Last call for your input for this important Preemie Blog Q:

urbanflowerpot

I'm finally putting this one together - things have been hectic around here between teething and PTSD flashbacks. You know, same old same old! I think it's a really important question and would love to get more feedback. If you answered it before, I have your response saved already - it's annonymous. I'm not attaching names.

Parents of full term children (and those without children) usually think that preemie-issues remain behind at the hospital when your baby is discharged. What are some situations you?ve been in where you?ve wished you could explain your situation better? What would you want to share with parents of full term babies to help them understand what it?s like to parent a preemie?

When responding please avoid typing "this" to ditto a previous poster - it makes it hard to convey what's being said when I put it into blogger-response-mode.

Thanks girls!

OfficiallyHollyC

I don't know if you'd want to add this or not but for me personally I find that when friends talk about their pregnancies they talk about the joy of being pregnant and expect that I had the same experience. I was scared. I didn't get to paint a nursery, I didn't get to pick out and assemble baby furniture. I spent my time in bed or on the couch lying on my left side praying for a healthy baby. If I wasn't there I was in the hospital. I have guilt that I couldn't carry him, that I couldn't protect him like I was suppose to. I wanted to breastfeed him at the very least but I couldn't do that either. I can't tell you how it broke my heart that I failed him on so many levels. 

Now that I see my baby and know the joy he brings me, I want desperately to have another. It makes me so nervous to even give it a shot though because the second I was off the medication to stop labor I was dilating fast and then my water broke.

To this day I have bad dreams. I have day dreams that will send me into tears. There are things that remind me of the hospital that I never thought would. I stayed at a hotel with a temperpedic bed that reminded me of the hospital bed. I could not sleep on that bed, I had a panic attack instead. I haven't even been back to the Dr's because it makes me so anxious.