Tell me about your older prem!

[DonnaBallona]

So, my Brooke is turning 2 this Sunday...every year as her birthday approaches I get a little nostalgic and start thinking 'oh, this time two years ago I was....'

Mummies/Daddies of older prems-tell me about them and your experiences! what are you doing about potty training, behaviour, discipline? do you find that your little prem has caught up now, do you still refer to them as a preemie to anyone that will listen? when Brooke was first out of scbu I found myself doing that alot, but now its not in my immediate thiughts unless someone mentions it...

SO, My little Brooke is still greatly smaller than her little friends around here and is still only just into 9-12 month clothes...she is a a proper little chatterbox though and enjoys climbing, running, jumping, sticking and 'booing'....she is a complete normal toddler, much to our delight.

The peadiatricians always told us that Brooke would be totally caught up by the time she is two-and although I believe that its true for the most part, sometimes I see her standing looking teeny next to another child and wonder how she is still standing her ground-she's a fiesty little minx!

do share!xx

and parents of new little prems, maybe this will give you some hope for your future too

 

[AP]

Alex is 19 months this week, so we're creeping to 2 in June! her sister will be here by April. (please)
Alex is still learning when it comes to eating. She coughs up on 12+ baby food, but can generally try any other foods without a disaster-I think she needs her own independence to eat rather than us spooning it, for it to work!

Otherwise she's really come on in the last month. She doesn't speak much but has recently taken to talking and babbling and I've heard dad day a lot so I'm sure it won't be long until she relates daddy to the hubby! She understands what we say more though,ihad to deal with a tantrum yesterday because I told her to eat her lunch and she wasn't having any of it. Lol!

She's completely in proportion when it comes to weight, even though shes just reaching 21lb.

She had learnt that we close doors behind us in the house, she does the same too now, either slams the door shut with her hand or kicks it shut

She isn't walking,yet, but that's a confidence thing, often she stands by herself with no support but doesn't realise-as soon as she does she panics! We think she will walk though?

She knows celebrities and pop songs, and videos. Not in the baby way either! I've just laughed out loud at her because her face has lit up with a massive smile because Nicole Sherzinger has just come on the TV. She loves CeeLo Green , Bruno Mars, Cheryl Cole and Lady Gaga. Get in her way while these songs come on and you're dead meat she will physically push you out of her view. she will dash into the living rooom if we are elsewhere and she hears them!

If you ask her where daddy/alex is, she will look up at the wall for a picture of them.

I've struggled to type the latter part of this, because she knows how the iPad/iPhone works! She strokes the screen to scroll through music and pictures!

I'm really glad she's doing all these things. I'll never forget how foggy the future was when the big doc told us she had her Grade IV bleed. I couldn't picture this, I used to stare into the incubator, and never thought this could happen... I know we aren't out of the woods yet but this is something we only dreamt of.

Awww noooo now I'm crying I can't believe how lucky I am, this and baby beanie cooking still at 30 weeks tomorrow.

 

[nkbapbt]

Well my little dude is almost officially two...Feb 16th is the big day. Is he caught up? In so many ways, yes...in others? no.

The only way I see him being behind though has nothing to do with him per say, because it's his eating (he has to drink liquids via his g-tube still, though I give him water via his mouth all the time and he is fine!).

He is a massive....27lbs! And very tall (like his mom!). Yet he is not a chubby guy at all.

He walks, runs, not jumping yet (Brooke is ahead of the rest on that one...jumping usually comes later in age two range! ), dancing, doing puzzles, he can do/listen/perform (whatever you want to call it) small commands/requests (clean up, don't touch, go get such and such a book to read, get a certain thing), he knows some letters and their sounds and can tell you, he knows some colours but only points them out, he signs a lot with or without the word verbally, he talks ALL the time, I am sure I am missing stuff...but the point is...he is pretty much awesome!

He is incredibly kind, he shares like star, his temper is a bit short but he doesn't lose it that much, his temper tantrums are pretty tame (though he does bang his head when SUPER tired), he isn't all that naughty and stops when you tell him too...

