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Preemies
Starting to post more, here is my official intro :)
I've been lurking quite a bit and posting here and there, so I thought I should introduce myself 
I gave birth to my daughter Natalie at 34 weeks 1 day. My water broke at 32 weeks, and I was in the hospital on bedrest for 2 weeks. My doctor didn't want me to go past 34 weeks due to the risk of infection, so I was induced at 34 weeks. I had a fairly easy labor and vaginal delivery (a VBAC, actually), so I was very grateful that went smoothly. Natalie was 4 lbs., 10 oz. and 17 inches long at birth (born 4/19). She was on C-PAP for about 12 hours and then on room air. However, after about a week she started desatting quite a bit after feedings, so they put her on a cannula with a low level of O2 flow (it's been up and down over the last few weeks; currently she's at 1.0 L at 30%). They quickly diagnosed her as having reflux also.
We've been in the NICU for 4 1/2 weeks now (she's 38w4d gestation) and she's doing okay but not great for her gestational age. She's been able to hold her temperature just fine, she's gaining weight (she's about 5 lbs. 7 oz. now), but they haven't been able to wean her off the oxygen. She desats into the low 80's after her feedings, which they think is due to her reflux, but they're also trying to rule out respiratory issues as well. She's been able to take full feedings by mouth once or twice a day, but usually she just takes half a feeding by mouth before she gets too tired, and so they tube feed her the rest. We've been working on breastfeeding and it's going okay; she seems to do well with the nipple shield. Luckily, my supply has been great and while EP'ing isn't fun, at least I'm providing her with plenty of milk.
I have two other children, ages 5 and 3, and it's been hard balancing spending time with them, and being at the hospital for Natalie.
Anyone else have older children and a preemie? Anyone have a LO still on oxygen at a late gestation date? Thanks for reading, and I look forward to getting to know everyone. This seems like a great, supportive board!
Ellie, mommy to Kate (4.20.06), Andrew (3.18.08) & Natalie (4.19.11), born at 34w1d
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Re: Starting to post more, here is my official intro :)
Hello and welcome! I hope your NICU stay ends very soon. I don't have any insight into having other children (our son is our first), but our son was sent home on oxygen when he ate because he was getting too tired from eating. He was on oxygen until close to his due date, if I remember (we kind of just started getting lazy about putting the canula on once it became apparent that he didn't need it anymore). Now, he's doing great! I don't really know what to tell you, other than that I'm sure you will all figure it out very soon.
Good luck with everything!
Welcome and congrats! My youngest was born at 27 weeks, at a hospital far from our house. My older 3 boys stayed with my inlaws for the first six weeks, and it was absolutely horrible to feel pulled in 3 directions - I was at the hospital far from home, my DH was at home working, and our boys were with ILs. I was afraid my younger son would forget about me (only seeing me on weekends) so I went to Wal-Mart and printed off a whole bunch of pictures -some of me, some of DH - zoomed in on us, and put them into a $ store photo album - so he could see pictures of us every day.
It was strange only seeing them on the weekends - I felt like a non-custodial parent having visitation!! Not fun. Our little guy was in the hospital for 62 days, and we were so thankful for all the help we had!
Do you have help with the older kids? Accept any offers of help that people give you. It's hard to ask for help, but maybe you could have a friend/co-worker ask around too on your behalf - for childcare, rides to hospital, whatever.
Good luck, and hoping for a short, uneventful stay!!
Welcome to the board. I have an older son who was 2 1/2 when DS#2 was born at 26 weeks 6 days. He had stayed at my parents house for 10 days or so while we were in the hospital. Then when we came home so did he. It was difficult at first because I think he thought we were going to disappear again when he went to bed. What I did was drop him off at his daycare in the morning and then I went to the nicu. I spent the majority of the day there and then picked him back up so we could spend the evening together. I was lucky that DH worked close to the hospital so he would come and visit on lunch sometimes so we still had our evening together. On the weekend sometimes we didn't go to the nicu at all but usually we had grandparents come up they would visit in the nicu then take DS#1 home to our house while we visited in the nicu for a little while. It will be so great to have everyone home together for you. It is tough but it will be ok.
As far as the oxygen thing goes DS came home on oxygen and stayed on it constantly until 4 or 5 weeks past his due date. Once they decided they weren't going to try to wean him off of it before we came home things really started progressing for us. He just needed the extra little bit of oxygen to help him out.
Hang in there and here's hoping you have a smooth nicu journey.
One of my boys is still in the NICU. He's 2 days shy of 40 weeks gestation and still requiring oxygen 24-7. He fluncuates between 28% and 36% most days. Every now and then he'll get in the low 20s. It's very frustrating but the NICU staff says it's very common and normal. He's definitely living up to the "whimpy white boy" stigma of the NICU.
I hope your daughter is home very soon!