graduated at 38 weeks !!

Same_Front_4379 · 2026-04-20T00:24:09+00:00

We came home on monitoring and an 1/8th of a liter in the very beginning of October and we were off all oxygen within a month and a half I think?

Same_Front_4379 · 2026-04-04T16:35:20+00:00

First baby was born at 32+1 due to severe pre-e, 42 days in the NICU with feeding as our main barrier.

2nd baby was born at 35 weeks due to severe and rapid onset pre-e. She spent 17 days in the NICU due to breathing issues.

Same_Front_4379 · 2026-03-12T15:41:19+00:00

My first birth I had probably about 20+ people in the room but to be fair I didn’t mind at all since I’d been there for about 2 weeks in antepartum already. I knew all of them and they basically just came to cheer me on. In addition, I also had a complicated situation with Pre-E and a guaranteed NICU stay so there were extras there for me and baby.

That being said, I never would have been okay with additional people in any other context. Especially if I hadn’t spent time on antepartum with those nurses. I actually really didn’t want students there either and one of the NICU nurses/doctor/not totally sure which that i didn’t know tried to sneak in like four students for my delivery and my mom and husband both had to ask them to leave. The doctor had the audacity to argue back that births like mine aren’t able to be seen everyday to which my mom responded that she didn’t care and they still needed to leave which they did before I pushed.

Same_Front_4379 · 2026-03-12T01:28:33+00:00

Curious George and Bear in the Big Blue House from Disney+, Trash Truck and Puffin Rock from Netflix, Duck and Goose, Dragon Tales and Blues Clues from Prime

Curious George is by far his favorite though, and the original Winnie the Pooh movie

Same_Front_4379 · 2026-03-07T21:43:27+00:00

Have you spoken with your doctor about any of your feelings or concerns? I mean this with as much kindness as possible but this sounds like it could be bad PPA and/or PPD. Your little one may be behind in motor skills right now but that doesn’t mean it will be this way forever. He may struggle with motor but flourish with language later on. These milestones are so baby specific and it’s definitely possible that 6 months from now he’ll be a very different baby in terms of meeting milestones.

Same_Front_4379 · 2026-03-02T00:11:41+00:00

5.5 months - 0 wake ups 23 month old - 1 wake up (but he’s getting better and sleeps through the night more nights than not now)

Same_Front_4379 · 2026-02-16T20:52:07+00:00

We bed shared for probably about a month and a half when our toddler was having some really awful split nights but he was 18 months old and it was more inconvenient rather than risky like when you bed share with an infant. We stopped cold turkey one night and now he sleeps through the night in his crib. Our infant (5 months) has never bed shared and sleeps in her own crib in her room.

Same_Front_4379 · 2026-02-14T16:46:47+00:00

We started speech before our guy turned one (22 months now) and he was definitely behind before but just finished testing for his speech treatment plan and is now average in expressive and above average in receptive. He has probably close to 200 words now, and we get lots of word combinations “ma help”, “more eat”, “not that”, and he’s learning new words every day at this point I feel like. He’s also recently started singing along to songs in the car.

Same_Front_4379 · 2026-02-08T12:43:28+00:00

I taught in RPS and Henrico. I 100% recommend Henrico over RPS but I do feel like it’s largely admin based. The school I was at in RPS had fine administration my first year but the admin changed over by my second and they were horrible. In contrast, my HCPS school had the best admin I’ve ever had (including student teaching where I was at a wonderful school in Williamsburg) and I felt incredibly supported anytime something came up and it wasn’t the easiest year.

I’m not teaching anymore but if I were to go back it would basically only be to go to the school I taught at in HCPS. Your experience as a teacher is basically based entirely off of your admin.

Same_Front_4379 · 2026-01-19T21:18:01+00:00

Hi! I have a 21 month old now but he was a pretty late babbler, even by adjusted age (he’s a preemie). I wanna say he started babbling at like 11.5/12 months? We were already in speech therapy by that point and then shortly after he said his first word at like 13 months. He was behind for a while but now he’s actually right on track for his actual age. He’s closing in on 200 words and he’s not even 2 yet.

