Reddit reviews Preemies - Second Edition: The Essential Guide for Parents of Premature Babies

First of all, congratulations! It's a scary way for a little one to enter the world but they grow so fast, you won't believe it.

Because we were overly optimistic about our discharge date, I want to warn you that 4 weeks for a 30 weeker sounds pretty exceptional to me. Usually they tell people to anticipate being home by your due date. It's reasonable to hope for when baby's term (37-38 weeks). We had managed to convince ourselves (in part due to inaccurate reassurances that we received) that we'd be home around 36 weeks, and it's made this last stretch much harder, emotionally.

Everyone processes information differently, so what worked for me might not work for you, but I, anticipating a premie, researched via google all of the common complications. PDA, IVH, NEC, RDS/CLD, ROP (lol it's an alphabet soup!), apneas/bradycardia/desaturations (aka... ABDs). If that sounds terrifying for you, only google ABDs (which aren't actually bad, but which can be a bit scary). Once babe was born, we were also gifted a book (https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00APJ7KXG/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1) that was quite helpful for more in depth knowledge.

We set up a meal train in the early days to not have to worry about food and I highly recommend it.

Also, kellymom.com is a great resource for everything breastfeeding/pumping related, if that's the route that you choose/works out for your family.

I probably have more, but I'm exhausted (NICU life! Sigh) - you can scroll through my post history for other advice I've offered if you like.