Some time ago, I wrote a post about the birth of my son.
In summary: he was born prematurely and was classified as SGA (small for gestational age).
In this post, I’ll share his achievements and stats during his first trimester of independent life. ❤️
Day Zero (Preterm SGA Stats at Birth)
Our little hero was born prematurely, around 4 weeks before his due date.
His weight at birth was 2050g (4.52lbs).
Below you can see where this stands in the percentiles chart:
As you can see, his weight is far below the 3rd percentile line.
However, this was not that worrying.
Remember that the baby is preterm, so we’re comparing his weight to babies which are a whole month older than him on average. For his gestational age, i.e. comparing him with babies in their 36th week of existence, he was in the 8th percentile.
The pediatrician told us that our son will follow his own curve on the weight chart, staying below the red line for some time.
His length at birth was 47cm (18.5 inches).
Below you can see it marked on the percentiles chart:
Actually, when we talked with the pediatrician, she said that the length is what we should pay attention to. The weight would catch up until his second year, but SGA preterm babies can be shorter, statistically.
This was not really concerning for us as his health and well-being were our top priorities. And he was doing great in that department! All his functions were as expected.
Our doctor told us that preterm babies are born fighters for everything they need to endure to survive and catch up.
First Month’s Achievements & Progress
The little one started owning his instincts quite quickly.
They started with breastfeeding within the first few days and he actually preferred it over a bottle. Witnessing the development of the mother-son bond brought tears to the teams’ eyes, especially after they participated in the high risk C-section a couple of days ago.
During the same time, our son had undergone quite a few examinations (orthopedic, hearing, cardiovascular, etc.) and luckily he did great on all of them.
They were released after a week in the hospital. My brave fighters. 💪
Although visibly smaller than the other babies, I couldn’t feel sorry for him because I knew how strong he is. I already felt proud of my son!
And strong he was!
He was always full of energy and loved moving, even when being held. His voice also strengthened and became really loud.
Towards the end of the month, while we were lifting his legs during nappy change, he was pushing downwards so hard that he started doing bridging motions with his whole body! Nobody believed us that this is happening so early and were left speechless when witnessing it.
At the end of the month, he underwent a retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) check and his eyes turned out to be good.
He was doing amazing!
His weight at the end of the first month was 3050g (6.72lbs).
As expected, he follows the slope on his own curve.
He grew a whole kilogram during the first month and we were quite happy with the progress.
Related to his diet: initially, he was consuming 25-30ml of milk every 3 hours. After a week, he started consuming 45ml per meal. But eventually we bumped it up to 60ml meals, as he kept asking for more.
His length at the end of the first month was 53cm (20.86 inches).
Look at that!
Surpassing the 15th percentile, with a 6cm growth in his first month.
This was really good news, especially after the pediatrician’s comment that we should be more worried about his length than weight.
Second Month’s Achievements & Progress
During the second month, he started tracking the movement of items with his intelligent gaze. He also started reacting to sounds around him.
He built a habit of fixating his eyes on points of interest, allowing us to enjoy long staredowns full of depth and love.
He also started developing preferences.
For example, he always calmed down when I’d pick him up in a vertical position. He also liked us singing to him, which was a great way to utilize my freestyling skills after a long while.
Every day felt like an exciting adventure where we’d observe something new.
Later in the month, we did the first “tummy time”, or as we like to call it “position little turtle”. We couldn’t believe our eyes when our preterm baby stayed with his head up. There was no control of movement, but the arch in his neck was quite strong.
We did another orthopedic exam shortly after and everything was okay.
Most importantly, he started looking fuller.
Every part of his body that previously seemed weak now started getting a rounder shape. He looked great and healthy!
And towards the end of the month, something that we didn’t expect this early was his babbling. It sometimes even resulted in him engaging in long single-syllable marathons.
His weight at the end of the second month was 3940g (8.68lbs).
Everything was moving as expected.
A nice ~900g growth during the second month.
His length at the end of the second month was 56cm (22.04 inches).
A steady growth following the 15th percentile curve.
We were really proud of the progress we’ve made!
Third Month’s Achievements & Progress
Our bundle of joy started smiling at us! ❤️
During the third month, he started with multi-syllable babbling. Nothing coherent yet, but he was expressing himself and even repeating sounds occasionally.
When we were turning him into a turtle (tummy time, remember?), there were times when he held his head up for a whole minute. But there were also times when he was too lazy to bother. A big milestone was when he was on his tummy and simply pushed himself to the side, rotating on his back.
I couldn’t believe what I’m seeing and felt extremely proud!
Throughout the month, the tummy-to-back rotation became a habit.
At the end of the month, he had his central nervous system checked during a neurological exam. He did great there as well! In the report, the first line is “A vital baby with a strong cry.” followed by a sequence of findings mentioning how fit and coordinated he was.
Truly heart warming. 🙏
That helpless little human that came underprepared now impresses everyone with his strength!
I feel so proud of my amazing son. So happy to be his father!
His weight at the end of the third month was 5020g (11.06lbs).
A steeper growth this month, surpassing the 5kg mark.
Nothing more to report, things are looking great. He now has 90-105ml meals.
His length at the end of the third month was 62cm (24.4 inches).
What’s going on here though?!
Our little hero can’t stop growing in length!
He already surpassed the 50th percentile on his 3rd month. We couldn’t believe that he grew 6cm within a month again.
Something Interesting: Adjusted Charts
Remember that were measuring a preterm SGA baby against a sample of all babies, the large majority of which are born on time.
Thus, we’re also tracking his corrected/adjusted curve where we compare our son with peers of his gestational age.
We do this by comparing his stats for month X with the percentiles for month X-1:
Preterm Adjusted Weight Chart
His weight is steadily flirts with the 15th percentile curve.
And this was really great news, as he was classified SGA at birth (meaning below the 10th percentile for weight).
Preterm Adjusted Length Chart
Height wise, compared to babies of his gestational age, he is approaching the 97th percentile line.
Can’t wait to see our little hero’s progress in the next 3 months! 🔥
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Author
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D. Petkovski
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Husband & Father
Software Engineer StrengthCentric
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