Day 37, Growing Again

Hannah's up to 2 pounds, 5 ounces today! Some of you are probably thinking "Wait a minute, she was 2 pounds 3 ounces three weeks ago . . ." You're right. But her real weight then was closer to 1 lb 13 oz (she was 1 lb 8 oz at birth). There are a couple reasons the doctors and nurses don't put much emphasis on weight the first few weeks of a preemie's life. First of all, it's much more important to get the heart and lungs working. We can function a while without food or drink, but only a few minutes without oxygen circulating through our bloodstream. Second, most babies, preemies in particular, expend some of their stored energy in the first few days of life while their bodies are getting used to processing food and oxygen. So they can actually lose weight before they start to gain. Third, preemies often don't have a robust enough digestive system or circulatory system to get rid of fluids effectively, so it builds up in body tissues and shows up as misleading weight gain.

In Hannah's case, quite a lot of that early 2 lbs 3 oz was simply fluid building up in her tissues. She dropped down to 1 lb 14 oz within about a week after she started to soak diapers, and has been slowly gaining it back since then. This time, it is more obviously real weight gain instead of just water. She's consuming 5ccs of milk per hour, or half a cup per day, and gaining about an ounce per day. And that's right on target for the expected growth rate at her gestational age (about 29.5 weeks now).

All in all, we're on track for a few months of growth.