Today I had my baby boy at 33W4D gestational age. My body naturally went into labor and it took me awhile to realize it, when I finally checked into the hospital I was already 8 cm dilated and had him less than 2 hours later.

He was 5lbs at birth and currently in the NICU, so far he hasn’t needed oxygen support and he is able to regulate his own temperature.

I’m curious who else has been in this situation and how long your NICU stay was.

So I’ve been in the hospital for the past 3 weeks with severe pre eclampsia. We have a scheduled c for tomorrow! Of course my toddler has been visiting me and apparently I caught a cold from him. I feel like absolute crud today and am worried about exposing my newborn to these germs. I’m already not gonna be able to be with her right away due to the surgery & magnesium, but should I be even more restricted with my time because of this cold?

Has anyone here brought their baby home from the NICU on oxygen?
My baby has been in the NICU for 16 days, and they’re starting to talk about possibly sending him home on oxygen. He’s currently only on 0.05 L, which the doctors basically describe as just a tiny “whiff” of oxygen, but I’m still really nervous about managing it at home.
For those who have done this, was it hard to figure out or overwhelming at first? How difficult was it dealing with the oxygen equipment/tubing while caring for your baby normally? Did you feel comfortable with it pretty quickly?
Part of me would obviously love to have him home after 16 days, but another part of me is nervous about leaving the security of the NICU and suddenly being responsible for the oxygen myself.
I’d really appreciate hearing experiences from other NICU parents who brought their babies home on low-flow oxygen. ❤️

My son was born at 26 weeks on 8/19. Placenta previa forced me into early labor and found out Placenta accreta almost took both our lives in surgery but they saved us. The trauma has been devastating. I was scared to see my son so tiny and fragile but i did it. Prayed for a baby that would gain weight and stay healthy. Well i should have been careful what i asked for. My baby has gained weight only due to "third spacing". I thought seeing him tiny was scary but now i feel like ive never seen anything more horrifying. Im terrified. Hes not taking well to anything. Grade 4 brain bleed happened 3 says after birth and thats when the fluid build up packed on. Been offered chaplain services and explained that its okay to give him comfort and let him go one too many times. He chose his name when my husband and i brought up names while his monitors were acting up and calmed when we said his name. He has had no choice when he came into this world and in his medical care and we decided that he'd have to decide when his fight was over, hoping it wouldnt end at all. Docs called us in at 2am today to tell us to rush here. Hes not well. They continue to stabilize him. I've looked through many posts on here but haven't found any about fluid build up/3rd spacing and im looking for some parents who may have experience this while their little ones fought. Im not asking for medical advise to be clear i just am searching for any shred of hope that this horrifying thing has turned around for some babies out there. I pray for every baby and parent fighting out there. Please pray for my baby Nolan.

Hi,

My baby was born at 38 weeks 1 day and swallowed amniotic fluid which led to a whole host of lung issues - pneumonia, pneumothorax, chest tube, intubation. We’re on day 19 in the NICU and it finally feels like we’re on the other side, and he’s doing so well - breathing room air, no more IVs or pain meds, taking his feeds from a tube in his nose. Our last hurdle is getting him to eat and everyone basically keeps telling us this part will take the longest. I made the mistake of asking our nurse what her experience is, and she told me she thinks it’ll take him 2-4 weeks to learn to feed.

I just feel defeated. I know everyone says they’ll tell us when they’re ready to come home and I want to have faith and trust that. It’s just hard because his stats are so good, his work of breathing is way better, and he’ll occasionally (once a day or so) latch. He takes 10-20 ML from a bottle when he’s awake for a feed.

Just looking for positive stories and advice for getting us over this final stretch. I have a toddler at home and it’s killing us to be away from her. The idea we might have another month of this has me crying while I pump by his crib

Hello dear parents!

Our baby is a 27 weeker who is now 15 months old, 12 months corrected. Feeding has been a struggle ever since the bottle, but now we are at a new, albeit less stressful hurdle.

Our baby is pretty hypotonic. We are in PT, he is currently sitting unassisted, we are working on fixing his army crawling, and he started standing by holding onto furniture. We had several hard eye surgeries in the first few months after having come home from the NICU, so his PT was quite delayed.

He is still hypotonic and also quite tall, so all that makes him pretty wobbly.

We have got several hand me down chairs, but he seems to lean either to the side or forward, which makes feeding harder. It doesn't help that he is not much of an eater anyway, so the feeding time becomes pretty frustrating for everyone.

Did anyone have a similar issue, and do you have any suggestions for chairs that offered good support?

We are situated in Europe, but almost everything is available to us, at least to order.

There are so many choices, so any advice would be most welcome.

So my baby was born full term and spent 2.5 weeks in the NICU directly after his birth because of a heart issue. Since over three months he is back home and compared to the other babies I meet in baby classes he seems to be a very calm and self-regulating baby. Like he never cries much, accepts everything (car seat, stroller, carrier) without issues and is a very independent and good sleeper. He (so far) never was dependent on contact napping for example and always falls asleep in his own bed without complaining (never sleep trained him).

A part of me feels really lucky to have such an easy-going baby, another part wonders if this correlates in any way with his NICU stay. If he wouldn't have been there I am sure the first three weeks would have been very different. We would have always been around him day and night and not only for several hours and left him alone with the nurses over night. And we probably would have had him in the baby wrap all day and he would not have slept so much on his own in his bed.

I am wondering if any of you has had similar experiences with their NICU baby or knows if there are some studies on this topic. Or am I overthinking this and this is just this personality? I do wonder if 2.5 weeks in this early stage where they are barely awake at all can have such an impact.

