Born at 27.5 Weeks

[mauchow]

My wife is 26.5 weeks along and has had a few issues along the way. Shes been on modified bed rest for the past few weeks and no working completely for the past month+. Last night we headed back to the hospital for some cramping and contractions. Our first baby we had four weeks early with preterm labor at 32 weeks.

We are hoping at this point to get an additional four weeks but who knows at this point. Shes going to be in hospital for at least four days.

Ah this sucks. Have any of you dealt with this ?

[Logan]

Not personally, but a friend's sister who I know decently well was on pretty long term bed rest with her twin girls. She ended up making it to where they wanted her to get, and the girls are a little over 2 now and extremely cute and healthy.

Best of luck to you, your wife, and baby. You'll all be in my thoughts.

[MacroGuru]

My oldest, she wanted to come into the world at 25 weeks, my ex was in the hospital for a week and they pumped her full of steroids to help promote the growth of the baby because it looked like nothing was stopping her coming out. Ex was ordered on bed rest for the last 14 weeks. It hurt financially, but was well worth it. I became the house husband as well as the full time worker...it was rough.

Well, they kept her on the one IV medicine to stop contractions (I forget the name) and everything stopped after a week and then she carried full term.

When she arrived she was healthy as can be at around the 40th week.

[Butter]

Not quite that premature, but my wife had different complications with each baby. The first, she had the whole bedrest thing with pre-eclampsia, and our first ended up coming out at 34.5 weeks after a couple weeks of warding off labor. He was 6 pounds, 10 oz, but ended up being in the NICU for a week because he was pretty badly jaundiced and had problem keeping his own body temperature up.

With the second, she didn't have pre-eclampsia, but did have gestational diabetes, so was on a lot of diet restrictions. He ended up going to term but was a C-section due to his size, 8 pounds, 10 oz. on that 2nd child.

Good luck!

[spleen1015]

No experience with sort of thing so no words of wisdom.

I wish you and your wife all of the luck in the world, man.

[Kodos]

Good luck. Pregnancies are filled with apprehension until the babies come out. Best of luck to you and your wife.

[AnalBumCover]

Originally Posted by MacroGuru

My oldest, she wanted to come into the world at 25 weeks, my ex was in the hospital for a week and they pumped her full of steroids to help promote the growth of the baby because it looked like nothing was stopping her coming out. Ex was ordered on bed rest for the last 14 weeks. It hurt financially, but was well worth it. I became the house husband as well as the full time worker...it was rough.

Well, they kept her on the one IV medicine to stop contractions (I forget the name) and everything stopped after a week and then she carried full term.

When she arrived she was healthy as can be at around the 40th week.

Similar thing with a friend of mine. She was ordered on hospital bed rest very early in her pregnancy. Her husband was extremely supportive. There was actually an article about them on Parenting.com

[AnalBumCover]

Dola

Best wishes to you and your family. Please keep us up to date.

[CU Tiger]

Luckily we never dealt with those issues, my wife had to be induced with both 10+lb'ers

That said, you guys are in my thoughts and prayers, nothing gets me more than baby stories.

[JAG]

Sorry to hear Mau. I don't have much experience with that level of pregnancy issues, but I'm sending good thoughts to you and your family.

[mauchow]

Wifes doing well after 24 hours. Her mom is coming up from Atlanta to make life easy on us thank goodness. If we can get through this week and bring her home I'm gonna call it a win. Then she can just lay down at home and have her mom and me doing everything to ensure she adds another few weeks to the baby in womb. I am reading the best number to get to is 30 weeks at this point. 28 would be okay but our little one is on the small side as it is so I'd like to get to 30 where then I could relax a little more. The baby would not need to be hauled out of town an hour away if he\she got there.

I'm going on two hours of sleep and her fewer than me so... h opefully she gets some good sleep tonight.

[Swaggs]

My son was born at 30-weeks and spent his first 36-days in the NICU. I have a considerable amount of education in early childhood development and would be happy to answer any questions you might have (either via PM or here).

Generally, the things to keep an eye on at this age are lung and eye development. At some point, they will probably want to give your wife a steroid shot to help with lung development. If things go well, the baby will still probably have to spend awhile in the NICU until he/she is able to maintain body temperature, develop a suck reflex for feeding (will probably need a NG tube for feeding), and gain some weight. We were told that a good rule of thumb, if there are no other health concerns, is to expect for the child to be in the NICU until close to its projected birth (37-40 weeks).

[mauchow]

And it's official, my wife will stay in the hospital indefinitely. The cervix measured in at 1.7 CM so it shrunk a CM in just a few days. Her spirits are still high all things considered. Reading up on things it sounds like if things go well, the cervix could still stabilize and actually stay the same for a while and still go a long ways. I tend to be the optimistic person so..

Her mom being the wonderful mom will be driving in from Atlanta to stay for at least a few weeks to watch our 2 year old while I will get to continue to work and visit the hospital a few times a day. Fun stuff. I'm just glad that our insurance will be covering everything, knock on wood, after we reach the $2500 deductible ($1000 of which will be paid through my employer).

