PS: The sack of potatoes problem

I should have mentioned this in the previous post, but even low grade sleep deprivation makes one forget things. One of the biggest questions we had for the doctor at the appointment, in addition to evalating this whole pumping/milk thing, was about what development trajectory we can expect for Liam. What things follow chronological (born 1/30) age and what follow developmental (due 3/14) age?

And the good news and bad news is that this whole first six weeks of being a lovely but demanding sack of potatoes, was all just a sort of more exhausting third trimester. Although he is chronologically more than a month old, the fun things that come in the second month, like social smiling, is all neurological. And the neurological developmental milestones all follow developmental age. So while we've spent more than a month exhausting ourselves in helping to meet all his little demands, we are looking to have at least another four weeks with the demanding little sack of potatoes before we start getting into some of those more rewarding behaviors and more organized days and nights.

Not that there arent rewarding things about the current sack of potatoes phase. He has little inner smiles, where he smiles in his sleep or with his eyes closed. This has nothing to do with trying to engage us. But I like to think it reflects an inner state of rightness in his world that is an indirect compliment to our care. And those few moments of quiet wakefulness where he looks around are just awesome and wonderful.

So we'll breathe deeply, and look forward to celebrating his due date this Saturday. After that we'll start progressing towards those fun and rewarding developmental milestones.