35 Week Preemie - Please Share Your Story

My 3rd child was born at 34 weeks , a few breathing issues for a day or so but nothing too bad. She stayed in NICU for 9 days and came home the day after me (reason for delivery was because my appendix had ruptured). She is now 28 months and you would not even be able to tell she was a preemie , everything developmentaly is on track and she compares to my other 2 who were both 6 days late. She was behind with things like sitting up , rolling over , pulling to standing etc , but once she started walking at 17 months she caught up with the milestones.

Hi there. My first baby was born at 35 weeks. My water broke and they had to induce me with pitocin - he was born 12 hours later. The NICU team was in my delivery room waiting for him to be born - they took him immediately to another part of the room to exam him. They determined he was just fine, breathing on his own, no other major health problems.

He did have a couple of small issues - he couldn't make a seal with his mouth right away to be able to eat so we had to help him with that for about a week. Also he had to stay 1 extra night in the hospital due to elevated bilirubin level. Otherwise no issues as a baby at all.

He just turned 4 and has been labeled as advanced at his preschool. He's in the 75% for height and weight and is super smart!!! You'd NEVER know today that he was a preemie.

Hope your little one is doing great.

HI S.,
Our son was born at 33 1/2 weeks. I went into labor without knowing ( I know...how do you NOT know??) and they tried to stop the labor with magnesium sulfate, and give me a steroid to help dry out his lungs. When the ms that didn't work they decided to deliver him knowing that his lungs weren't ready.
Initially he was able to breathe on his own and had a good strong birth weight of 6.6 lbs. Soon after being born though he developed pneumothroax and was not doing well breathing on his own. He was then sent to another hospital and placed in the NICU. He was intubated for a few days and also had to be in the blue light for jaundice. In total he was in for 15 days.

He did also have trouble keeping food down via gavage feeding, but didn't have any trouble nursing. I wasn't allowed to nurse him until he moved "up" to a lesser level of care and was more stable. But when I was allowed to nurse, he did really well. After he came home we did have some trouble with reflux and he was on meds for it for a short period of time. That is just something they end up growing out of.

We had him evaluated through early intervention and found that we needed to do some physical therapy with him because he wasn't rolling over properly. Commonly, preemie babies have strong posterior sides but not anterior (front) muscles. So instead of pushing up and rolling over he would throw his head up and use his back muscles and the weight of his head to roll over. He also ran with his shoulders pinned back and had poor balance as a toddler. He wasn't however, delayed. He walked at 12 months, was considered a "late" talker, but this was because of ear infections inhibiting his hearing.

Now at 5 years old, he is a brilliantly, beautiful, funny, intelligent little boy. He was considered caught up at 3 years old. You'd never know now that he had a rocky beginning!

Good luck :)

Both my kids camein early (34 and 35 weeks). They are now 4 and 5 years and are advanced in education. The 34 weeker needed to stay in the hospital for week after he was born because he has some difficulty breathing. They both had jaundice and it was because of my blood type being negative, but they have been healthy with no major issues. I hope that can help.

Updated

Both my kids came in early (34 and 35 weeks). They are now 4 and 5 years and are advanced in education. The 34 weeker needed to stay in the hospital for week after he was born because he has some difficulty breathing. They both had jaundice and it was because of my blood type being negative, but they have been healthy with no major issues. I hope that can help.

My 35 weekers was born because I had preclamsia. They induced me at about 12am and ended up having a c-section at 7pm due to his heart rate dropping. he never had to go to the nicu, just the 'special' nursery. he was on the billie blanket, and an iv to feed him because he was too weak from the magnesium. he did have trouble keeping a temp, but was fine on day 2. he was 4lb 7oz. He got to come home a week after he was born and now at 12 weeks old he is over 14lbs!! He is laughing at everything and really doing just what a baby his age should be doing!!

My first child was born at 34 weeks and I was put in the hospital on complete bed rest for 10 days. No washing hair or going to the bathroom out of bed. Then on the 10th day they sent me home for bed rest, I'd been on some medication to stop contractions, etc., and I was to do nothing at home but that night my water broke so back to the hospital I went. I had him that next morning after 6 hours of labor. He was 4lbs. 10oz. and was frank breech. I delivered him vaginally. Other than the legs staying up from being frank breech he seemed fine and was in an isolet and had to stay in the hospital for 3 weeks until he reached 5 lbs. This was all back in the 'old days' and he will be 42 years old in Dec. He did fine after a year. The doctor said after they reach a year they should be caught up and he was. He was slower getting teeth ( maybe not totally from being early but probably was as my other kids were all much earlier ), he sat up a bit later and crawled a bit later but not much and pretty much on schedule with how early he was. Like most kids sat up about 6 weeks earlier than he did so he was about 6 weeks behind on those things. Then at a year he was just pretty much up with everyone else. I wouldn't worry at all about health, etc. now as they've come so far in this area and I wasn't allowed to touch and hold my baby or breast feed him. Now days I could do all of that with no problem. I was afraid I'd 'hurt' him he was so tiny but I was assured over and over that he was fine so try to enjoy your baby and not worry.

I had 3 30 weekers , and 3 35 or 36 weekers. All of my children were relatively healthy throughout their children. We had ear infections but that was the same with the early and the late babies. One of my 30 weekers came home on an apnea monitor but they don't even do that anymore. 2 of my 30's had slight learning problems--they were adhd. That isn't really a biggie for me as there could have had way more problems! 1 of my later term babies had a real learning problem but mostly she is just normal at 28. All of them are successful in life. I really wanted to nurse the last 4 children. Back then it was difficult. With one, we rented a pump and I pumped the whole time he was in the hospital. He was finally able to come home-- was taking all of his feedings by nipple instead of tube feedings. I was weak and took him home on the bottle. He was almost a month old and wanted nothing to do with me by that point. I didn't have the support that new moms have now. 5 of the 6 children met all of their milestones as babies and toddlers by the book. They all stayed from 19 days to almost a month. We were very lucky. Other moms may not have as positive of stories to tell. To sum up my story, I doubt that my six children have any more problems than any other children. Good luck with your new baby.