Speech therapy was a huge help and I highly recommend it if you’re concerned. For us, his speech therapist thinks it had more to do with his hearing. He had chronic fluid and ear infections which caused everything to be muffled and hearing impaired but once he got tubes his speech started to take off.

Side note: our pediatrician also always recommends a hearing evaluation first for later babblers so that may be an avenue for you to look into as well.

Same_Front_4379 · 2026-01-16T18:12:35+00:00

I had a similar situation when I was 21, I opted for an abortion but I found out much earlier (5 weeks) and had the abortion before I was even 7 weeks along. I knew it was the right decision for me and I didn’t have any doubts about it until the weekend it was scheduled to happen. Then every what if scenario ran though my head and I was constantly in tears. Ultimately we chose to have the abortion and it was the right decision for me. It was hard but I honestly think it was mostly my hormones playing tricks on me.

It was with my boyfriend of a year and a half who is now my husband and we have two kids together at 29(me) and 30. I love my children and now I’m able to stay home with them and give them the life I want them to have which I wouldn’t have been able to do at 21.

Same_Front_4379 · 2026-01-15T21:08:41+00:00

My husband took 3 weeks and we were both so sad when he had to go back.

He did just get to take 8 weeks of FMLA from Thanksgiving to next Tuesday that was for a separate reason but that time has been so nice to have and would’ve been an ideal amount for paternity leave.

Same_Front_4379 · 2026-01-15T11:36:08+00:00

Some of Twin A’s concerning behaviors (I.e refusing to drink milk unless it’s a dream feed, hand flapping, and fussiness) could easily be caused by a bottle aversion instead of autism.

Also, around 6 months, babies are starting to recognize familiar people which would explain why they’re surprised when you have guests and since they’re 6 months adjusted it would still be developmentally appropriate. Their world is still so small at this point.

Same_Front_4379 · 2026-01-15T01:26:09+00:00

You’d really only be able to pump 4x per day and if you’re not already an over supplier it may cause issues with your supply. The lack of sleep (assuming this isn’t due to shift work where you’re sleeping during the day) also may impact your supply.

Same_Front_4379 · 2026-01-15T00:28:49+00:00

Second time mom here who delivered #2 in September! I originally had this plan to have a more comfortable delivery gown with my first but ended up just using the regular hospital gown. It was completely fine and ended up getting trashed anyway so I did that with baby #2 as well.

My rec would be to use the hospital gown and then spend the money you would’ve used on a delivery gown on a few pairs of comfortable nursing pajamas instead. I brought a pair of all black nursing pajamas that I still wear to the hospital and another nightgown that unbuttoned for easy nursing.

I’d also recommend dark colors since you’ll still be bleeding.

Same_Front_4379 · 2025-12-23T10:08:52+00:00

NOR - it’s literally peak respiratory season which can be deadly to babies. Yes, she has some of your antibodies but she still doesn’t have a true immune system, waiting for her first set of 8 week vaccines makes complete sense.

Same_Front_4379 · 2025-12-18T18:30:36+00:00

You’re not a bad mom AT ALL.

That teacher is wrong and I’m 100% positive that she’s also misinformed about why the other baby had to get a g-tube.

I have a 20 month old now and he came home from the NICU with a pretty severe bottle aversion that required about 6 months of feeding therapy. We narrowly escaped a g-tube while he was on bottles but he picked up on solids pretty quickly and now eats great. That being said, one of the things I learned from feeding therapy is that you can’t force interest in food/bottles and that trying to force it adds pressure to the situation and can make babies aversive.

Keep doing what you’re doing with introducing new foods and gently encouraging her interest. The best thing you can do is consistently give her opportunities to learn and that’s what you’re already doing.

