that’s right – on this day 34 years ago, i was born 3 months early, weighing 2 pounds 8 ounces.

interestingly, i was always under the impression that i was born between 26 and 28 weeks and i’ve heard recently that there’s very little evidence any babies born at 26 weeks survived prior to the introduction of surfactant and mechanical ventilation ( neither were in use 34 years ago ). one person even claimed that *no* 26 weekers survived and the survival rate for 27 and 28 weekers was vanishingly small. the theory is that most of the very small babies that survived were actually low birth weight later term infants and the actual gestational age was simply not well known. so, if anyone who knows that facts cares to clarify, i’d be interested in hearing just how well established it was that i was born between 26 and 28 weeks 🙂

and that all has very little to do with the fact that odin and kris were making me a birthday card today and practicing saying “happy birthday, poppi”. except, of course, that it makes me all the more appreciative of the moment.

you can even listen to odin practicing, if you’re so inclined. by the time i got the laptop out to do the recording he was pretty sick of saying “birfday” and decided to simply shorten it to “day”.