In order to be freed from the joint, our little girl has do 3 things:
- Get older
- Get fatter
- Drink more
How hard can that be? Kids today get it so easy!
1. Get older
No baby leaves the hospital without reaching the ripe old age of 35 weeks GA (Gestational Age). Grace will be 32 weeks tomorrow. 35 weeks is April 30th. The reality is that we are probably looking at another 9 or 10 days later (the purple dot below) – around May 9th or 10th – as she works on the rest of her goals.
2. Get fatter
She has to put on the pounds, ounces and/or grams. Their goal for her is about 2 kilos (the purple line). Yesterday, she grew by another 70 grams bringing her to 1460 grams (3 lbs 3.5 oz). According to the user manual, we can expect an average of 15-30 grams per day.
3. Drink more
She needs to be getting all of her feedings from a nipple. Be it on a bottle or on her mother (mine apparently don’t qualify), she has to eat as much as she wants from it as often as she can.
There are a few other little things like moving out of her box (into more of tray) which requires regulating her own temperature and, of course, breathing all day, every day without any breaks.
As parents, we are trying to hold off on applying too much pressure (until at least the 2nd grade), but she clearly sets the bar pretty high for herself. Apparently “fail” is among the many words she can neither spell nor define.