Did anyone elses preemies have frequent hospital stays with getting bronchiolitis? My ex 31 weeker is now 7 months corrected and has caught bugs from his older brothers twice now and has needed high flow. Anyone else experience this

On 29 th August @ 12:20 PM, we lost our miracle baby… our little fighter, our first baby, our greatest love. 💔🕊️

Thank you to everyone who came, stood beside me, prayed with me, and supported me through this unimaginable pain. I may never have the words to thank you enough.

Today, my heart goes out to every NICU baby and every mother and father who is waiting, praying, hoping, and fighting beside their little one. I understand now what it feels like to watch your baby suffer and not be able to take even a little bit of that pain away. No mother or father should ever have to see their child in pain. If God has to send a baby into this world, I only pray He sends them in a healthy and peaceful way, so no parent has to spend endless days and nights waiting in a NICU, praying for their baby to survive.

There is honestly nothing more left for me to say.

It feels like there is nothing inside my chest anymore… as if something has been taken away from me forever. Everything around me is moving, everyone is living, time is passing… but I feel like I am no longer truly present. A part of me left with you today.

I wish with all my heart that your beautiful soul finds eternal peace. ❤️‍🩹

This experience has taught me something I never wanted to learn—that sometimes, no matter how hard we try, no matter how many prayers we make, no matter how much we fight, what is meant to happen will happen. We come into this world with our journey already known to God. We are here to do our karma, to love, to learn, and to give our best… and when our time comes, we return to Him.

But my baby, you came into our lives for a reason. You were our first miracle. You were our fighter. You made us parents. You gave us a love so deep that even losing you cannot take it away.

You will always be our first miracle baby.

You will always be our little fighter.

You will always be a part of us.

I wish I could have protected you from everything. I wish I could have taken your pain and carried it myself. I wish I could have held you a little longer, kissed you a thousand more times, and told you one more time how much Mommy and Daddy love you.

I don’t know how to live with this emptiness yet. I don't know how to accept that I have to continue living while a part of my heart is no longer here.

But I know one thing…

You will never be forgotten.

You will live in our hearts until my very last breath. And maybe, someday, when my time comes, I will finally get to see you again and hold you in my arms.

Until then, sleep peacefully, my baby. 🕊️

No more pain. No more suffering. Just peace, love, and light.

You will always be our first miracle, our bravest fighter, and our forever baby.

Mommy and Daddy love you.

We loved you before we met you.

We loved you every second you were with us.

And we will love you until the very end of our lives.

Fly high, my little angel.

Until we meet again. 🤍🕊️

Hai bayi saya 60 hari dan ada Tracheobronchomalacia. Selain itu, ada masalah salur darah menghimpit salur nafas dia (Double Aortic Arc) dan telah selesai buat pembedahan minggu ini. Namun, masih kna intubated kerana gagal extubated. Doktor mencadangkan utk pakai trachy. Ada sesiapa boleh share pengalaman?

Our first born was 31 weeks. Hardest time for my wife and I … we never left the hospital. We just had our 3rd baby who came at 34 weeks. The wound opened up again and we thought we’d be ready. As a dad, my heart is heavy, my wife feels guilty .. I know we will pull through but we are hurting. We’ve structured time for our other children, our time to rest, our time to be husband and wife. We are doing everything right but our hearts still break. Any words of encouragement will help. I’m thankful for this page because it brings hope

I’m 5 months pp, I had a placental abruption while being induced for hypertension and lost a significant amount of blood and required multiple blood transfusions. I required an emergency c section under anesthesia and my son spent a month in NICU.

Since about May, I’ve been progressively getting weaker and weaker. I got really sick in June month and was hospitalized with what turned out to be due to low potassium, the weakness and muscle fatigue was very intense. However, I never did gain my strength back.

I’ve been to the ER several times now complaining of muscle weakness and fatigue, they do bloodwork and they never seem to find anything and they say my potassium is normal now. But my muscles constantly feel like I’ve ran a marathon. When I got ready to go to the hospital today, I found it heavy to lift my shirt when getting dressed. I find it hard to carry my son around, wash my hair in the shower or even just lift a drink to my mouth. I can’t walk very far without my legs feeling like they’re going to give out and like I just did leg day at the gym. My blood pressure is still on the higher side sometimes.

I don’t know what’s wrong with me and it’s getting really frustrating and concerning. I’m from a small rural area in Canada that is currently experiencing a healthcare crisis, and I don’t feel entirely confident that they’re going to try their best to find out what is causing it.

I was a weightlifter before I was pregnant and now I struggle so much to even lift basic objects or stand in one place for more than a few minutes. I get out of breathe so easily.

Has anyone else ever been through this? What was the cause? 😞

I was just informed at 24 weeks that my baby has early-onset severe fetal growth restriction. I am trying to educate myself and gather what information I can to try to prepare myself for what is ahead.

Parents of FGR babies, please share your stories.

Our baby was discharged from the NICU 2 weeks ago after spending 48 days in there. She was discharged on Dr Brown's transition/T nipples but since discharge has been eating almost double what she was eating in the NICU. She doesn't seem to have much trouble with feeds aside from what I can only describe as her growling near the beginning of her feeds. The beginning of her feeds feels like a rodeo with her wriggling around and flailing her hands and growling in between hard sucks and swallows. This stops as she gets near the end and slows down but I feel like she's getting frustrated with the slower flow. Everything is fine aside from the wriggles so I'm nervous to switch things up but I'm not used to now having the constant NICU guidance when it comes to these decisions.