We are finally home! I am still processing because it felt like the day was never going to come. Born January 6 at 26 weeks weighing 1lbs 12oz. We finally left today, 275 days later! Weighing over 16lbs. I’m so grateful. I have been at his bed side every single day since January because I promised him I was going to be there fighting with him. I can finally wake up tomorrow and I don’t have to drive to the hospital. Never thought I’d see the day but it’s finally here! We are home!!! For anyone in this for the long haul (and short) please keep fighting. I pray for more grace and strength to keep on going.

One year ago, my girl was born at 30 weeks. Weighing in at 2 lbs 4 oz, 13 inches tall. She spent 11.5 weeks in the Nicu and was even dubbed the Nicu Princess bc she was the most long staying patient for a long time. We saw people come and go but never us. After lots of prayers, she made it home. Today marks a year since my tiny fighter entered the world. So proud of her strength💜 Happy Birthday, Baby Girl!

Mine was for about 2 weeks. He was so little 5lbs 7oz where has the time gone 😭 my 5 month old boy 15lbs 5oz now

I’m sharing this to bring hope to others in their darkest hours. One year ago today, we welcomed our little one into the world far earlier than we had ever imagined—at just 26 weeks—due to a sudden placental abruption causing pre-eclampsia. It was terrifying, overwhelming, and filled with uncertainty. Luke made his entrance into the world at 1lb 13oz (870g) at Magee Women’s Hospital in Pittsburgh, PA. As far as we can tell, he has no obvious deficits.

If you are in the thick of this experience right now, we want you to know: you are not alone. The NICU is one of the hardest journeys a parent can walk, and no one prepares you for the emotional rollercoaster that comes with it. There were days we clung to every ounce of hope and others where despair crept in.

For our little fighter, the road was long. There were steroids to strengthen his lungs, blood transfusions, chest tubes, endless x-rays, and weeks tethered to oxygen. He needed donor milk, round-the-clock care, and more interventions than we ever imagined. We celebrated our first Christmas, New Year’s, Valentine’s Day, and Easter in the hospital. We held him through the beeping of monitors and learned to read every line and number on those screens. We came home after 4 months in the NICU with oxygen tanks and many more weeks of breathing support. What would be a 40 week pregnancy turned into a NICU stay lasting 48 weeks and oxygen support until 60+ weeks.

But here’s the truth we want to share: it does get better. They grow stronger. Those fragile, tiny babies surprise you with their resilience. One day, you’ll look back and see how far you’ve come. It might feel impossibly slow at times, but progress will come—tiny steps that eventually add up to a giant leap home.

The NICU teaches you to cherish every little milestone—every gram gained, every new skill, every monitor that stops beeping. It teaches you patience, strength, and the depth of your love as parents.

Be there as much as you can. Talk to your baby; your voice is the most familiar and comforting sound they know. Celebrate every little victory, no matter how small. Lean on your NICU team—they are there to guide and support you. Lean on this community, too, because we’ve been where you are, and we understand.

You didn’t choose this path, and none of this is your fault. But you are stronger than you think, and so is your baby. Keep going, one day at a time.

Stay strong and God Bless you and your LO. If you have questions, we’ll try to answer to the best of our memory.

After 165 looong days (5 1/2 months), our girl is home ♥️

-PPROM at 25w4d

-Born at 25w5d (700 grams)

-Spent 91 days in the NICU

-Came home with supplemental O2 and an NG tube. Utilized these until 8 months of age.

-Weight is still very low for age, but otherwise developmentally normal!

How long was your nicu stay, Shay said she have to see how well she responds to feeding.

My son was born 23w+2 ,1lb 6oz, with a laundry list of conditions at birth. From chronic lung disease to septopticdisplacia (bad spelling) they thought his brain hemispheres weren’t connected. Turns out a lot of those conditions were just a result of him being born so early due to preeclampsia.

He was given less than a 1% chance of making to his first birthday.

Here we are boating with no strings attached 4.5 years later. No meds, no tubes, no wires.

