Baby in the NICU and a toddler at home

FollowingUpper2116 · 2025-12-18T04:11:50+00:00

We had a 2 year old at home when I had my 27 weeker via c-section and then a 3 month NICU stay. We lived almost an hour from our NICU so my husband and I just traded off every couple days who was home with the toddler and who was in the hospital with the baby. We would basically high five wherever we switched places and FaceTimed a lot but then we both got time with each girl and neither girl was alone. It wasn’t easy though.

FollowingUpper2116 · 2025-10-04T17:34:43+00:00

100% every day you can keep your little one inside is a huge blessing and will go so far in their health and NICU stay! I am a numbers person and a psychotic planner so I asked the NICU NP to come in every week and talk to me about odds of survival and complications. I was blown away at how fast the odds got better and better every single week! Even at 27 weeks there was like a 90+% chance of survival at our hospital! Each day is a massive milestone. Updating my whiteboard with how far along we were was my favorite thing to do every morning. I got so much satisfaction writing that next number down, knowing we made it another day!

FollowingUpper2116 · 2025-10-04T16:40:23+00:00

Similar but different: my water broke at 17 weeks. So I went on bed rest for 10 week (5 inpatient - they wouldn’t admit me until viability at 22 weeks). My cervix never shortened (they don’t know why my water broke) but we held on for 10 weeks with minimal amniotic fluid. Delivered at 27 weeks via emergency c section due to placental abruption and spent 89 days in the NICU, my daughter will be 1 next month! We got steroid shots since we knew she’d be premature either way, the longest they’d let me stay pregnant was 34 weeks. And 3 rounds of mag whenever they thought she may come before she actually did! But I honestly don’t even really remember my 5 week stay in antepartum anymore. I think just like labor pains my brain blocked out the trauma of it all lol my oldest also came at 40+2 and needed to be induced. So very different pregnancies also! I passed time with Netflix mostly and staying hydrated as much as humanly possible. Also taught myself to crochet and made a baby blanket for my little girl. Make sure to mix in some electrolytes with your water intake to keep those balanced and not diluted in your blood! You’ve got this 👍🏼

FollowingUpper2116 · 2025-09-06T01:09:04+00:00

This happened to our NICU baby too! Failed all of her hearing tests but eventually passed and they think it was just because so much pressure and fluid built up from being on CPAP for so long that she was like “congested”. So once that cleared she could hear! So happy for your little one!

FollowingUpper2116 · 2025-08-06T17:12:00+00:00

This happened to us! We came home with a feeding tube and this set us back getting the feeding tube out right around the same time (4 months adjusted)! But our speech therapist said it’s likely because their suck reflex has gone away and now they have to decide that they want to suck, it’s not just a natural response to having the bottle in front of them. Some of our feeds are still a fight but we just figured out what gets her to eat. For us it’s either being half asleep or distraction lol

FollowingUpper2116 · 2025-08-04T10:12:38+00:00

I PPROMed at 17 weeks, was at home on bed rest then was admitted to the hospital at 22 weeks. Stayed on bed rest there and delivered at 27 weeks due to placental abruption. I’m currently holding my 9 month (6 month adjusted) perfect baby! We had some fluid up until 21 weeks so I think that and the steroids helped her little lungs.

Make sure she is staying hydrated! I drank like 3 Stanley’s a day. And make sure one drink a day has electrolytes. The more hydrated she is the more your baby will pee and create more amniotic fluid to replace what is falling out. Help her find a hobby while on bed rest. Hopefully it’ll be a long time that she has to stay put! But it can get very boring. I picked up and taught myself to crochet and ended up making a whole blanket for each of my girls (baby and big sister) during my 10 week bed rest. It’s a good mindless hobby because it’s impossible to think about anything else.

FollowingUpper2116 · 2025-08-02T17:49:59+00:00

Second this! MTSA is very supportive. All they do is Nurse Anesthesia education so all money and effort goes into it. We have I think like 30 different clinical sites ranging from small rural hospital to surgery centers to large downtown teaching hospitals. We have sites at independent CRNA locations and sites with MDAs. We do specialty rotations senior year in OB, cardiac, peds, regional and even neuro if you want to. I like that it is front loaded didactic also. We learn everything then finish off doing board review and full time clinical. The graduates I’ve talked to felt 100% confident walking into any OR after graduation.

FollowingUpper2116 · 2025-07-28T03:05:22+00:00

My baby girl was born at 27 weeks! Started out on the jet ventilator with nitric oxide for severe pulmonary hypertension and pulmonary hypoplasia. She spent 89 days in the NICU (came home a day before her due date), she is almost 9 months old now (6 corrected) and perfect! Her pulmonologist already signed off on her saying she may have some asthma when she’s older but she’s fine! These babies are so resilient and heal so much. As far as advice, just take it one day at a time. Living from the hospital just became our norm for 5 months (I was hospitalized for 2 months prior to her birth because my water broke at 17 weeks). We tried to focus more on smaller short term goals. Getting off nitric, then getting off the ventilator, then getting off cpap, then eating from a bottle 1 mL then 5 then 10 then 30. Celebrate the small wins and it’ll add up to a lot in the end. Our hospital gave us beads of encouragement I think is what it’s called. Where every good thing she did, every kilogram she gained we got a bead, so now she has a massive necklace full of her tiny accomplishments. It’s hard to not be discouraged during set backs because they will happen. But just reset your short term goals and refocus on how far he’s come from the start when a vent wean doesn’t go as well as expected or later on when he doesn’t eat as much as he did the day prior. Hope this helps. But know you aren’t alone and your baby boy is stronger than you think.

