It's preemie awareness month.

[railenthe]

I know that this doesn’t seem like the most exciting thing to be on about, but the fact is, this is a cause that’s kind of close to me—and has been for all of my life.
I’m speaking from the point of view of a preemie myself.
I was almost not here to talk about this.
 
Two and a half pounds.  A bag of egg noodles weighed more than I did  …also, blue.  Spent loads of those first days on machines: incubators, breathing machine, monitors—it was bad.  And it took forever for me to get up to close to standard.  I didn’t weigh fifty lbs until I was 11.  …moderately underweight, understatement of the day.  
So the cause is kinda close to me.  Being one who never really caught up to the normal where it comes to size and such—I’m still a runt, and I’ve still got the squishiness issues that I had when I was little. (Go ahead, feel free to laugh, I walked into it.) 
 
The point is, we’ve come a long way since I was born. 

Comments

[toffeethesnob.livejournal.com]

I was a premmie too. I stopped growing about the 8th month so they had to cut me out early. (This is probably why I'm so cranky when I wake up.) Fortunately I was one of those premmies who despite being small was able to breathe independently so I never went in a machine. That didn't stop them from feeding me milk through tubes up my nose... (Apparently I spent the first 6-10 months of my life wearing dolls clothes I was such a runt.)

I can't remember what my weight at birth was (or find my baby book at the moment) but I was around the 4-5lb mark from what I recall being told. A 2 and a half pounder, especially in those days is lucky!

*tiny brofist!*

[railenthe.livejournal.com]

Doll clothes: at least we made for ADAWWABLE babies XD

There even was a hernia. My first week in the world, the doctors had to cut a hernia. I've still got the scar—gave my general physician a fright this year at my physical, he jumped and went "Whoa!" Kinda looks like I've got coupon perfs on my lower waist. Ever since the approach to my health has been "FIND IT GET IT OUTTA THERE NOW DO IT".

It's occurred to me in recent years that this very fact is probably why I'm so squishy. I was this little-bitty thing who they had to find old Cabbage Patch doll clothes and pampers for. My folks apparently held this big celebratory thing when I got big enough for normal-sized!baby clothes.

My dad tells me that when I got past milk, my mom turned me into a food snob: homemade baby food. NOTHING OUT OF A JAR.

Maybe this is why I loooooooobster looooooove food. Ironically, when I was five or so it was hard to get me to eat—I didn't like food, it made my stomach hurt and I didn't see the point. Then at six, I COULDN'T get to the food—greedy little cousins, just because they're bigger than me and boys and *mutter mutter gnaws on a pilfered dry pack of noodles*

(Incidentally they're still bigger than me. I never did catch up. XD)

I remember it so well because my mom and dad told me around this time when I was six. We were shopping for Thanksgiving dinner and dad puts this bag of egg noodles in my hand and says, "You weighed this much when you were born." Then he hands me a bag of chips, which is about a third of the length of the noodle bag, and says, "But you were only this long."

Let me re-iterate that I was six. And no higher than a yardstick. This is the time of year that I count my lucky stars that I'm alive and healthy-ish.

Also, I can't pick up a bag of egg noodles for soup-making without remembering that day in the store. Weird but true.

[toffeethesnob.livejournal.com]

With my family they celebrated my improving weight by taking a picture of me on a see-saw with two bags of sugar. I don't look happy in that picture...

My mother keeps lamenting that she should've rented me out as a fake newborn for TV shows when I was 6 months since I was small enough to pass for one but old enough that it wasn't going against moral and legal guidelines. I managed to pass for a 3 year old at 7 and still get mistaken for a teen now so...

Being small is cool. Maybe it's because I'm such a shortie that I love short characters and designs. (FFIX: land of the chibi people!)

Land of the chibi people who think that armor that doesn't cover asses is appropriate~

[railenthe.livejournal.com]

PFFT. That's just wrong XD

I can picture the "WAT?" face. On the upside, it's fun passing for younger; on the downside, it's annoying when you get carded for buying violent/explicit manga every time.

The funny thing about it is that most of my OCs are veritable tent poles. In the thing I'm working on I've actually got an average height of about 5'11" going on. They're such tall, pretty boys. (Justified in that most of the tallest ones are…kind of obviously NOT human)