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December 29, 2004
Christmas 2004 Round Up (Vol.3): The Best Present
Looks like I joined this year's the mini-sweater ornament craze, right? Well, not exactly.
Just before Christmas, Jason's sister was heading into the last month of her pregnancy. When her blood pressure started creeping up, they decided to play it safe and have this baby sooner rather than later. Baby was very nearly full term, and looked to weigh around five pounds during the last scan. Imagine everybody's surprise then when baby Sydney arrived, a few days before Christmas, at a whopping three pounds, 13 ounces.
Jason spent Syd's Birth Day patiently explaining to everybody in his family the three things that preemies tended to struggle with: breathing, eating and regulating their temperature. Sydney pulled off all three with aplomb from the beginning; except for her petite stature she seemed for all the world to be a healthy, full-term newborn.
A healthy, full-term newborn with no clothes that fit her, that is. News trickled up from New York: preemie clothes were too big, Jason's mom was quickly sewing up buntings as fast as she could. All I knew was that this child needed a sweater, and quick. Auntie Gringa to the rescue!
I did some research on the chest and length measurements of preemies and some back-of-the-envelope calculations to convert the Bulky Baby Bibby pattern into a Worsted Preemie Bibby pattern. Not counting a few ripping interludes, I'd guess that the whole thing took 90 minutes and less than a ball of Classic Elite Spotlight. (The bib didn't "down-size" well, so I eventually scrapped it, and made it a Worsted Preemie Cardie.) The final result was impossibly small. I kept measuring it and comparing it to the preemie stats I had found because I just couldn't believe that it would fit a human being.
On Christmas Eve morning, we raced down to New York, eager to meet the newest family member. Jason sister called: the doctors had given Sydney the green light to go home. The siblings conspired; we were to head directly to Jason's parents house where his sister would meet us with the baby. The parents were not to know. By the time they arrived the whole family had congregated for festivities, and there was -- as you can imagine -- much rejoicing.
A few hours later, when Jason was showing his sister the art of swaddling (I know! Swaddling a baby! On CHRISTMAS EVE! Oh, the symbolism!), he grabbed the sweater and slipped in on her.
Merry Christmas, indeed.
Posted by shannon at December 29, 2004 6:00 PM