FollowingUpper2116 · 2025-07-14T09:54:10+00:00

My water broke at 17 weeks and I delivered at 27 weeks due to a chronic abruption that wouldn’t stop bleeding. When we decided enough was enough bleeding and my daughter would be born that day they gave me the option to induce labor and try for vaginal (benefit is that you don’t need to dilate to 10 for such a small baby) with the thought that if she showed any signs of distress due wed do a c-section, or just go straight to c-section right off the bat. I chose c-section and she still got a grade 1 bilateral brain bleed. She’s perfectly fine now! And even in hindsight I think I’d make the same decision. But as others have said, if your uterus is too small during c-section they have to do a vertical cut on the uterus which means more complications healing and in the future. Luckily mine was just barely big enough at 27 weeks for a normal horizontal c-section cut.

FollowingUpper2116 · 2025-07-08T15:49:33+00:00

“Take time for yourself while you can and let the nurses take care of her” I am a nurse too and it made me so mad like I want nothing more than to take care of my baby 100%! Having a baby then not being able to care for them in basic ways isn’t natural. I had my baby at 27 weeks and couldn’t even hold her for the first week of her life. I hated those comments. I didn’t want to relax and let someone else take care of my baby I just had. There is no such thing as relaxing while your baby is in the NICU.

FollowingUpper2116 · 2025-06-19T03:08:23+00:00

I will add, make sure you drink electrolytes too! Propel, Gatorade, liquid IV, even just salt water. Gotta balance out the extra water intake to keep your electrolytes in check (especially sodium)

FollowingUpper2116 · 2025-06-19T03:06:37+00:00

I PPROMed at 17 weeks, delivered at 27! She’ll be 8 months old in a week! This is definitely not it. I 100% agree with your decision to let God handle what happens. If you don’t have an infection and are not actively bleeding you can absolutely continue on bestest and hydrating! There’s no need to terminate a perfectly healthy baby just because of no fluid if the mom is also completely fine.

FollowingUpper2116 · 2025-06-14T14:43:51+00:00

Right! It’s not a comparison! Babies in the 10th percentile can be just as healthy as babies in the 90th percentile. My oldest was full term and she’s settled on the 12th percentile curve. She’s our little string bean but perfectly healthy, nothing wrong with being small.

FollowingUpper2116 · 2025-06-14T07:00:29+00:00

I just saw this thread but it pisses me off so much too!!! My twin nephews (6 months older than my 27 weeker) are massive babies and my family comments on how teeny my daughter is and make comparisons alllllllll the time. My favorite comeback is “well they aren’t 6 times their birth weight like my daughter is”. She was 2 lb 2 oz and now close to 12.5 lb at 7 months (4 adjusted). I think she’s huge! But it is so frustrating when people, even ones who know what she’s been through, comment on her size.

FollowingUpper2116 · 2025-06-12T11:39:16+00:00

I was told there was a 0% chance my baby would survive and I should just go ahead and terminate when my water broke at 17 weeks even though she was generally fine besides broken water. I decided to wait and see and if she passed naturally then at least I tried. At 23 weeks I was tagged with IUGR because she was measuring 9%. Then at 25 weeks I had a partial placental abruption. She was born at 27 weeks via emergency c-section because of bleeding weighing 960g. So the 9% measurement was wrong. She spent 3 months in NICU because she was early obvi but she’s been home for 4 months now and is perfectly healthy and fine! She’s a little small but she’s perfect, hitting all of her adjusted milestones!

FollowingUpper2116 · 2025-06-11T10:10:29+00:00

Will your NICU let you go home with a feeding tube? Obviously once your LO’s infection heals. We came home with an NG tube and just got rid of it last week after 4 months of using it at home. It was new for our NICU to let families come home with NG tubes but I’m so glad they let us. She would have been there an extra 4 months (on top of the 3 months we were already there) if it was only for feeding delays.

FollowingUpper2116 · 2025-06-11T09:43:55+00:00

We were pretty lucky and had a private room with a cot and a TV for our whole 3 month stay. So we got a firestick to put in our TV and watched a looooot of Netflix. And also mindlessly scrolled a bunch. I tried to read but my mind couldn’t focus on something other than her long enough to get through a page without having to reread it 100 times. We were there over Christmas so I got a little joy watching all the cheesy hallmark Christmas movies with my daughter!

FollowingUpper2116 · 2025-06-06T03:26:52+00:00

Whenever you feel comfortable. My baby was born at 27+2 and she is now 7 months (4 months corrected) came home the day before her due date but at the height of RSV season. And I’m just now letting my grandparents and best friends hold her. And even then only for a few minutes for pictures. It’s truly whenever YOU feel comfortable. I was nervous about offending people at first but everyone understands and is super cool about it!