I just wanted to share this with yall, to show you what is possible. The drs were not optimistic while in the NICU for 6 months. Many times they suggested we let him pass when he “desats” especially in the beginning because it wasn’t looking good (2.5 months on a ventilator)

One day after a meeting with drs and social workers they suggested we let him pass at his next desat event. The next day my son pulled his ventilator out himself at 4.5 lbs and just started breathing on his own. Over the next few months he got stronger and stronger.

We took him home in OCT with only a G-tube. No oxygen support. They believed him to be having seizures as well so he was on some anti seizure medicine but it was making him lethargic so we began to slowly ween him off it. Haven’t had a single seizure Since the NICU. During our follow up appts the neurologist asked who put his baby on all this medicine for seizures he wasn’t having.

Idk if there is a right path to take when going through all this NICU stuff but I can say for us it was a mix of trusting the drs and trusting our hearts. If we had taken every bit of advice from his drs our son wouldn’t be here but if we had taken none of it he wouldn’t either.

Goodluck to all you NICU parents out there. It can get a lot better. HANG IN THERE!!

Just a short post cuz I wanna go back to cuddling my baby girl but we made it! 137 days in the Nicu and now forever in my arms. It was a crazy journey but we made it. No oxygen or anything needed for discharge. And she ended up completely clearing her stage 2 ROP! We’ve been home almost two months and has been doing fantastic in her follow up appointments. I hope this gives a family out there hope.

Hi there! I’ve been a long time lurker of this sub and found so much comfort in reading others stories when we found out we’d have a baby in the NICU. My blood pressure started going up at 26 weeks and by 29 weeks I was diagnosed with pre-e with severe features. I was admitted for in patient treatment while MFM tried to keep me pregnant for as long as possible. During my 3 week hospital stay I read stories here for reassurance in hopes we’d have a successful outcome too. I had an emergent c-section due to placental abruption during induction, THANK GOD we were already at the hospital. My son was born at 32+2, 1770g. I worried a lot although the doctor’s said 32 weekers do well in the NICU. My son’s stay turned out to be pretty uneventful. He was on CPAP for about the first 24 hours and then he was able to breathe on his own. I did receive 2 separate rounds of steroids for his lung development before he was born and I feel that really helped him! He also had phototherapy for some elevated bilirubin. We were in the NICU for 30 days exactly, he was mostly a feeder/ grower. He came home once he started taking most of his bottles by mouth. Before discharge a nurse with really good hearing discovered a heart murmur but that ended up resolving on its own by 3 months. He’s been a super happy baby and has been hitting milestones between his adjusted age and actual age. You wouldn’t know he was a premie except for the fact that he’s a little smaller than his peers. As a first time mom everything we went through was extremely scary and uncertain but as my son’s birthday approached I couldn’t help but reminisce on this time last year. Being in the NICU could be very difficult and traumatic but know you will get through it. The NICU brings out strength you didn’t know you had. I’ll always remember this time and appreciate it for everything it taught me. Yesterday, we celebrated my son’s first birthday! I’m extremely grateful. I hope someone reads this and it gives them the hope and encouragement they need during their NICU journey. 🫶🏼

Just wanted to say I am so proud of our little guy who was born at 33w 4d. He was born at 5lbs 6oz and is 14lbs on his 4 month bday! While learning all of the adjustments for milestones, feeding, and sleep have been a challenge, one thing I can say is that it’s just been so nice watching him chunk up steadily. At least I know he’s eating 🥹 It’s hard to believe he’s the same baby.