I dunno what else!

Brooke and Alex sound amazing btw!

 

[Lottie86]

Awwww Brooke, Alex and Lakai are all doing so so well

 

[AP]

So is findlay!!

 

[Sherri81]

Well, Greg will be 7 this March, and we don't ever refer to him as a prem anymore, unless people start asking us stuff. I mean, to look at him, you wouldn't know he was born 15 weeks early, weighing 1 lb 9 ounces.

When he was growing up, he did hit every marker when he would have for his gestational age. So of course, you have to correct for like the first 2 years, but by that time he was completely caught up, so we stopped correcting his age.

He started walking in April 2005, so when he was 13 months old, but like 10 months or so in real age. And I thought that was pretty good. He never did crawl... like maybe for a week in March 2005, then he went straight to walking. Before that, he chose to roll around the house, and the Dr assured us that this was an adequate replacement for traditional crawling. And he started that in probably late October, early November 2004... so around 6 months I guess corrected.

Looking at him now compared with his class for height and weight... he falls about the middle for height, and tends to still be on the skinny side. But at 6 years old, he is fitting into size 7 clothes... He is just as active and rough and tumble as the other boys out there. He's a little interuptive in class, but when I saw him in with the other kids, I realized he isn't the worst by far. In fact, in a class of 22 kids, all of the other kids were having a hard time settling for story time, and he was just sitting there, nice as could be. So, I realized then that he isn't being disruptive all the time, and even when he is, he's not the only one who is doing it.

He never did develop the narrow head they warned us of, so he doesn't look remotely like a prem.

As for speaking, by age 2 (not corrected), he had about 15 words in his vocabulary, which the Dr said was on the low side. And he didn't use them much. But he did have a very complex language of his own, which had all of the inflections of regular speech. So they suggested speech therapy. We did take him for about 6 months, but it was useless. She was treating him like he was stupid when he wasn't. She would show him 3 pics, one of a boy with a ball, one with a boy running, and one with a boy reading, and she would ask him to point to the one with the ball. He would look at her and point to the running pic and say 'run,' and the reading pic and say 'book.' But he didn't care about the ball, so he ignored the pic. She took this as a sign of him being slow. Yeah, not so much. We withdrew him from speech therapy, I bought the DVD set of Old School Sesame Street (60's-80's), and within a week, his vocab had increased dramatically, and he was reciting his A,B,C's.

That was the biggest hurdle of all I think.... people's attitudes. They just expected him to be a dimwit and he wasn't. They thought he would be deformed or stupid, and they just never treated him like a normal baby. But we did, and I think that is why he is so 'normal' today.

His eating was, and still is, hard. He had issues with texture which we ended up needing specialist help with. And now at 6, he still doesn't like food that he has to 'work' at. He would much prefer to susbsist on McDonalds, and Kraft Dinner.... and mashed potatoes too. But we have persisted, and so he is gradually getting better. He still doesn't like raw veggies and fruits though.

Really, 7 years on now (almost), he is like any kid. Like any boy, his writing is messy... but he loves to draw. He could care less about staying in the lines when he colours. He can read, but prefers to pick the 'easy' books in class. I mean, really, just typical grade 1 stuff.

So hopefully this gives you ladies with micro prems some hope. It does get better, and if you treat them like 'normal' kids, then I think they will end up being just like the babies who were born 'normally.'

Oh, and as for punishments... he is very much pushing boundaries now, as any 6/7 yr old does. Hell, I don't think this part ever stops. So he gets time outs. This is the only punishment that works as that is maybe the one issue still remaining from his being premature. They say his brain is still a little immature, so he doesn't grasp the concept of consequences now. So the threat of taking toys away, or grounding, or not letting him go sledding on the weekend... those don't get through to him. Time out is instant punishment, and he gets that.

Potty training... he still isn't night time potty trained. But for day time, on his 3rd birthday, I just refused to buy anymore diapers. That was that. I took him to the bathroom every hour, and eventually he got it. He refused a small kids potty, but preferred the adult toilet. Yes, we occassionally get accidents still... and are now wondering if his bladder is small, or over active.

