregnancy. I am very blessed that she figured out what happened within 2 weeks and no one else even tried after 2.5 years!

The best way to describe the reason for Ronan’s premature birth was that my placenta was not working properly. My blood results that were taken recently indicate that i have a “spelling mistake” in my chromosones. Basically my placenta will absorb nutrients ie: folic acid etc.. but it does not know how to distribute the nutients, so my placenta pealed away which lead to “placental abruption” due to the lack of nutrients. With the placenta pealing away this triggered on the heavy bleeding and the sponateous labour. Apparently this condition/”spelling mistake” is something that is passed on from my parents. Unless tests were done we wouldn’t know which parent it was but due to my mother & sister not having any complications with premature babies/premature birth of their own it would be interesting to find out if it was from my dad.

I had a scan last week to check that bubs was growing correctly and apparently everything is going great. He was head down, there was plenty of fluid, the cervix was closed and bubs weighed approx 1.8kgs or 1800 grams so he was growing very good. Apparently around the 31 week mark most babies weigh approx 1500 grams so he is a chubby bubby! My doctor said that he would be around 7 – 8lbs when born. What a huge difference between that number and 2.8lbs when my little premmie was born. Gosh i hope i don’t have any problems delivering naturally due to having a BIGGER baby.

Here i am at 32 weeks gestation and still going strong. I am feeling really good this pregnancy, no swelling, no backaches, no complications. It does actually feel very strange to know that i have a “normal” pregnancy! This is not something that i thought would happen and everyday i keep waking up thinking “ok when will our little boy come, is it today”. Because i am anticipating another premature baby i am sure we will have a very healthy newborn which will be totally surreal but very exciting.

I hope that my little updates give those parents of premature babies a little hope that having another baby after having a premmie can actually go to plan. It all depends on your situation of course but if you do plan on having another baby be sure to book yourself into the “high risk clinic” at your nearest hospital so you are closely monitored. For the health of you and your baby and also for peace of mind they really do watch you and monitor everything along the way.

Here is a picture of my belly at 31 weeks!