I'm 3 months old. No, I'm only 1 month old. (Aug. 22)

Howdy!

I am trying hard to figure this out. I have been out of my cozy, wet sack for 14 weeks, but I'm actually only 4 weeks old. What?

So for you amateurs out there, myself included, here is the deal with preemies. We have a legal date of birth, but we also have a corrected age. Because I was born when I just turned 30 weeks gestational, the first 10 weeks of my life were still gestational weeks even though I was out of my womb. I was learning and doing the same things other babies of the same gestational age are doing, just doing it in your world instead of in my Mommy's tummy. For example, it's pretty typical to develop the suck-swallow-breath reflex around the gestational age of 34 weeks. So, I was not born with this, but it did kick in around my 4th week of life in the outside world.

Now, my corrected age is based on when I was actually supposed to arrive into your world (which I think is totally cool, by the way!), which was July 25. So, I have a corrected age of 4 weeks old, and this coming Monday I will be 1 month old! So I'm acting like a 1 month old. I am not doing the typical things that a 3 month old would do, such as intentional smiling, gooing and cooing and the like. I do talk, trust me on that one, just not the standard type of talking.

So, now you can understand why my friend Callie, who was born on the same day as I was, acts more mature than me. She was born at full-term, so she really is 3 months old. She coos, smiles with intention, plays, and even wears 3 month size of clothes. I still wear newborn size and have outgrown most of my preemie clothes. I weighed 7 lbs 2oz and was 19 inches tall on Aug. 15. Callie weighed 7 lbs 5 oz as was 20 inches when she was born.

My newest friend, Brenden, was born two weeks early on August 6, and he weighed 8 lbs 15.5 oz and was 21 inches long. He is now well over 10 lbs, but he and I act very similar because his due date and my due date are closer together than mine and Callie's.

What do I do these days? Well, I like to be in my quiet alert state for 2 hour blocks a couple times each day. I also love to vocalize and grunt, pop, and squeal. I look around at contrasts and I can win a staring contest easily. I can track your movement if I have my eyes on you and I can keep my head facing the same position if you turn my body 180 degrees. I love to look at Daddy's face and I even stand up by myself when he's trying to feed me. I also can maneuver myself across the bed when I'm laying on my tummy, by pushing with my legs and moving my head from one side to facing down back to the side. I crawl out of my pants when I do this!

Okay, that's the latest from my cradle.

Danica