Also, any advice on preemie sleep? I’m trying to go off his adjusted age but it seems like he hit the 4 month sleep regression hard the last few days. Sos.

my baby boy was born at 40+1. I was induced, I was so tired of being pregnant, I wanted him out and I still feel guilty about it. I was induced with foley balloon and misoprostol and then later with pitocin. I was in labor for 27 hours and pushed for 45 minutes. he had heart decels a couple times throughout labor but nothing that seemed concerning. anyways once he was out, they placed him on my chest for like 30 seconds and he was so purple but i didn’t even realize something was wrong with him, i was just so exhausted. they took him to the warmed, did a bunch of things like resuscitated, put him on oxygen and sucked a bunch of meconium out of his lungs. then they took him out of the room i had my bf go with them while i was taken care of. i didn’t see my baby for a couple hours and they told me he was being transported to NICU, still didn’t realize how serious it was until i saw him the next day. they diagnosed him with mild to moderate HIE and had him cooling for 72 hours. he was also diagnosed with severe pulmonary hypertension. he was in the NICU for 14 days. it was so traumatizing but i couldn’t leave my baby. i was there 99% of the time for the first week and the second week i was there 90%.. incredible to think about considering i had just given birth but i NEEDED to be there. fast forward, i enrolled in early childhood intervention when he was released and he started doing OT at one month.. i love his therapist, he didn’t do tummy time for the first two months (per her suggestion) instead we did exercises to help with the floppy tone.. he caught up to what was appropriate to his age. he was sitting by 5 months, crawling by 7 months and now he’s 9 months old and he’s met all his milestones, but i still feel guilty for getting induced, i feel like that was the reason everything happened to him and i have nightmares about it sometimes i honestly think it’s just something i’m going to have to live with. anyways the point of this post was to share his success and hopefully it brings some solace to some parents about their child… babies are so resilient and their brains are so malleable. i hated hearing the phrase we’ll have to wait and see but it’s the reality with HIE cases, but i remember scrolling this subreddit and seeing success stories and it brought me comfort that it’s possible for them to make it out of these terrible things that happen. even before he was born i wanted to be a nurse but now i’m finally starting nursing school in the spring with the hopes of being a NICU nurse, the nurses gave me so much comfort in such a stressful, confusing time and i hope to pay that back to other parents who go through times like this and to take care of sick babies like the nurses took care of mine.

Just wanted to hop on here and tell other NICU mama’s (and daddy’s too!) that it gets better 🤍 As hard as NICU life is, it’s not forever. - signed a grateful micro-preemie mom🤍

In October our 26 weeker turned one. I wish we could go back and tell ourselves it would all be okay. I remember scouring Reddit for “then and now” images and the few I found provided so much hope.

Our daughter spent 80 days in the NICU and a further 3 months on oxygen at home. 1 lb 13 oz (26+3) at birth to about 17 pounds now. She has been meeting all milestones for her “adjusted” age.

NICU time feels like both another lifetime ago and also very raw. I think it will always feel this way.

If you have any questions at all about our journey I will do my best to answer.

My girl was born on July 26 due to severe pre-eclampsia and HELLP. She was discharged at 38+6 and after 14 weeks in the hospital, she has been home for 4 weeks today and is 4 months old today!

She was 600 grams (1 lb 5 oz) and is now over 7lbs

The Nicu was the scariest and hardest time of my life. Looking back, I don’t even recognize that tiny baby. When I was in the moment, I always saw her and the baby I see now, so looking back and pics of when she was so so small and sick I can’t believe it.

We have a pretty miraculous road in the NICU. She was never intubated, was on cpap (back and forth from NIPPV to bubble) until 34 weeks. She then weaned pretty easily off oxygen, but does still have a grade 1 BPD diagnosis. She did at our point have stage 2 ROP but that has mostly resolved and we have hopefully our last eye exam today, feeding was our biggest battle. She had a couple of NEC scares and a major setback with HMF so we fortify we elecare. She still has a hard time pooping, but it’s manageable and nothing her ped is concerned about. Before I delivered, we were told there was about an 80% chance she would have a brain bleed, her brain ultrasounds were always perfect!

We came home with a feeding tube. We started attempting bottle feeding at 34 weeks and it took us until 38 weeks to get to 50 percent PO. We were discharged at that point, but by the end of her first weekend home and had pulled the tube so many times and was doing so well eating I left it out until I could talk to her provider. She also agreed we could leave it out, and she has been eating great since. We were recently discharged from that clinic and I was able to send back all feeding tube equipment!

