Bad Math

I hate Math.

Numbers are just dumb.

But God has a sense of humor and gave us a baby that requires a lot of Math. 

You see, Little Bitty has a Birth Age and a Corrected Age so that's TWO ages we get to keep up with. And I have BBB (Broken Baby Brain) so that complicates matters even more! I'm constantly having to ask my Beloved how old our child is. How sad is that?!

Her birth date is September 20th. So she's currently 17(ish) weeks old.

However her due date was December 2nd so she's technically only a month and a half old developmentally. 

Because she was born so early, they expect it will take her some extra time to do things. But they don't know for sure. All typical baby milestones are all screwy now. All the baby books have regular milestone estimates - we don't have a regular baby. All the books have charts that list when babies should be doing things like grasping objects (2 1/2 - 4 1/2 months). However they also have footnotes that read 'for babies born prematurely, subtract the number of months missed in pregnancy from the baby's current age and check at the adjusted age.' Yeesh. Numbers.

We'll ask her Doctors when she should start teething or talking or rolling over. And the Doctors say not to worry, it could be when she reaches the corrected age or sooner. 

So basically no one knows but Alice.

She'll be considered Preemie until she's 2. By then it will be obvious if there are developmental check points she's not reaching. The doctors think she won't have any issues - she's doing great so far.

Here's the problem - she's 17 weeks old and has been home since October 30th but she's only 7 weeks old and still can't do much. Which frustrates her quite a bit! 

She's alert and bored and wants to move around so bad. But she still doesn't have hand or head control. Poor thing. So we move her from her play pad to the swing to the couch to the play pad.....

She smiles but not because she means to. She grabs things by accident and then looks surprised to find something in her hand. She is looking at things with purpose now which is fun. She has the prettiest little blue eyes. :) 

And she'll get there! We're not rushing her (although it would be lovely to have her hold her own bottle). 

She's already growing too fast. ;)

So if I pause when asked how old our child is - it's not because I don't know, I'm just doing to the math in my head. 

Until next time.....