 

[25weeker]

If you ask her where daddy/alex is, she will look up at the wall for a picture of them.

If we ask Holly where the pretty girl is she looks at a picture of herself and smiles. She is such a poser

 

[Dona]

Archie will be two very soon - 8th Feb. Time has flown by and I look at him everyday and just smile. I think he's caught up on most things but up until three weeks ago I would have told you he was way behind with his speech. He can now say about 40 words and can link three together. He can jump, run and walk up stairs so gross motor skills are ok. He's very good with any jigsaws even ones for kids upto six years of age which amazes Gordon and I each time he does them. He can draw a controlled line and a circle. I think nursery have played a big part in his abilities as he's been there since he was a baby. Nursery have eluded to the fact that they think he's going to be clever as he's got a good attention span, very logical and thinks about things before attempting them.

He's very good at feeding himself with a fork and eats anything. He is a huge 26lbs.

He understands everything and wants to be involved in everything such as cleaning up and helping with the dinner lol!

I do think he's a little short but Gordon and I arnt tall.

It's nice to hear about the other older prems especially the ones I used to follow that were born close to Archie. Working full time means I hardly get a chance to get on here.

So proud of all our toddles xx

 

[DonnaBallona]

I have enjoyed reading all your replies soooooooooooooo much!!! our 'big' prems are doing brilliantly, and I love to hear how they are getting on.

I forgot to mention, Brooke's favourite word at the moment is Bum. Everything is Bum. we went to a house viewing this evening and the man asked her what her name was and she said "BUM!" clear as day. Haha! :0)

Sherri81, you are a legend,. Congratulations on having such an intelligent little boy on your hands-well done him!

Thanks girls. this thread has properly made my day!

 

[katy1310]

Awww, it's so nice to hear about them all doing so well!! Sophie's just 10 months actual, 7 corrected, so it's really encouraging to hear all these great stories

 

[Dasy25]

Awwww it's so fab hearing all your positive posts about your miracles. It really does give us new preemie mum's hope and to know that they will develop at their own pace.

Congratulations to you all on your wonderful, bright children. I'm loving every second of being a mummy and really look forward to watching her grow and learn.

 

[pink.crazy]

I've really enjoyed reading this

 

[mommy43]

my prem is now 16 she was born at 27 weeks weighed 2lb 4oz n was 13 inches long i remember the panic of the day she was born like yesterday i had a placental abruption n gushed blood in the hospital car park she was born 13minutes later!! she is and has always been very slim n didnt really catch up till about 5yrs thats when she didnt look so tiny compared to others her age i still tell anyone that asks i still cant believe how tiny she was she was my first n at the time u dont really have time to think u take it one day at a time n now i look back n think how lucky we were n how close i came to loosing her a number of times (at birth,hole in the heart,blood infection) she walked at 18mnths so about right really wore newborn clothes till she was 6mnths so much happens in the first 2 yrs for any baby its easy to see when your prem is so much smaller n doing things that bit later than other babies

 

[you&me]

My preemie turned 5 this christmas day just gone...she was born at 29 weeks weighing 2lbs 5ozs...due to PET and IUGR....she spent 7 weeks in NICU.

She struggled with eating lumps and took her a while before she stopped reaching on them, she was a little late teething and walking, but early in her speaking...we got discharged from the hospital at 2 years old.

These days...it is like living with Kevin the Teenager ...she is a little madam!!...she is doing great at school and has learnt to read really well, her memory is better than mine, she has exercise induced asthma, which doesn't seem to cause her too many problems now she is able to administer her own inhaler...her major weekness is tonsilitis...9 times last year...but other than that she is like any other 5 year old...she was weighed a few weeks back, and although she is on the 50th percentile for her weight she is on the 98th for her height, she is skinny, but she eats and eats and eats!!!

 

[maisiemoo]

Thank you for sharing, it really is lovely to hear about older prems. Many of olivias baby friends are the same age as her corrected age, which has been really nice in manys ways as they're all hitting the same milestones together ( she remains much smaller than all the others).