Premature Babies

Not me, 4 kids and carried them all 3 weeks past my due date, smallest was 8lbs 14oz largest 10/10... I thank the Lord, they were all very healthy.

My daughter was born 10 wks early and weighed 1 lb 15 oz she was in hospital for 9 weeks.

A few months ago, my first child, a son, was born prematurely, but barely. A baby is considered full-term at 37 weeks and he was born at 36 weeks. He remained in the hospital neonatal intensive care unit for over two weeks, and that was the longest period of time in my life. I can't imagine if I had to go for six weeks. I don't know how you made it. If I didn't have such a strong support system, I would not have made it. The worst part was that they keep extending the estimated time for him to remain. When he was born, weighing six pounds even, they said they were going to put him in the NICU for 4 hours for observations. So 7am came around and I wanted my baby. His oxygen levels were an issue so they said it would be two days. I was discharged the next day, Thanksgiving, without my son. Two days later, I was told that they needed to make sure he knew how to eat so it would be another four or five days. Come the middle of the next week, I was told it would be another week...at least. It was so frustrating to have multiple nurses who didn't communcate with each other or the doctors. Finally, when I was doing the nurses' jobs and knew more than the docs or the charts, I annoyed them enough to send him home so they wouldn't need to deal with me anymore! Once I had him home, it's almost like I forgot the time he wasn't with me. I didn't dwell on the time lost, but the time I was now getting with him.

My little one was born 10 weeks early and weighed 4 lbs He was in hospital for just 29 days. The time they spend in hospital just depends on how well they are coping. I got my little boy home when he should only have been 34 weeks gestation.