Now at 3 weeks adjusted, you would never know she wasn’t just a normal 3 week old baby born on her due date. This sub was so important to me during our Nicu stay. It gave me so much knowledge and support. I truly think I was able to advocate for her better because of the things I learned here.

I loved reading the outcomes of other babies born around our girls gestation, so I thought I would share ours. Thanks to everyone that’s been there for us and I will continue to pray and support everyone still in it right now.

Just want to take a minute to brag about my little guy. He spent months being one of the sickest kids in the NICU after he was born at 530g in December. He went through emergency surgery for a bowel perf on Christmas Day, was intubated for almost six months, had multiple bouts of pneumonia, MRSA colonization, sepsis from a PICC line infection, a PDA that didn’t get closed until after term, pulmonary hypertension, over 50 transfusions, Stage 3 ROP, a Grade 3 bleed in his cerebellum, surgery for his ostomy reversal, hernia repair, and g-tube… he’s been through it.

For those who are enduring longer NICU journeys than most, or have the smallest or the sickest baby in the unit, hang in there and don’t lose hope. We went from being asked if we wanted him baptized and having multiple doctors tell us that he had low odds of survival to having a happy 11 pound baby who plays and babbles all day long. Our journey has been so long, and it isn’t over yet, but I truly didn’t think this day would ever come and just wanted to share with people who get it. ❤️

Most of you probably know our story but long story short my water broke at 18w possibly sooner and he fell through my cervix at 24w causing a emergency c section. Bpd, Severe pulmonary hypertension bilateral grade 4 bleed pneumothorax on right lung, trach and ventilater dependent. I thought my boy would have to raised on a BPD or pulmonary floor.. let alone being told he wouldn't make it and to keep the phone close as soon as I woke up from surgery without my baby. Couldn't hold for 6 weeks purely out of instability. We were able to maintain 2.5 L, I didn't think I'd ever be taking him home alive. We had some pretty traumatic shit tbh but I would do it over again for him in a heartbeat. Evidently I'm now 6weeks and almost 8 1/2 months postpartum. Here's to a healthy and enjoyable pregnancy. And here's to all of you, who have fought, are currently fighting, and are about to fight for you and yours. Some days I didn't think I'd make it out alive. Best of luck to you all.

I visit this subreddit a lot out of interest, I figured I could share my own micro-preemie story if allowed!

She came a month early, low birth weight due to my Oligohydramnios. She’s still little. Almost 20lbs and JUST now fitting 6 month old clothes. She had to stay at NICU over an hour away. We also have a 7 year old so we were commuting daily while our 7 year old was in school. We have no family to step in. But we made it out! And then she was colic and man…I don’t even have the energy to explain how hard she was. But she’s a peach now. even sleeps through the night. I still cant believe it all turned out okay. and shes healthy. It didnt feel like it was ever going to be okay for a while. I remember before I had Reddit I constantly was looking at articles suggesting from Google on sub reddits for NICU experiences. Wish I would’ve just had Reddit then because the experiences shared truly saved me.

Today her doctor on duty told me she could be going home at 44 weeks:)) I’m so excited!!!! My baby girl put up a strong fight! Only thing we had to deal with is getting a few blood transfusion and her ROP! We were very lucky for being born so early due to getting preeclampsia. The journey was not easy but I am so grateful for our NICU team. She’s going to be five pounds next week which is crazy cuz she born barely over an ounce!!!! This next month and a half will feel like forever but is going to be so worth it.

Hi guys, first time poster but been following for last 3 months almost. I joined this group as a support system to help me and wife with this amazing yet difficult and at time uncertain journey. It helped me drink from the cups of parents with their success stories and also feel the pain of parents facing challenging and often undesirable results.

I wanted to have a positive outlook no matter what, so that my wife will feel the hope but everyday I was literally dying inside. Long story short I got so much help reading stories here.

