Milestones

Ask the parent of a premature baby how old he or she is, and you will get a complicated answer. Buzzy, for example, is 22 months old, but she is only supposed to be 19 months. Thus, when people comment that she is small for her age, I tell them that, in fact, she is small for her actual age but not necessarily for her adjusted age. Some may wonder why the adjusted age is even important. The answer to this question has to do with milestones.

A preemie will not likely sit up, crawl, walk, or talk at the same time as his or her full-term peers. This is because they spend the first part of their lives making up for time lost in utero. Buzzy came home weighing what a newborn typically does, but she was 2 1/2 months old at the time. She had spent her first 10 weeks developing as she would have if she had not come so early. This meant that we had to think of her as a newborn instead of the 10 week old who probably would have flashed her first smile. As with this and other milestones, we had to wait longer.

While the parents of Buzzy's peers watched for that first smile, we celebrated events not typically thought of as milestones. Wearing clothes, moving to a bassinet, being held like a newborn, taking a bottle, and breathing room air are the moments we proudly captured on film. Additionally, as the parents of a preemie, we not only celebrated different milestones, but we have also celebrated the typical milestones differently. After her first birthday, we anxiously watched and waited for the first step and first word because these important milestones would give us a clue as to whether her prematurity would have a lasting effect on her development. By 18 months (15 months adjusted), she had accomplished both feats. Today, Buzzy runs everywhere she goes, chattering as she does, and it will not be long before the age question will only require a simple answer. That will be a milestone indeed.