SGA Preterm Baby - 6 Months Progress

--- by D. Petkovski ---

As we celebrate six months of pure love, laughter, and milestones reached, it’s time to reflect on the progress our baby has made.

A reminder: our son was born one month prematurely and also he was SGA (small for gestational age). In this post, I want to share his progress and achievements of the first 6 months, to give other parents an idea of their baby’s potential development.

If you’re new to my blog, I already have a more detailed first trimester post and even the birth story.

Join me in the second episode of this delightful journey, appreciating each moment with pride and gratitude.

Table of Contents

6 Months Charts – Length & Weight

I’ll start with a straight-forward section where I’ll share the numbers.

I can imagine that many (future) parents are most interested in this part, so here’s our baby’s development during the first 6 months:

Length Stats (6 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)

Our little boy is developing quite well length wise.

The curve slowly starts flattening out as he ages, but his growth is still obvious week over week and especially month over month.

Read my previous post for more details about the length and why it’s important to monitor it closely for premature babies.

Weight Stats (6 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)

It’s been great progress on his weight as well.

The pediatrician told us that as a premature and SGA baby, his weight will be on its own curve. We expected to track only the slope of it, but we’re really happy to see it entering higher percentiles month over month!

And although he was born a month premature, the trend of catching up with his peers is already obvious.

Beyond the numbers, he eats well, develops as expected, and is perfectly healthy so far!

6 Months Achievements & Progress

This is the section for those that want to read more free-format commentary about our son’s development.

I’ll split it per month, but keep in mind that there’s a big overlap as he continuously improves some patterns and develops in existing behaviors.

4th Month

During the fourth month, he gradually started having whole nights of sleep.

Unlike previously where he would wake up 2-3 times during the night, now he started sleeping continuously for 7-9 hours.

For both my wife and myself, waking up at night to feed our son was never an issue. Every moment was a blessing. But this was definitely more convenient.

While he was awake, he started showing interest in things around him and exploring them physically. He would reach out with his arms to touch our fingers or toys. This still didn’t happen every time, but it was a 0 to 1 development, so worth noting it.

Also, his “tummy time” started lasting longer and being more controlled. Until the previous month, he sometimes didn’t feel like lifting his head. But now, holding a strong position became the standard.

And lastly, his recognition of other people increased significantly.

Reacting with smiles to specific sounds or gestures from us became the norm.

It was heart-warming every time we see him smile. And the best part is that we could have that moment of bliss every time we would play with him.

Raising a happy baby is a blessing. And we’re both proud that we allocated enough time and resources to fully dedicate ourselves to our son.

First Trip – Traveling Across Europe

At the end of the fourth month, we went on a big road trip across Europe.

Our baby boy has visited 6 countries before he was 6 months: North Macedonia, Serbia, Hungary, Austria, Germany, and the Netherlands. I’ll write a separate post about our decision to give birth outside our country of residence.

Nevertheless, he got a chance to explore and appreciate various landscapes and environments.

Traveling with a baby deserves its own section, if not a whole post… But overall, it was way easier than we expected.

Yes, there are minor inconveniences of preparing food or changing on the road. But with good preparation, they really become non-issues.

He enjoyed the trip and easily adapted to the plethora of new places that we visited/stayed in.

5th Month

The fifth month started with our baby’s settling in our home in the Netherlands.

The new thing we started doing this month is changing his diet a bit. Besides milk, now we started with solid foods as well.

My wife took the role of a chef and started preparing his fruit and veggie meals. We really focused on the quality of the diet, so every meal was prepared fresh – never bought processed food nor utilized the fridge.

Planning a baby’s diet deserves its own post, but in summary: we started with 1 meal per day and moved up to 2 later in the month. The way we introduced new foods to him was gradual – a few spoons at first, and increase the dosage every subsequent day. Our little bundle of joy devoured anything that we prepared and ate almost insatiably every time. It’s always a pleasure to watch him do it.

Normally, eating solid foods required him to be able to sit, so he got better at that as well.

He still couldn’t manage on his own, but we put him in a baby chair where he can get used to it.

Of course, at all times we are doing physical activities to get him ready for the next steps of his development. Helping him sit, roll over, hold his head, etc.

And in return, he graced us with his enchanting smiles. Smiles which are particularly heart-melting when he sees us for the first time after waking up.

And this reactive smiling was not passive, but quite engaging actually. His “speech” was developing and we grew accustomed to certain sounds over time, which we fondly dubbed as singing.

Witnessing his self-exploration journey was truly alluring.

6th Month

When the new nurses met him for the first time, they commented on his strength and activity.

While to us it’s quite normalized (as we don’t have experience with other babies), every person who meets him never fails to point out his boundless energy. So I’ll mention it as well: he’s always active, never tired of making bridging motions, kicking, and playfully engaging with anything we offer him.

While on the topic, fitness-wise: his hips are fully opened for a while now, his shoulder mobility is amazing, and he started pushing himself backwards while laying down. His grip is quite strong so I plan to install the baby rings in his playpen really soon! And he recently got in the habit of holding his feet with his hands in a curled position, resembling the 10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu’s Rubber Guard.

In the sixth month, we introduced even more solid foods and although there weren’t new developments, he got better, faster, stronger at the things he was already doing. For example, his interest in the objects around him intensified. But also for his own body – he spends quite some time analyzing himself – his fingers, movements, what he can do with his voice, etc.

For his 1/2 birthday, we decided to treat him with a nice baby spa experience. Our gift is to get him accustomed to the finer things in life from the earliest of age.

He truly enjoyed it:

Eager to share the next trimester’s progress as soon as we get there!

Don’t forget to subscribe so you don’t miss it.

Until then, I’m wishing you months of bliss and happiness.

Stay positive!

Author

D. Petkovski

📓 The Author Husband & Father
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