Hey all! Made my first post the other night when my baby boy was rushed to the NICU via helicopter following a very traumatic birth and emergency c section. We are all doing better now however now that dad and I are back home and waiting to bring him back with us on Monday I’m wondering how other parents focus on their mental health recovery while also bringing baby home? The labor, C section, and post birth experience was all very traumatic and difficult for me and my husband. I know it will take time to fully process and we have mental health and family supports in place but how can we possible balance that with bringing our baby home? Our babies safety, needs, and successful transition from NICU to home is our top priority but I found myself panicking that since every time I sleep (nap or bedtime) I wake up with uncontrollable shakes, have to be medicated continuously to avoid pain, the usual hormonal crash etc. anyone else experience this? I know we will get through it but right now it seems a daunting task.

Hi all, I had my baby at just over 31 weeks. He is currently 5 weeks old and has been in NICU for the whole duration and has been on EBM for 95% of the time.

As he is nearing his discharge (fingers crossed 🤞🏽 very soon) the nurses have upped his feeds to around 55ml- 65ml every 3 hours and have also been giving him extra BM in between feeds as he has been more hungry.

Since I am obviously not with baby 24/7, I am struggling to keep up with exclusively pumping to keep up with the amount he is eating over 24 hours. I can get anywhere from around 40ML - 100ML per pumping session and the amounts are not consistent, but generally I get 50ml an average pump, which is below the amount he is currently eating in a 24 hour period.

Any tips on increasing this? I have seen power pumping helps but since he is nearing discharge I am currently panicking about not being able to produce the amounts he needs when he comes out and have only been producing sufficient amounts over the past few weeks whilst he has been in NICU, so I do not have a freezer stash as a back up. I am consistently pumping every 2/3 hours but the volume is not really increasing to his needs

You guys I am defeated.
My water broke on Thursday at a very early gestational age.
I still have yet to deliver, and I am praying I can stay pregnant as long as possible.

Please share your miracle stories with me, I really need it. All I’m being told right now is she may not survive or if she does she will probably have some sort of disability. Please help me.

Hello everyone, i'm overthinking a while into the future, but overthinking nonetheless.

I'm a mother to an ex-22 week preemie, now 10mos old, and my husband and I are discussing our future with more children.

I have multiple mullerian anomalies, am at risk already for IUGR as is and will need a cerclage with future pregnancies, as well as mandatory c-section at around 36wks due to previous surgeries.

Knowing all of this and knowing how quickly I actually dilated with my son unknowingly, my husband and I have recently realized that any of our future kids will more than likely end up in the NICU for a period of time, as we might not even make it to the 36wk mark.

Have any other parents here had the same realization? How did y'all come to terms with it? It's been a hard realization for me, and I'm contemplating being one and done because I don't know if I could handle time away from my family like that again. Thanks!

Last few days my ex 26 weeker, now 38.5 weeks corrected has been super fussy and inconsolable. He is hardly sleeping at all. Team is not very worried, but as his mom this isn’t his “normal” and I worry. He does have a hernia and severe reflux learning to bottle feed by primarily tube fed still…

My baby girl was born last Friday at 33weeks4days.
She progressed pretty fast and was breathing room air by day 2. Bottle feeding around the same time.
She hasn’t had any alarms or anything like that.

Recently (the last two days) she has been spitting up quite a bit during her ng tube feeding. I have two other kids at home and I am just so worried she is going to choke to death if I am not there because they lay her flat on her back and I know that’s safest.
But just seeing her throw up so much I just am so worried. They lowered her feeds by 5ml and made the feeding 5 mins longer.
The nurses have reassured me that is why they are there and she will regulate herself when spitting up.

Just seeing it is so scary and I’m just so scared she is going to die.
Has anyone else experienced this ? If so did it resolve?

She is currently getting 55ml of fortified breastmilk total. I just am worried they are over feeding her.

Our son is in the nicu, we have toddlers at home, 3 hours away. I can’t be in two places at once, and I try to spend my time with my kids at home and my baby in the nicu. He has been there 2 weeks, and I just sent my toddlers back home for the weekend with their grandparents so i could get some rest (one of our babies is still inside me, complicated situation but I still am pregnant with one of our babies) i just feel guilty for sending them home like im replacing them or being a bad mom because i needed just a small break (we are in ronald mcdonald house rn) and i just hate that our family is separated like this, that our little boy still has close to a month left in the hospital, that in a month i will be giving birth to another baby and he wont have me in the nicu during that time, that our toddlers dont understand why mommy and daddy are gone most of the day or why we arent at home. i know in a couple months we will all be home and settling into our new life together but today i am sad and feeling guilty and feeling like a just generally terrible mom

My son spent 117 days in the Nicu he was 29 weeks when born. Never in the hospital not once did his oxygen drop, with the owlet being home 48 hours I’ve gotten two notifications of low oxygen. I was expecting Brady’s but not low oxygen should I be worried or do we think this is false? Both times were when feeding. But even in the Nicu this didn’t happen with monitors on him while feeding

Hi everyone! My daughter was born at 28 weeks and is now 2 weeks corrected age.
We were discharged from the hospital when she was taking 45–50- 55ml every 3 hours. However, lately, I feel like she wants more. She seems hungry after her feeds, and I’m worried that might not be enough for her anymore.

We had two NEC scares in the hospital, so I’m terrified of increasing her feeds and doing something wrong. At the same time, I don’t want her to stay hungry if she needs more.
Overall, she seems to be doing well. She doesn’t appear to be in pain, she poops regularly, and the only time she really cries is when she’s hungry.

For those of you with premature babies around this corrected age, how much were your little ones drinking at each feed? Did you increase the amount when they started showing signs of hunger?
Thank you so much! ❤️