[saldana]

hope all goes well mau! your family will be in my thoughts.

[AnalBumCover]

Long term hospital stays will take a toll on your wife. Make sure you bring her lots of stuff to keep her entertained. When my friend was under hospital bedrest during her pregnancy, she asked all her fb friends suggestions on how to spend her time. There were some ideas such as doing puzzle books, doing crafty stuff, catching up on movies and tv series on Netflix, learning a new language with Rosetta Stone, etc.

Best of luck mauchow. It'll be a long journey, but well worth it.

[Chief Rum]

Hey, mau, I am keeping you and your family in my thoughts and prayers. Hope everything goes well.

[Router Help]

My daughter was born at 32.5 weeks last February. She came out perfectly healthy at 4lbs 10 oz. We were in the NICU for 9 days I think.

I got to know some of the other parents there and saw some of the other babies that were born much much earlier. I know it can be very scary, but those nurses and doctors can do some amazing things.

Edit: had the wrong # of weeks there

[mauchow]

Water broke today. Still no contractions so no imminent delivery. Could be today a few days or weeks.

Not very fun though. 27 weeks n 2 days. We want to know the sex of baby now for last week but have been unable to find out...

[mauchow]

An eventful night as Leah Ann came into the world at 27 weeks and 4 days. 1lb 14oz. Mom is doing well after c section. Baby is also doing very well upstairs. They already turned oxygen help off and shes doing great. Will be off vent before we know it I bet. Two-three days.

[DaddyTorgo]

Glad to hear all are doing well so far mauchow. Congrats to you and your wife!

[albionmoonlight]

Originally Posted by mauchow

An eventful night as Leah Ann came into the world at 27 weeks and 4 days. 1lb 14oz. Mom is doing well after c section. Baby is also doing very well upstairs. They already turned oxygen help off and shes doing great. Will be off vent before we know it I bet. Two-three days.

Congratulations, and prayers for continued good health and development!

[hoopsguy]

Great to hear that all are healthy. Congratulations!

[JAG]

Congrats, glad to hear everyone's doing as well as can be expected.

[Logan]

Best of luck to you guys, hoping she gets out of there soon!

[MacroGuru]

Congrats and Prayers will be said for continued positive vibes.

[ISiddiqui]

Congrats! Praying that all turns out well!

[TroyF]

congrats!!!

[Sun Tzu]

My thoughts mirror everyone else's here. Positive vibes and well wishes your way, Mau.

Also, congratulations!

[spleen1015]

Sending positive thoughts your way, Mau.

[Chief Rum]

Congrats, mau!

[mauchow]

Originally Posted by Chief Rum

Congrats, mau!

I do not accept as you failed in your reincarnation and died again in the duel! Just kidding.

Thanks everyone.

[JAG]

Originally Posted by mauchow

I do not accept as you failed in your reincarnation and died again in the duel!.

I was going to ask if Leah Ann was really her name or a fake reveal.

[mauchow]

Well I was hoping for a boy! But I still bawled when I heard she was a girl.

The progress in just hours is pretty remarkable. They're already talking about taking her off vent tonight. Shes tough as hell already!

[britrock88]

Originally Posted by JAG

I was going to ask if Leah Ann was really her name or a fake reveal.

[Kodos]

Congratulations! I hope you get to take her home soon.

[mauchow]

Anticipated take home date will probably be late April at the earliest.

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by mauchow

I do not accept as you failed in your reincarnation and died again in the duel! Just kidding.

Thanks everyone.

Haha, tell me about it! I couldn't hit the broadside of a barn at the end there, although I was money early on.

[mauchow]

It took a whole 12 hours for them to extubate(off the ventilator) Leah. Shes been a rockstar off it and has had two bouts of apnea (holding her breath) which she got over quickly.

[Lathum]

STRONG LIKE BULL!!!!!!!

[law90026]

Congrats and so glad to hear everything is going well!

[mauchow]

I think this was two nights ago.

She is still doing very well and really no hiccups in the road at this point except with me and my irritation of the night nurse.. but that's a different story.

[lighthousekeeper]

wonderful news!

[M GO BLUE!!!]

Wow!

[BYU 14]

Awesome news! Continued good vibes being sent!

[JonInMiddleGA]

Oh my. Grrl power

Congrats & all the best to you all.

[JPhillips]

She's beautiful. Amazing what the doctors can do.

[cougarfreak]

Awesome for you and your family!

[vex]

Congrats, mauchow!

We went through a fairly similar situation back in 2009 with our son, Ezra, who was born at 25 weeks and is as perfect as can be now. Glad to hear that she is doing so well!

[Dodgerchick]

Aww she's so sweet! Congrats!

[terpkristin]

And some say females are the weaker sex....

She's beautiful. And obviously one hell of a fighter. Congrats!

/tk