12 Months Development: SGA Preterm Baby

--- by D. Petkovski ---

Happy birthday to the little one! 🎉

And with that, it’s the time to reflect on another trimester of his remarkable journey.

A reminder: our son was born one month prematurely and also he was SGA (small for gestational age). In this post, I’ll share his progress and achievements until first year, to give parents an idea about their babies’ potential development.

If you’re new to my blog, I also have similar posts for the previous periods:

And on to the current episode. 👇

Table of Contents

12 Months Charts – Length & Weight

I’ll start with a summary where I’ll share the numbers.

Most parents are probably interested in this part, so here’s our baby’s 12 month growth charts:

Length Stats (12 Months Premature SGA Baby)

Length at birth: 47cm (18.5 inches)
1st month length: 53cm (20.86 inches)
2nd month length: 56cm (22.04 inches)
3rd month length: 62cm (24.4 inches)
4th month length: 65cm (25.6 inches)
5th month length: 66cm (26 inches)
6th month length: 67cm (26.38 inches)
7th month length: 69cm (27.16 inches)
8th month length: 71.5cm (28.14 inches)
9th month length: 72cm (28.34 inches)
10th month length: 74cm (29.13 inches)
11th month length: 76.5cm (30.11 inches)
12th month length: 79cm (31.1 inches)

Growing well and reaching ever higher percentiles! 📈

Note: this is an unadjusted chart, so his length is compared to that of babies born on time (technically, a month older than him).

Weight Stats (12 Months Premature SGA Baby)

Weight at birth: 2050g (4.52lbs)
1st month weight: 3050g (6.72lbs)
2nd month weight: 3940g (8.68lbs)
3rd month weight: 5020g (11.06lbs)
4th month weight: 5610g (12.37lbs)
5th month weight: 6100g (13.45lbs)
6th month weight: 6600g (14.55lbs)
7th month weight: 7170g (15.80lbs)
8th month weight: 7815g (17.22lbs)
9th month weight: 8580g (18.91lbs)
10th month weight: 9330g (20.57lbs)
11th month weight: 9526g (21lbs)
12th month weight: 10,015g (22.07lbs)

Finally, 10kg and we’re above average on weight! 👏

What a journey it’s been – from sub 10 percentile to consistently above average! I’d say it’s quite an accomplishment for a baby that was born both preterm and SGA! 🔥

Note: this is an unadjusted chart, so his weight is compared to that of babies born on time (a month older than him).

Fourth Trimester Achievements & Progress

This is the section for those that want to read more free-format commentary about our son’s development in the fourth trimester. To read about the previous months or his birth story, you can check the posts in the fatherhood category.

10th Month Milestones: Sitting at Will

In the 10th month, mostly it was him showing more coherence and stability in his existing achievements and activities.

His energy was contagious – relentlessly kicking with his legs, rolling around, “singing” and making noises similar to the modern portrayal of Native Americans’ war cry (including the hand over mouth). 🙂

Some of the new behaviors we observed were being able to go from laying to sitting by himself, sometimes holding his bottle, and waving his hands as a reaction to “bye bye”.

11th Month Milestones: Crawling Everywhere

In this month, more teeth popped out and he started chewing solid food. 🍗

He even started using the “ma-ma” expression to convey being hungry, consistently.

In regards to his physical development, he started crawling around faster and with a lot more confidence.

We observed the most development in his cognitive processes.

His preferences of toys or activities sharpened and he actively pursued the ones he liked more. Also, he was usually alert, curious, and wanted to know/explore the things/sounds/movements occurring around him.

Another development was him imitating “dance moves” to certain songs, where he would do the same movement at the same part of the song. And after he learned it, he continued doing it without seeing the image anymore.

12th Month Milestones: Standing Up!

Our 1 year old continued getting immersed in longer sessions with his favorite toys. He loved things that rotate and got proficient in recognizing images, turning pages in his sound books, pointing at items and having “sounds” for each, etc.

But the major milestone was him standing up by himself for the first time. 💪

Of course, he still needs support from items around him, but he couldn’t stop exploring the world on foot.

And he did explore it!

For his first birthday, we went on another trip towards the north of Europe, visiting Germany, Denmark, and Sweden.

Some father and son memories from this trip. 🙂 Follow me on Instagram for more!

This brought him to 16 visited countries before his first birthday and we’ll make sure the saga continues as he grows! 🌍

Afterword

I initially decided to start this series for parents in a similar situation as us.

When we first heard the news that our son is small for gestational age, we got really worried about his further development and consequences as he grows up. This especially intensified when he ended up being born prematurely due to a placental abruption.

I decided to document his development during the first year because I didn’t find many places that covered it.

And as you can see from the charts, he thrived and is already above average on both weight and length.

Eager to witness his second year and document his growth going further!

Thank you for reading. 🙏🥂👶

Author

D. Petkovski

📓 The Author Husband & Father
Software Engineer StrengthCentric
Bitcoin Hodler DeFi Veteran
🌍 Everything Enthusiast 🔥 Optimist

Revolutionizing ideas. Simplifying complexity. Sharing knowledge.