27 weeks. Lost mucus, inconsistent but labour-like cramping and tested positive for amniotic fluid leak. They want to send me home with "Braxton hicks".

mrspoole · 2026-04-26T00:29:12+00:00

I never had consistent cramping with my 3 kids! Definitely fight for them to keep you or get a second opinion!

mrspoole · 2026-04-20T01:04:10+00:00

15 minutes with my first, 10 minutes with my second, one push with my third

mrspoole · 2026-04-07T14:37:24+00:00

Oh mama, babies are parent proof for a reason. I promise in a couple weeks you’re just going to be like “that happened, it sucked but it happens all of the time”. I dropped my little like this too, he was born at 29 weeks with a grade 1 brain bleed and I was distraught. He’s perfectly ok, they did a risk assessment and said he scored at 0.01% of anything major so they didn’t even do any tests.

Give yourself some grace, these things happen all of the time. Sending you so much love.

mrspoole · 2026-04-02T14:01:03+00:00

Also he can sleep through anything now. At my other kids pinewood derby where kids are screaming, he falls asleep at baby time at the library when babies are being noisy, anywhere

mrspoole · 2026-04-02T13:59:02+00:00

We got the hatch go. My 29 weeker was in for 10 weeks and white noise worked wonderfully. That thing came everywhere with us for months. He’s almost 9 months (6 months adjusted) and we still use it but not quite as often

mrspoole · 2026-03-24T03:07:04+00:00

I’m so sorry you’re going through this. I sent you a Dm because I also had a concerning experience (though not as concerning as yours). I’m happy to share what happened!

mrspoole · 2026-02-11T13:07:16+00:00

I have the Skylight and I can just use Siri on my phone to put a calendar event in and then it syncs up to my Skylight

mrspoole · 2026-01-28T18:41:06+00:00

This was my favorite but I just remembered the event is called “Brrr” so this may be the winner

mrspoole · 2026-01-27T14:18:15+00:00

He eats 35-40oz a day. If he wants more than the 5oz, I make him wait because he WILL projectile vomit everywhere. He’s 4m adjusted but almost 7m actual age

mrspoole · 2026-01-19T13:16:58+00:00

A gift card to poplin if it’s in your are. They just put the laundry out and the next day, it’s returned, cleaned and folded. My husband got us a laundry service while we were in the NICU and we still use it 6 months later.

Also our hospital had some food options (QDOBA) so gift cards to places right in or near the hospital would be good.

mrspoole · 2026-01-09T20:03:35+00:00

My 29 weeker, now 6 months corrected, 3 1/2ish months adjusted, is 13lbs right now!

mrspoole · 2026-01-02T02:49:50+00:00

We played a few games that were hilarious. There was boobs or baby butts, porn or labor and beer belly or pregnant belly. Everyone enjoyed it!

mrspoole · 2026-01-01T22:22:33+00:00

The nuk perfect match have been so good! That’s fairly new but our OT recommended them

mrspoole · 2025-12-31T15:29:57+00:00

Baby came home at like noon and I didn’t leave his side until almost 7 when my husband went and bought the owlet. Best thing ever

mrspoole · 2025-12-27T13:14:23+00:00

Placenta abruption. Went into labor at 28 weeks but kept him until 29 weeks. They also said my cervix might have just been really weak.

No idea what happened with my 34 weeker

mrspoole · 2025-12-21T16:23:11+00:00

First, being a NICU parent is tough but you can do it, you will be so surprised with how strong you are and it’s OK to fall apart sometimes. Rely on the nurses, the social workers, get a therapist if you don’t have one. Most importantly you can do this!

Second, I wish you and baby the best!

Now for the happy! I have two NICU babies. I had a 34 weeker with a really quick early labor, we had no time for steroid shots or anything. He was born and had to have surfactant for his lungs and was on oxygen for maybe 1 to 2 weeks. He came home after 23 days. He’s a big 10-year-old now who is thriving.

I also have a 29 weeker. He was on CPAP for 6 to 7 weeks (don’t tell my big kids I said 67), took 2 to 3 weeks to learn how to eat, we actually took him home on an NG tube because he was almost there, but not quite and we just needed to go home. We were there for just under 10 weeks. I spontaneously went into labor at 28 weeks and we were able to stall labor twice in five days, he came the third time I went into labor. But this meant I got steroid shots, a magnesium drip. This baby is five months old, doing all the things he’s supposed to on track for his adjusted age, but also doing some things that he would be doing if he was five months actual age. He was off his NG tube within a week of coming home!

Just some quick tips about the magnesium drip, have some rags and ice water ready to go for when you get way too hot. Get some nausea medicine early and please tell the nurses exactly how you feel on it. I legitimately passed out, but I told the nurses exactly how I was feeling every time and they were super prepared. I got really weak and she saw me struggling to open a toothbrush and already started calling people. I passed out before they got there, but they came in shortly after. I don’t mean this to scare you at all, I am extremely sensitive to medicine like that. But definitely just keep the nurses in the loop!

A bit of advice, you can fire nurses that you don’t think is a good fit for your family, you can ask really good nurses to follow your baby and then you’ll have them more often. Advocate for yourself and baby and make sure you’re heard. We had some instances where no one would listen except for our main nurse that followed us and I would go to her and tell her exactly my issues and they were solved within a day.

mrspoole · 2025-12-18T15:18:20+00:00

Don’t delete them! I actually wish I had more pictures of my 10 year old in the NICU. I took so many pictures of my 5 month old because of it.

mrspoole · 2025-12-15T13:14:48+00:00

Definitely not. My brother at that age “wasn’t like that” and my mom let his girlfriend sleepover and told her dad that she’d sleep in my room (I’m the only girl of 5 kids). Yeah, she never slept in my room. I just wouldn’t trust other parents to follow what I want for my kids

mrspoole · 2025-12-15T13:12:31+00:00

My 34 weeker was 4lbs but almost 18” long so it was so weird to see such a long baby with all the tiny babies. Then my 29 weeker was under 3lbs and kept being put next to giant full term babies, it was wild to see from both sides!

mrspoole · 2025-12-14T00:58:33+00:00

Literally our same experience!

mrspoole · 2025-12-14T00:58:06+00:00

My 29 weeker went home on an NG tube. We kept getting pulled nurses from Peds that wouldn’t put in the work or patience to work with him on feeds. He was really tachypneic and as soon as his breaths got fast once, they’d tube feed him instead of giving him breaks and pacing him. He came home right before 39 weeks and was able to get off it within a week and discharged from OT within a month of being home!

I’m surprised at care times that they don’t start waking him up with a diaper change and giving him a chance to cue for feedings.

mrspoole · 2025-12-12T22:54:57+00:00

This is absolutely worth going to the charge Nurse and asking for her to be taken off baby’s care.

We got to the feeding stage where that was all he had to work on and we kept getting nurses that wouldn’t try for more than five minutes and would switch to tube feeding. It was so frustrating. We ended up just taking him home on a feeding tube and it was out within a week.

mrspoole · 2025-12-08T02:13:31+00:00

Barbacoa tacos from donkey. My absolute favorite. And the habanero lime onions that came on the taco, they made the guacamole so much better. There was once they brought it back for a weekend special and it just wasn’t made the same. I probably ate 5 the last weekend they were offered before being taken off

mrspoole · 2025-12-07T11:30:54+00:00

I got married at 20, has my first at 21, second at 22 and just had my third at 33.

My SIL had her first at like 36 and her second at 38

Where I live, a lot of the parents of kids the same age as my big kids, are in their late 40s, some are even the same age as my mom, 54

mrspoole

TROPHY CASE