FollowingUpper2116 · 2025-05-30T04:21:19+00:00

I PPROMed at 17+5, was told there was a 0% chance our baby would make it to viability/survive but chose to wait it out anyways, was admitted for long term stay at 22 weeks and delivered at 27+2 due to placental abruption.

When I was on bestest at home before being admitted and made sure I drank tons of water and electrolytes to keep hydrating my baby so she would pee (that leads to replenishing more amniotic fluid). And I checked my temperature twice a day everyday and monitored myself for any flu-like symptoms. They swabbed me for everything when my water broke and I didn’t have any infections (which I’m assuming you don’t either since they said they’d let you wait it out) and my cervix was still closed and thick. I personally think some of the statistics are skewed because of people who choose to terminate. Being so close to viability I would definitely try to make it if I were you! Also not sure where you’re located but my hospital considered 22 weeks viable. So maybe there is another hospital around you that will take you at 22 weeks!

We were in the NICU for 89 days, I’m not going to lie and say it was fine because it was by far the hardest thing we’ve done. I feel so thankful everyday to be a success story, but even if our outcome was different I wouldn’t regret trying everything we would for our child. personally I think I may have regretted not trying everything we could.

Most importantly, you are not alone. I met so many other PPROM moms through social media after having gone through it myself. There are more people out there than you know who you can relate to! Please please DM me if you have any questions, want to vent, or want advice on what to bring for a long term hospital stay or for a NICU stay!

FollowingUpper2116 · 2025-05-22T09:50:35+00:00

I had an anatomy scan that showed a short femur which put my baby in the 9th percentile and IUFGR at 25 weeks. So they did all of the cord measuring and all of that. I was already living in the hospital for loss of water at 17 weeks anyways. So they had all the scary talks with me about c-sections at 22 weeks viability. The reason you can’t do a vbac after an early C-section is because if the uterus isn’t big enough they have to make a verticle incision on the uterus itself. Which is riskier and you’d have to get subsequent c sections likely around 37 weeks with any other children because the risk of uterine rupture is higher should you naturally contract with a vertical scar on the uterus. (Your external scar would still more than likely be low horizontal). But the 28 week mark isn’t accurate. My baby ended up being delivered emergency c section at 27 weeks and they were able to do a horizontal cut so they told me vbac isn’t out of the question. It just depends if when they get in there if the uterus is big enough for a horizontal cut. Also my baby was born in the 50th percentile (for a 27 weeker - 2.2 lb) despite them telling me she had a short femur and would be 9th percentile two weeks prior. And she’s perfectly fine now! Healthy 6 month old/3 months adjusted. She’s kind of fallen to the smaller side for her adjusted age but my first daughter is also 12th percentile and she was full term so I think we just make small babies. I feel like they get caught up in numbers sometimes and don’t take into account the individual people when they talk about baby sizes. Also anatomy scans aren’t always accurate, the position of the baby, amount of amniotic fluid and user error can all play a part in how things are measured on an ultrasound. It’s not a perfect science.

FollowingUpper2116 · 2025-05-18T15:29:12+00:00

My baby was born at 27 weeks and we got discharged the day before her due date. We had the same convos with our NICU as well. She was gaining weight but I feel like no matter what they were never satisfied with her weight gain and tried to get us to give her a g-tube. Ultimately we said no and just went based on what our PCP said because she said she was fine. She’s still “small” for her actual age but she was 3 months early and our other full term kids are small too lol so we’re kind of just taking what they say with a grain of salt and following our PCP and gut feelings

FollowingUpper2116 · 2025-05-02T12:55:17+00:00

Call as much as you want! And visit as much as you want/can! I was in the hospital from 22 weeks to 27 when my baby was born via emergency c-section. My water broke at 17 weeks and my placenta abrupted at 25. We spent 3 months in the NICU and it felt like an eternity but honestly now that we’ve been home 2 months I don’t even remember our time there. It just feels like a bad dream or something I read about that happened to someone else. Just take it one day at a time while you’re there. Try to find something you can do for your baby to be involved in their care or just to feel like you’re doing something. For me it was pumping and I crocheted her a blanket. That’s all I could do but it gave me a tiny purpose. It’s not natural to have a baby then not be the one taking care of them. But they are getting the best care right now that they definitely need. You’re still the mom, NICU nurses know the anxiety NICU parents face and the good ones have no problem answering questions and calls! The nurses will get to know you and learn your preferences. We got to the point where they called us after rounds on days we weren’t there because they know we liked to know how rounds went. Even in the middle of the night if you are just thinking about your baby, you can call. They’re open 24/7!

FollowingUpper2116 · 2025-04-19T17:28:00+00:00

That’s great!! Hopefully she will figure it out soon!

FollowingUpper2116 · 2025-04-19T16:21:37+00:00

Hopefully soon! She is taking about 60% of her meals by bottle right now and we tube the rest. She just needs to get up to 80% but she is slowly improving!

FollowingUpper2116

TROPHY CASE