my little man - all grown up!

[Mamaduke]

Hi ladies,
I was just scrolling through and I came across Premmie babies and it took me back 4 years to when my DS Jesse was born. Jesse was born 4 weeks prem and was a very tiny 4lb 1oz. The shock horror of seeing such a tiny little life was so overwhelming. He spent 21 days in the special care nursery at Birralee (wonderful wonderful nurses!) and we waited and waited for him to fatten up. As I look through the postings on this site I remember what a draining and worrying time it was while Jesse was in SCN. He was our first baby and the thought of leaving hospital without him never entered my mind. But back I went for 8-10 hours a day, sitting by his little box, with stints in the 'milking shed' as I liked to call it, and watching the passing parade of 'tourists' at the windows of SCN pointing like the babies were on display at a zoo.
When we finally brought him home his little suit was so huge on him but I had bought it specially, and thats what he was going to wear!
Up until this time he was wearing 'baby born' socks and outfits!
Trips to the maternal health nurse were so frequent and I remember filling Jesse to the brim before we went (for the scales!) and how disheartened I be if he went #2's before we got to see the nurse!
I know that as a mum of a premmie you get pretty sick to death of being told how tiny your baby is and I even avoided joining a mother's group because of this.
What I really wanted to say was that these little premmies are truly the 'little miracles'... our babies are 'the best' and they are so amazing and so strong, they come into this world so little and sometimes so sick but they amaze us every day with their milestones and progress!
They are the 'little battlers' and I am so proud of Jesse who came into this world looking like a 'skun rabbit' (4 years later I can say that!) and today he is 110cm tall and weighs 22kg and very healthy and no one says "Oh my, isn't he tiny!" anymore.
Good luck and God bless to all the mummies of the premmies!

[HoopDeeDoo]

Wow your story sounds so similar to mine!!
I used to take Noah to the clinic every week to get him wieghed, and I'm only now wanting to join a play group. He was 5pound 4 and 5 weeks early so your son was even tinier. Now though I get "look how chubby he is". I must say I prefer that. People used to look at him when he was first born and I'm sure they were thinking "she musn't be feeding him". He was only in NICU for 10 days and that broke my heart. I was living at the hospital, and only leaving him for an hour when the doctors did rounds. The hardest was travelling back and fourth in the middle of the night to feed him in the last couple of days before he came home. Being pregnant again now I just keep thinking I don't want to go through that heart break again.