Dear Henry, what's in a kilo
I remember the first time we heard the number 630 grams. I was laying in the ER with my first epidural in, an ultrasound tech on one side and Matt on the other. She was checking to make sure that Henry was doing ok despite my preterm labor, they also wanted to get an idea of his size, obviously the bigger the better the chances he had of surviving. After she measured him, she said he looks to be good size for a 23 weeker, he's about 630 grams (1 pound 6 ounces).
When he was born, 4 days later, she was dead on! 630 grams, he was the tiniest baby I had ever heard of and seen.
After his first week In NICU, when I started to soak in and adjust to my new NICU life I remember Tara saying to me "When he hits a kilo (1000grams/2 pounds 3 ounces) you've got to do a cake, it's a parent thing", the smallest babies celebrate their Kilo, it really is a milestone. I googled and couldn't find any info on this cake... I asked around and found out there were no rules. All I knew was that I wanted Henry's cake to be better then everyone else's, even though I had never seen one. From that day on I dreamt of Henry growing and it gave me a goal to cling to.
By his 2nd day he dropped 20 grams, and it wasn't until 8 days later that he was back to his birthweight. It took 17 days to get into the 700's, another 12 days to get into the 800's. By then I was so excited that I started planning his cake, I was ready.
Side note- If you donn't know, I do cakes. Wedding cakes, birthday cakes, baby showers, anniversary. It's part of our business, 2 hearts, 1 kitchen. So the pressure was on!
Then we hit a road block. Henry got sick. The day he got sick he weighed 850 grams (he gets weighed at 8 pm every night) . They took away his food, because he intestines stopped working, and the next day he lost 10 grams, Henry got better pretty quick and after that it took 6 days to get over the 850 gram hump, but once he did he was off and his gains were steady. On August 12 he did it!
Here is Matt holding Henry up right before he gets weighed
That night I stayed up late, to bake and decorate a cake for this beautiful milestone, this would be the most important cake of my life. A month ago I ordered edible gold leaf and had my food colors set aside for this special day! I made a marble cake with french vanilla buttercream, watercolored fondant with gold leaf with 3 magical words... HENRY 1 KILO!!
We walked in the NICU with the cake and took it right to the nurses lounge. This cake is for them, we are celebrating not just Henry's achievement but we also made it to thank the doctors and nurses for doing their jobs so well and for doing it with love! So who better to cut the cake then Tara? (I did ask her permission to put her picture out there)... You all know how I feel about Tara, but in a nutshell, she's wonderful, not just as a nurse but as a person. The 3 of us are so lucky to have her in our lives! Click here if you want to read more about our nurses!
Henry-
Congratulations sweet boy, I'm so proud of you and so happy to say that I was there, everyday, and I got to watch you grow. I remember every gram, and I'm looking forward to the many many more memories we are going to make together in and out of the NICU!
All my love,
Mom
