Our sweet baby - 3 weeks old today - is still a little
yellow, but is eating really well, sleeping and pooping/peeing. He’s so very
fetus-like to me; he really doesn’t do much else that these basic three things,
and he’s all curled up all the time. I don’t feel like he’s very aware or in
control of anything
either; everything he does is either an unintentional
reflex (he is a noisy sleeper, and moves, squirms, twitches and jerks a lot –
although when I touch him he seems to gain some control and stops), or by
instinct (like rooting for a breast or sucking, and waking up to feed). It’s
hard to explain what exactly I’m expecting him to do at this point, but there’s
something slightly different about him compared to my other boys when they were
a couple of weeks old. I haven’t looked much into it, but I’m hoping these are all
part of a normal preemie behavior. (He does turn his head towards exciting
noises and light, which I guess is a sign of… something.)
He does still have
another week before he was supposed to be born – perhaps after his due date he
will act more like a (newborn) baby?
He looks beautiful. And small and fragile. He will grow. Nancy explained the delays of preemies to me...I can't remember exactly what she said, just that it does take them some time to catch up. I hope that you are slowly feeling better, too. Quite an ordeal you went through!
ReplyDeleteYes; it takes them awhile to catch up. And they develop slower outside than in. Sometimes I still have to shake my head and remind myself that Benjamin isn't 10 months old. He's only 8 months old. He's still "behind."
ReplyDeleteIt's exhausting and wonderful all at the same time—you get the "newborn" stage for like twice as long!
Benjamin was like that, too, he was still all squishy and new at six weeks old. The only thing more "mature" about him was that his skin was less translucent than babies his adjusted/corrected age. See here.
He IS still a fetus. And that's fine. :)