Parents, Families and Friends on the preemie-l Discussion List #3.

Tom and Melinda

Just wanted to introduce myself and say hello. I am Tom Hannah, from Liberty, South Carolina. My wife, Melinda, gave birth to a 24-week old little boy (although he evaluated to be 26 weeks developmentally) on February 10.

Matthew demonstrating kangaroo care

Tom Hannah Tom@Clemson.EDU
Information Systems Development
Clemson University
Clemson, South Carolina

Clark, Natalie and Thomas King

Many of you have visited Thomas King's CyberNursery Web site. It pretty much introduces us . . . just wanted to let you know we were here!

Glad to see more preemie information of various sorts on the Internet. When I first connected more than a year ago, I found very little.

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Steve Holle

I'm the father of twin preemies born September 6, 1995.

Caleb and Leah were born at 27 weeks gestation, weighing 2# 4.5 oz. and 2# 3.4 oz. respecively.

We survived the SCN experience. It was a very positive and supportive experience for us. The people were great and we learned alot. Through our experience we had to deal with the following issues...

Ventilators, CPAP, Oxygen, Infection, Retinopathy, Reflux, Grade II IVH, Hydrocephalus, Lumbar Punctures, Chronic Lung Disease, Hernias, Anemia, etc.

There was always something to worry about. And frustration, because there was very little you could do about it. At times progress was slow, then they seemed to progress at the speed of light.

Caleb came home at 2 months of age. He weighed nearly 5# and was on oxygen, Theophylline, and Apnea monitor. Leah came home 2 weeks later because of the hydrocephalus. She required only the Theophylline and Apnea monitor.

Caleb was rehospitalized for 3 days in December for RSV infection.

Today, both children are doing well. Caleb has been off the oxygen since mid-January. They have just been weaned off the Theophylline and have grown through the retinopathy. Leah's hydrocephalus has apparently arrested and will not require a shunt. They are developmentally appropriate for their corrected age. Hopefully, the good news will continue and next month we'll lose the apnea monitors.

It has not been an easy six months, but hopefully the worst is behind us. Now we're just trying to survive raising twins!

Thanks for starting the Preemie List. I wish it was here six months ago.

Steve Holle

INA, mom to Gareth 4 (33 weeker), Devin 2 (26 weeker) and wife to Doug.

Hi everyone, I am from Cape Town, South Africa so a bit of a foreigner on your group but thrilled to be on it. I am a two time preemie mom. Gareth born 19 November 1991 was born at 33 weeks and Devin (Mouse) was born 8 March 1994. They are both miracles in more ways than one as I was told by the "medical profession" that it was virtually impossible for me to have a baby. At 36 I fell pregnant with Gareth and for the first few months had break through bleeding controlled by hormone injections - at 32 weeks my waters broke and after trying to keep my going for a few days they induced when I was 33 weeks. Gareth was a good birth weight 2.5kg and although had hyland membrane did not have any significant problems - at the time of his birth we did not have sufactant here. He was only in hospital for 1 week and has always been ahead of children his age.

I then astounded doctors again by falling pregnant at 38, I refused an amnio this time as realised after having had one the first time that no way could I abort if there was a problem. My waters broke at 24 weeks and if only I had had more information on preemies prior to this happening I could have saved myself a lot of heartache. I had no idea that once waters have broken they can build up again - nor had I ever heard of babies so prem surviving. I was rushed to Groote Schuur hospital, which some of you may have heard of through the first heart transplant - well now believe me it is third world and I thought I would lose my sanity lying there - thats another story. Anyway I managed to transfer back to my private hospital where they kept me on a drip for a further two weeks. On the 8 March, I woke up feeling incredibly constipated, eventually I went to the loo and found meconium (spelling) being passed through me. They immediately rushed me in for a caesar, he had fallen bottom first through my cervix - poor little mite was bruised terribly. He was born with a very bad infection and weighed 1.1kg again a good weight. He was critically ill for a number of days and on the third day the nuns in the hospital baptised him as no one (except me) held any hope of survival. He ran through the normal gauntlet of blood transfusions, lumbar punctures, infections etc. We kept him on oxygen for virtually the full three months he was there. He was such a greedy guts that eventually they put him on cereal - before he was even due to be born. When we brought him home he was on a apnea monitor for approximately 6 months and it really saved his life on more than one occassion.

Today, he is an extremely active two year old, we have just had him assessed and he is right on track in all areas except speech which is a bit behind. He does suffer from chest problems and was hospitalised 10 times last year with an average stay of approx 10 days at a time. My older son has also been hospitalised a number of times with chest infections. Devin also had a hernia op a few months ago, but was running around barely an hour after the op.

They may be tiny and put us through grief - but they are all so special and I'm sure you will all agree that the experience has left us wiser, with more compassion and certainly monetary poorer.

INA, mom to Gareth 4 (33 weeker), Devin 2 (26 weeker) and wife to Doug.

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