In 2008 Our Premmie Baby Forum…

Exploded! The forum saw over 400 members join in 2008 alone and on New Years eve we reached over 100,000 posts. It is truly an amazing effort on our members behalves and they have really turned the forum into a community over the past year.

When i started the forum almost 2 years ago it was slow to start with like any forum but over time it grew. I made sure i put the site “out there” not just via online but through other avenue’s. Everyone who i have personally spoken with over time has been very supportive of the site and when they hear how well it is doing they are very suprised, which is a great thing! The forums’ members meet in each state and have formed very solid friendships. Each and every member has a level of understanding whether their premmie baby was born at 23 weeks through to 36 weeks, everyone is very supportive and compassionate to all.

The members have made what L’il Aussie Prems is today and i cannot thank them enough.  I had a vision in 2007 and now the forum has so many families, 2009 will be the year that L’il Aussie Prems shines. We have idea’s coming from left right and centre which hopefully we will be implementing throughout the year.

If you wish to join our premmie baby forum please register today!

National Premature Birth Awareness Week

November 24-30 is Austprem’s National Premature Birth Awareness Week . Their aim is to increase awareness amongst ALL pregnant women of the signs and symptoms leading to premature birth.

I knew absolutely nothing about preterm birth before Talia was born, but apparently around 8% of babies in Australia each year are born earlier than 37 weeks gestation, and these babies have a much higher risk of long term health problems than babies who reach full term. The earlier the baby, the greater the risks.

Like about half of the mothers who have premature babies, I was not in a high risk category - no previous history of premature birth, not having twins or more, no known abnormalities of my cervix or uterus. No illness during pregnancy, no high blood pressure or symptoms of pre-eclampsia.

In retrospect, it was obvious that I lost the plug from my cervix the week before Talia was born, but I didn’t realise what it was at the time. It was just mucous, and I wondered if I had a minor infection but had been unable to get an appointment to see my GP before the weekend. As I wasn’t in any pain, I decided it was OK to wait. Then the cramping started. I looked in my pregnancy book, which helpfully told me that cramping in the first trimester was probably a miscarriage, and cramping in the third trimester was probably the onset of labour. It didn’t say anything about the second trimester.

I rang KEMH on a hot Saturday afternoon and asked them if I should be worried. They asked if I had a back ache, blurred vision or nausea. I didn’t. They said it was probably nothing, but I might as well come in to be checked, just to be on the safe side. My husband was away and I was only going to sit at home and worry about things, so I grabbed my handbag and got in my car. No thought of packing an overnight bag. No idea that I would need more than 2 hours parking. No clue that my life was about to be turned upside down.

The scary thing is that if I’d lived further away, already had a child to care for or something important to attend, I might not even have bothered to go that afternoon. I might have waited until later - and it might have been too late for steroid injections. I might even have lost my baby. Fortunately I trusted my “mummy instinct” even when I knew so little about what was happening.

So here is the information in a nutshell. If you have any of the following symptoms of premature labour - call your health care provider or go to the hospital right away .

It’s much better to be safe than sorry. If you really are in labour, the sooner doctors can try to delay your labour or give you steroids to speed up your baby’s lung development, the better your baby’s chances of survival and good health.

High Risk Birth Story

I was advised by my doctor that within a week my baby will be born. I was shocked but very excited as i really had had enough of the pregnancy. I was really uncomfortable and was lucky to be sleeping 3hrs a night due to insomnia. I was told that the reason for the induction was because my white cell count kept going up, my blood pressure was rising each day and i had PPROM (pre term premature rupture of membranes) and had a hind leek.

We arrived at the hospital at 7.00am and had to wait around until 10.30am before i was shown to the birthing suit as they were full of women in labour! I had an internal (which i was so scared of) where they checked that i was 2cms dilated and they broke my waters. My first thought was that there was NO going back now! The feeling was icky and over the course of about 5hrs i kept getting warm gushes of fluid between my legs.

At 11.30am they started the induction drip. They turned up the drip every 30mins and kept monitoring my blood pressure, his heart beat and the contractions. After about 3hrs i asked them to get the epidural organised as i knew it would take at least an hour to organise and the contractions were started to become quite painful. I wasn’t given a drug option with Ronan as it all happened too quick and he was so premmie so i was very happy to be given the choice. The anathesiast (sp?) wiped down my back, placed a plastic cover over my back and started to give me injections in the back that just felt like bee stings, not bad at all. It ended up taking him 3 goes to get the epidural into my back and i still have the bruise to show for it. I was sooo scared having it done as they tell you not to move but how can you not when you have the occasional slight electric shock going through your back? but knowing as well that it was going up into my spine was nerve wracking but we got through it and it worked a treat…. well…….. for 2 hours! After 2 hours i started to feel pain again. The epidural had stopped working on my left side and even though it was topped up 2 times it didn’t work on the left side so i just had to put up with the pain on top of vomiting at each top up..

As the contractions were starting to get stronger his heartbeat kept going down low. It was around the low 80’s so they kept watching it and slowly turned down the drip to give us both a 30min breather. The contractions were still there but they had eased a little bit. They soon turned the drip up again and he was hovering around the 90’s. By this stage i was 7cms dilated. They did a few internals but by this stage he was still quite high up and posterior. The doctor tried to turn him 3 times but each time he turned back around. There is nothing flattering about having a hand inside your hoo-haa turning a baby around!

I was still slowly dilating and in pain and they offered me the gas. I decided that it would only make me more thirsty so opted to just ride it out. After 13hrs i was 8cms dilated and they started talking about giving me a c-section because he was still a little too high and being posterior it was going to be much harder to push him out. After another hour they decided to let me continue because i was progressing so well and they believed that he would eventually come down low enough for me to start pushing. By that stage i was asking to have a c-section because i was so mentally exhausted and didn’t know how i was going to push out a posterior baby. I felt that i had little energy left.

