A Comparison

Back when the babies were just about a week old, one of the nurses at the hospital took some really great pictures of them. We scanned those pictures in and sent them out in an update e-mail some time back. Each of those pictures had a little stuffed animal that Uncle Zac and Aunt Kimberly gave the babies when they were born. To show everyone how much bigger the babies are now, tonight we took some pictures of the babies with their little stuffed animals.

To be honest, I was a little surprised at how small our babies used to be when I started pulling up the pictures to make this post. I thought that I truly remembered how little these babies were, but after seeing the old pictures, I'm not so sure. I know that I remember thinking that Henry was a giant when he came home from the hospital, but now Rosemary weighs 1.5 pounds more than he did when he came home. I suppose that when we do these pictures with the stuffed animals I'll be surprised all over again.

Here's Piper at 6 days, followed by Piper at 3.5 months:

And since Piper wouldn't wake up for her picture, here's a picture of her awake from a few days ago, sitting up like a big girl in her bumbo:



And here's Henry at 6 days, followed by Henry at 3.5 months:




Rosemary at 8 days, followed by Rosemary at 3.5 months:




Many of you have talked about the picture of Rosemary wearing Gary's wedding band when she was 3 weeks. Just for fun, we also took some pictures of Rosemary with Gary's wedding band for commparison. . . .




We took Rosemary back to the pediatrician's office to be weighed on Friday, and she had gained a whopping ten ounces in 7 days! She now weighs 7 pounds 7 ounces. And, we've found a new nanny who we really like. She had taken care of Rosemary the entire week leading up to the weigh in, so we know that she is feeding her well!

Premature babies are usually measured by their "adjusted age" rather than by their actual chronological age. So, when we see where the babies fall on the growth chart or are looking at their developmental milestones, we consider their age to be however much older they are than their due date, rather than how old they actually are. That means that although our babies are now 3.5 months, we consider them to be 5.5 weeks adjusted age. Based on adjusted age, Piper and Henry have been moving up on the growth chart, and most recently both fall right around the 50th percentile for weight. Rosemary, however, has been so small that she has not even made the weight chart. But -- after this last weigh in -- we are pleased to report that Rosemary is finally on the chart and falls in right in the 5th percentile for weight! Hopefully she'll take after her sister and brother and keep moving up. . . .

P.S. Is it just me or has Rosemary's nose not grown since she was born? I remember thinking that she had quite a honker on her when she was born, but now it looks regular size. In the old pictures, her nose takes up almost her entire face! Regardless, I'm just happy that she has so far grown into that nose.