induction day tomorrow

jjh471

Tomorrow is the day. 34+1. Can't believe we made it from bed rest at 26w for ptl and water breaking at 32.

Everyone keeps asking me if I'm excited to meet my son. And honestly I'm not. How do you get excited knowing that your child will be on a whole different floor than you? And you can't hold him right away or keep him in the room with you or really see him for hours? I know 34 is a great GA and I am so thankful we made it this far but we still have a road ahead of us. I think I'll be excited when I'm not scared of labor and I know my son is okay.

Time to put on my big girl panties!

KTZ17

I was not induced and I was only on bed rest a week, so I didn't have the anticipation and time to think about it like you have had, but I just wanted to say I relate to that feeling of not being excited. I was told around 11am that my baby would be born that day (31wks 3days) and all I could think about was her health. It's not like when a full term mom has her baby and she can't wait to meet him/her. We can and would wait! But your sweet little boy may surprise you and be healthy enough for you to hold him when he's first born. Even though DD was a 31 weeker, DH got to hold her in the delivery room and take pictures and our neonatologist held her by my head for a while and I got to stare at her and kiss her. Her apgar scores were 9. So hopefully your son will do great! Sending you and your little boy strength for tomorrow!!

jjh471

KTZ17 said:

I was not induced and I was only on bed rest a week, so I didn't have the anticipation and time to think about it like you have had, but I just wanted to say I relate to that feeling of not being excited. I was told around 11am that my baby would be born that day (31wks 3days) and all I could think about was her health. It's not like when a full term mom has her baby and she can't wait to meet him/her. We can and would wait! But your sweet little boy may surprise you and be healthy enough for you to hold him when he's first born. Even though DD was a 31 weeker, DH got to hold her in the delivery room and take pictures and our neonatologist held her by my head for a while and I got to stare at her and kiss her. Her apgar scores were 9. So hopefully your son will do great! Sending you and your little boy strength for tomorrow!!

That is exactly how I feel. All these people keep saying aren't you excited to meet your baby. And I am but I'm not. We knew he'd come early but I wanted longer. I'm scared and I don't have a good way to deal with these emotions yet. I'm going to try and take it as it comes tomorrow.

ziggy903

Congrats and good luck! It's scary knowing you'll have a preemie, and people don't understand it unless they've been there. People used to say things like that to me when I was on hospital bed rest and they got an earful

scubagirl81

Congratulations on making it this far! I had a 34 weeker (34 and change) and he came out breathing so DH and I both got to hold him for a little bit before they whisked him off. Do you think that might be a possibility? Do you know the NICU visitation policies for your hospital? At ours, parents were welcome any time, and so the second night after DS was born and I could hear babies crying in the rooms around us all night, I made DH go down to the NICU with me at 3am. They encouraged a lot of phone calls in between visits, which helped when I was feeling guilty for going home to shower and sleep. Also, the hospital didn't discharge me until the last minute (literally, 11:59pm) so we could stay as long as possible. 

I'll be thinking about you and hoping for smooth sailing for you and your LO.

ashleymarie512

Good luck today! Congratulations on making it to 34 weeks!

I agree with the other posts. You never know how a 34 weeker will do--I've heard of many that do wonderfully! I don't doubt the anticipation has been scary. I had about 30 minutes to digest the fact I was having my baby under general anesthesia at 29+6, but know for sure that if I had to dwell on that for much longer, I'd probably go nuts.

Good luck again, sending positive thoughts your way!

xladybassx

Congrats on making it so far, good luck today!

Honestly, it wasn't until a few days after they were born that I started to feel excited, happy, or anything positive at all. Even then it was only a little. They were a few weeks old before it completely kicked in for me. My girls were micro preemies, and when I was having my c-section we weren't even sure they would survive intubation. As it turned out, they both came out screaming, but they looked like aliens more than babies, and with all the wires, tubes, and alarms going off it made me feel kind of disconnected for awhile. I was afraid to touch them, and my heart hurt to even look at them in the beginning. I think for me it really changed when I was allowed to hold them outside of the isolette. It is totally ok if you aren't excited right now, or if you don't feel instantly in love when your son is born. It will come.

carrotcake06

Congrats in making it to 34w! My boys were born at 34w exactly and are thriving 9mo olds now - just little peanuts. We had a very short, uneventful NICU stay as feeders/growers. Wishing you the same! Good luck!

Tylynngrace

Congrats on making it to 34 weeks!
Your feelings are not wrong at all. I was on bedrest for 4 weeks and I can tell you, I wasn't excited to have DS. Having time to think about it and having doctors/nurses preparing you is hard. It's hard to not know what kind of state your child will come out in but 34 weekers fair pretty well.
Good luck on your induction!

Bluebird2318

Congratulations on 34 weeks; that's wonderful! I can totally understand the mixture of emotions, and I hope everything went as smoothly as possible for you both. 

I'm sorry about the "aren't you excited?" sort of comments. They can be incredibly insensitive. I remember someone actually said "Hey, at least you didn't get stretch marks!" to me (my DD was born at 29w0d). 

flerlgirl

It's totally normal to feel that way, IMO. It's hard to be excited when you just want to know that everything is going to be okay. Best of luck tomorrow and come back to update us when you can!!

eta: reading fail; I just saw this was written earlier in the week! I hope you and LO are doing well.