By the 14hr i was fully dilated and the midwife started telling me to push! Wholly crap i thought to myself!

As each contraction came she was there coaching me to push as hard as i could 3 times with each contraction. A few times i could only get in 2 pushes but they were very hard and strong that she wasn’t worried. I held onto the bed which was my leverage and kept pushing. I was having massive mouth fulls of water after every contraction because i was SO SO thirsty. I couldn’t believe how thirsty i had become. As he was moving down the birth canal i started to feel the pressure in my bum. The more he moved down the harder the pressure became. At one stage i asked her if this was normal and of course it was. I didn’t feel this pressure with Ronan so i didn’t have a clue! The pressure kept coming and i felt like my bum was going to split into two. It wasn’t so much as painful it was more so uncomfortable that it was hard to concentrate on pushing.

After 45mins of pushing i started to feel his head crown. This was something that i was not looking forward too as Ronan’s head hurt which was only 25cms at the time and knowing his head was going to be bigger was gahh!! He started to crown and with every push it was 3 steps forward and 1 step back as he would slide a little way back in. I kept pushing with all my might and the good old stinging sensation was well and truly happening. I kept my cool and didn’t scream or cry as i just tried to focus on the pain and the level it was at to get through it. The midwife was coaching me through the whole process telling me when to push, when to slow down (especially when he was crowing) and i received a 1 degree tear, no stitches. One of my biggest fears was having a needle and stitches after the birth and in the end i didn’t need either so i was very relieved.

After a little pushing his head finally popped out. I waited for one more contraction and then pushed the rest of his body out. The pain was over!! They put him straight onto my chest and what a surreal experience. He was warm and i could feel this weight on my chest. I couldn’t believe that it was our son. I was too exhausted to cry but i had a lump in my throat. It was something that we didn’t get to experience with Ronan which is just heartbreaking. I really wish the experience with him was different but i wouldn’t change a thing.

After an hour i sent my mum and Mark home so they could get some sleep. The paed came in and checked Tristan and realised that his breathing was a little laboured. They ummed and arred about whether to send him to SCN and i told them that i was happy for him to go and that it would be best if he did. The nurse expressed 4mls of colostrum from one of my breasts and he was taken to SCN.

After i had a shower and walked around for a bit i was taken to the SCN to see him. He was in a humidicrib with the usual drips on and was being given antibiodics. He had no oxygen on but mainly was just being monitored. He stayed in SCN for almost 2 days and came back to my room for the rest of the time. Because my membranes had ruptured they kept him on antibiodics which was the main reason for our longish stay of 5 days in hospital.

The breastfeeding is going VERY well and i have SO much milk! On day 1 i was hand expressing 4mls from each breast and by day 3 my milk came in. Since being home i can express up to 80mls of milk from 1 breast. I am now only expressing around 30mls for comfort as i am always full and it gets quite sore. He took to breastfeeding like a pro and i feel so comfortable feeding him. The whole thing has been a unique experience for us yet such a normal experience for many people. We feel truly blessed to have such a healthy baby and i have bonded with him in a different way to Ronan. The closeness i feel is just so different to when Ronan was a baby and it’s the bond that mothers always talk about but of course we love them both so very much and just the same..

He is classed as a “premmie” by 1 day but he is full term to me..

Premature Birth/Babies Forum

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

New Look Premature Baby Support Website

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

Premmie Parent ~ Pregnant Again cont…

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!

Happy Father’s Day

Father’s Day: the media is full of images of happy, healthy children rushing to give their much-loved if slightly hopeless father a blokey gift, but when your little one is still in hospital the stereotypes are meaningless and all you really want is to have your child come home.

What is the role of a father of a premature baby? When my daughter was born unexpectedly early, my husband missed the birth completely - no magical memories of cutting the cord for him, he wasn’t even able to hold my hand. While I found myself on early maternity leave and able to spend all day in the NICU, he was still at work - sometimes far away. It made no sense for him to take his one week of paternity leave until we brought our baby home, at which point his employer initally refused to grant him the leave because it was more than 3 months after her birth!

My husband shared all my anxieties about Talia’s health, not to mention the broken sleep as I rose twice a night to express, without the joy and reassurance of being able to hold his daughter for days on end. He visited the nursery in the quiet of the evenings when the doctors were gone and the lights were dimmed, and sang her soft songs of love below the beeping of the monitors.

Now more than a year later, he still sings her songs. He holds her tight and reads her books, sits on the floor playing with her as soon as he gets home from work, pushes her on the swing in the park and rejoices in every little milestone. He knows how lucky we are to have her, and I know how lucky she is to have him too.

Pre-Eclampsia Awareness Week

I just discovered that this week is Pre-Eclampsia Awareness Week.

I had never even heard of pre-eclampsia until a friend of mine told me it was the reason she needed to have her baby delivered 8 weeks early, four years ago. To be honest, at that time I didn’t have any idea what she had been through. Since my daughter was born I’ve met a lot more women - mostly via L’il Aussie Prems - who suffered from this very serious and sometimes life-threatening medical condition and whose babies were born prematurely as a result. In fact even two friends in my new mothers’ group who were able to have full term babies also suffered from pre-eclampsia in the late stages of their pregnancy. It’s a lot more common than I had previously imagined.

The Australian Action on Pre-Eclampsia (AAPEC) has a website at http://www.aapec.org.au with a good FAQ and stories from people who’ve been through it personally.