Gestational age: 28 weeks +4 days
THEY GREW!
Today was our first weigh-in since arrival, when we received the heartbreaking news that though Baby B had recently grown to 2 lb 14 oz, C had stalled at 1 lb 15 oz for well over a week.
Dr. Hayes has been clear that our aim here is to promote baby organ stabilization and crucial brain activity, and that – again, given flaws in the blueprint I drafted when designing this placenta – gaining weight would be incidental. Even the weekly weight assessment is just a means to provide data to the NICU in order to have the adequately-teeny tiny instruments on hand.
But given the real risks of what’s classified as “very low birth weight,” their littleness has been one of the inevitabilities we really hoped to make right. And friends! You lighthouses!
Today we learned Baby B has leapt to 3 lb 3 oz (+5 oz) and Baby C to 2 lb 5 oz (+6 oz). This means Baby C not only grew, but gained an ounce more than her sister (not that this is a competition; they’ll no doubt be compared enough in their lives). It means this is working: the hospitalization, the intensive oxygen therapy, the hourly blood tests and monitoring and insulin and steroids and hospital food. The prayers and incantations and hope.
And it means they’re both inching toward a stronger entrance in this world – which is all we ask. Just that.
The Squires Family Five 
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