My weight gain over the 16 weeks of my life was very slight. My parents struggled to know how well I was doing, as against a healthy baby, clearly I wasn’t developing as would be expected. But there was little information available to compare me against another Edwards Baby. Was I developing as would be expected, better than expected or worse than expected?

Slight weight gain

Apart from my initial weight loss following the birth, most weeks (irrespective of feeding difficulties) I gained weight, albeit very slight. There is however a slight anomaly in my weight record, between 4 and 7 weeks, where I was weighed on different scales.

Awkward moments

Mummy found it hard answering people’s questions whenever we went out. Being so small, I would always draw attention, and people would inevitably ask questions about whether or not I was premature, or how old I was. The answer would always leave awkward pauses in the conversation, with people usually saying at the end ’oh well she’ll soon catch up’.

Other issues

Other issues related to my weight were things like clothing, car seats and slings. Whilst I was small, I didn’t really fit into premature baby clothes, as my limbs were actually quite long. Instead I wore tiny baby outfits, with the sleeves rolled up!. Sometimes I looked a bit silly!! I never grew out of these clothes during my lifetime. I would also slump in the car seat, so Mummy and Daddy had to fit a booster cushion to it. As I liked being cuddled so much, I was often a bit grumpy when I was put in my pram. Mummy wanted to get a sling for me, but many of them have a minimum weight which was well above where I was. She eventually found one called a ‘Close Baby Carrier’. This would take weights starting from 2.3 kilos (5 lbs). Sadly it arrived the day I was taken to the hospice and so I never got to really try it out.

Cerys’ growth chart

Mummy has attached below my growth chart for you to see, she has also added a section at the end, where if you would like to plot your own child’s growth against mine you can. Perhaps if we can all add our records, with time we can help build up a clearer picture of what sort of growth could be hoped for:-