Premature babies have two ages: 1) their actual age based on the day they were born; and 2) their “corrected age”, which is based on their full-term due date. Their corrected age stops mattering after a while, but it’s important for assessing early development, because milestones like “Most babies begin to babble and to imitate some sounds by the end of the third month” are based on what’s normal for full-term babies. Without correcting age for prematurity, most preemies would appear developmentally impaired, even when they’re perfectly normal. In two days, Brooke and Claire will be exactly two months old, but today was their due date, so in corrected age, they just turned zero!
We celebrated Brooke and Claire’s 0th birthday with Coldstone Creamery cupcakes. Last September, we celebrated their conception with a Coldstone cake, so it seemed only fitting. Plus, we’re always on the lookout for an excuse to indulge in Coldstone cakes, now that we’ve had a couple. I don’t remember what reason we used to try the first one, but it didn’t matter. It was yummy. (I get no promotional consideration from Coldstone, but if someone from Coldstone ever reads this and wants to offer us a free cake, that’s okay by me.)
Having reached the ripe old age of zero, Claire and Brooke are already pros at many of the newborn milestones: coordinated sucking, swallowing, and breathing to eat by mouth; self-regulation of their body temperatures; looking adorable; crying when they’re hungry, uncomfortable, or feeling a touch of ennui; impersonating Bobbleheads if their heads aren’t supported; and squirming a lot when they aren’t swaddled. There’s still room for improvement in the unassisted pooping department, but they’ve made some progress on that in the last few days.
Both girls are growing well, and as of their last check-up a few days ago, Claire weighed 6 lbs., 13 oz., and Brooke weighed 7 lbs., 8 oz. Apparently, they’ve agreed to maintain the 11 oz. difference they had at birth. (“How do you tell them apart?” “Claire is the one that looks 11 oz. lighter.”) They’ve nearly outgrown their preemie clothes and are already wearing some “newborn” and “0-3 months” sizes. We’ve gotten so many clothes as gifts and hand-me-downs that I’m not sure they could ever wear them all, even if they never repeated outfits. That will be up to Mommy to figure out, since my strategy is usually to put on whatever I find first if it looks clean and roughly the right size.
Both girls had their eyes checked again yesterday and they’re still looking good. (For you grammar geeks out there, be sure to enjoy the amusing ambiguous reference in that last sentence.) ((I’m wondering: 1) Are there any grammar geeks out there, besides Beds; and 2) Do you think this “double parenthetical” convention I just invented will catch on, for when you have a second parenthetical thought after the one you just finished?)) Despite their healthy retinas, it will undoubtedly be many years before the girls are able to see this paragraph and make any sense of the grammatical meta-humor, but in their defense, it’s hard to see.
When I stop giving updates about the girls and start making jokes about grammar and punctuation that no one will get, that’s probably a good time to end the post and go to bed. G’night.