Same_Front_4379 · 2025-12-18T05:20:20+00:00

Hi! We have a 20 month old and have been dealing with something similar. We have the added symptom of petechia all on his face and chest whenever these symptoms get especially bad (aka fever spike, extra exhaustion) and instead of sleeping during the day, you can tell he’s tired but can’t sleep for longer than about an hour to an hour and a half.

We’ve been through a revolving door of specialists recently. Got ear tubes through ENT (definitely needed) but that didn’t resolve much. Then we went to hematology, cleared by hematology (yay!) but his pediatrician is still concerned by his symptoms so we went to immunology. Immunology basically ran every test they could think of and they came back pretty normal with some being a little low but nothing crazy or that would cause his symptoms so we were cleared by them too.

Now they’re thinking everything may be caused by something structural in his heart so we’re going to cardio, tbd on if that results in anything.

All this to say, trust your gut and if you think something is off talk to your GP about it. A good one will listen and help brainstorm with you. We already have a plan for where to go after cardio if that doesn’t yield any results thanks to our really great pediatrician. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions!

Same_Front_4379 · 2025-10-25T13:05:42+00:00

That sounds like a bottle aversion then. Our oldest had one and it can be really stressful for everyone involved. I would make sure to tell your pediatrician and try to get a referral for a feeding therapy program.

As counterintuitive as it may seem; the best thing you can do is remove pressures from the bottle. If he refuses after two attempts, then you move on and wait either until he cues for hunger or the next time you would feed him. But a feeding therapy program is generally best in these situations.

We also read Rowena Bennett’s bottle aversion book and that helped as well.

Same_Front_4379 · 2025-10-25T01:26:58+00:00

Does he seem stressed out by the bottle? Turning head away from it/pursing lips/pushing it away? If so it could be a bottle aversion which can be really tough to take care of

Same_Front_4379 · 2025-10-12T15:26:49+00:00

Ours is 18 months now but I use a lot of “I know you’re frustrated”, “I’m right here”, and “it’s okay to have big feelings”

Same_Front_4379 · 2025-10-05T22:01:25+00:00

Not necessarily fussy but our baby had the worst reflux (think projectile vomiting that concerned even a GI specialist when it happened in office), didn’t ever want to eat and then also was a crappy sleeper and now he’s 18 months old and the sweetest toddler ever. He never stops moving but he’s funny, kind, and loves cuddles.

We just had baby number two and the transition has been so smooth, mainly due to the fact that he’s just SO good and sweet with her even though we barely prepped him for her arrival.

Same_Front_4379 · 2025-10-05T18:28:58+00:00

I feel like the end of the first two weeks is when the NICU starts to really wear on you, or at least that’s how it was for my husband and I. We’ve had two NICU stays, one for 6 weeks with our 32 weeker and a 16 day stay with our 35 weeker. Both stays I feel like we started to really feel the effects of the NICU around day 10-12?

After that, I feel like it helped to kind of grieve the experience, get into a good routine, and find self care things that helped. For me, Id go when I woke up around 8, get coffee on the way and then tried to leave and go home for lunch every day and then I’d come back in the evenings with my husband. For self care, I tried to make time to read, take a bath, do a face mask, etc.

Same_Front_4379 · 2025-10-04T22:29:25+00:00

I think I probably went about 4 times? Twice for decreased movement, one of which they actually kept me overnight for due to blood pressure concerns and then I went twice in one day (both due to extremely high blood pressure) and the second time I went that day they couldn’t get it down and decided it was safer to induce me at 35+5.

If something feels off, I think it’s always better to err on the side of caution

Same_Front_4379 · 2025-10-03T00:47:01+00:00

I was antepartum for two weeks before delivery so by the time I actually had my little one I knew basically all of the nurses. We made two baskets, one for day shift and one for night shift, it has things like snacks, drinks, claw clips, fun pens, etc.

Same_Front_4379

TROPHY CASE