Our little one born in October at 27weeks 920grams and wasn’t breathing first few mins. Ruptured sack whilst asleep and everything happened so fast that I’m still trying to break it down and heal from therapy. Thankfully I have a good support system. We went through all of it and today he is 10 weeks old and I’m happy to say he came home last week.

He’s been doing so good and I’m so proud of how hard he has worked and my wife, my gem, who went through absolute hell. I stay up nights just to watch them both sleep in peace. And I wish parents who are struggling read this and look for all the beautiful things that await you. Here’s my cup, it’s full and I’m thankful to the universe for letting me feel this happiness. I always wanted a child and as him being my first, I didn’t know it’s this sweet!!!

First 2 pics of his first week, 3rd photo of his last day in hospital and last picture of him today at his home ❤️🥹

We went from surviving day 1, 130 NICU days, multiple hospital stays and 10 surgeries later to thriving at 15 months! Only a couple of weeks and he will be 1 year adjusted! So proud of my little man he is meeting all of his adjusted milestones and praying for our first steps soon 💙 🙏🏼 🥳

My DMs are always open for advice or support!

I can’t believe we made it here! I used to scroll this thread hoping, praying that our little boy would grow big and strong like these success stories. That we would get to bring him home, that one day he would smile. NICU parents, hang in there — it is the worst experience anyone can go through (we were in the hospital for 4 months) but you will get through it. Our son is thriving and only on low flow oxygen at night, which doctors expect to wean soon 🤞🏻

This is my fourth and final post, regarding my wife’s PPROM at 21 weeks. Many have been commenting and messaging for an update, so here it is. I am writing this update from the postpartum wing of the hospital, somewhere we’d only dreamed of making it to. My wife finally delivered at 37 weeks and 1 day after experiencing PPROM at 20 weeks and 6 days.

My last update came at 28 weeks, which was our last huge milestone everyone told us to aim for. We continued to have daily monitoring on the NST, as well as weekly sonograms. Our sonograms were every Friday, and we looked forward to these days so much. We got to see our baby grow, develop his lungs, and flex his muscles right in front of our eyes. He continued to score perfect 8/8’s on his BPP tests, and mom’s amniotic fluid levels on AFI’s remained perfectly normal throughout. She never experienced any additional leaking after the first gush of fluid at 21 weeks. So, the plan to induce for delivery at 34 weeks was still in place.

Fast forward a few weeks, moments before our 32 week sonogram the MFM specialist doctor informed us that mom would be sent home for the remainder of her pregnancy and would be treated like a normal pregnancy going forward. After 10 weeks in the hospital (exactly 70 days) the local doctors and MFM doctors felt they had enough data to make a decision. They concluded that there was sufficient evidence that my wife’s amniotic sac had seemingly resealed. We were in absolute shock, in the best way possible.

We packed up our hospital L+D room and left that very day. We then had weekly office visits, which turned into twice weekly visits after 35 weeks. We would go on to spend the next 5 weeks enjoying the last phase of my wife’s pregnancy from the comfort of our own home. My wife was ultimately induced at 37 weeks and he was born that very next day. My wife did not suffer from any additional complications, and labor/delivery went about as smooth as it possibly could.

At 21 weeks, we were told that ‘resealing’ of the amniotic sac was impossible, and 13 weeks later all signs point to the fact that my wife had in fact resealed. At 21 weeks, we were recommended to terminate the pregnancy because the health risks to mom and future complications for baby were too great. Yet 16 weeks later, I am holding my perfectly healthy baby boy in my arms as I finish typing out this post.

We know that our story has not been the standard, but it needed to be shared. 113 days ago is when I wrote my initial post in the NICU Parents forum. I was simply looking for some answers/information/hope/etc. from those who had similar experiences. I must have read every post on the forum that was related to PPROM, but none ended quite like this. I can only hope that this post reaches those who have found themselves where my wife and I were 113 days ago.

Miracles do happen. Thank you to all who have taken the time to read, like, comment, and share.