Hello everyone!!
My name is Curt. My wife, Patricia, and I have just brought home our first son, Jacob. Jacob was born early, at 32 weeks. He spent about three weeks in the NICU and came home three days ago. Despite his early arrival, he was very healthy. They just kept him until he was eating well, and maintaining his own body temperature.
Here we are at home, becoming a family. I know he’s still real young, and shouldn’t even have been born yet. But he does well with the little tummy time we give him. A lot of people have told me that the developmental/educational/social milestones should be evaluated from a “corrected age.” Meaning, although he is almost a month old…using his “corrected age” he wouldn’t be one month old until early March.
I’ll probably encourage him and challenge him though, treating him more like his actual age. I’m sure his mom will be keeping things in check…lolol.
Regardless, I am excited that I found this website/forum. I’ve already spent a lot of time downloading a lot of the free stuff (thank goodness for that material !!!). I look forward to having some conversations and reading some of the past conversations on intersting topics.
I see a lot of moms on here, are there many dads??
Also, any advice, insight, experience from those with with preterm children would be greatly appreciated.
Just wanted to introduce myself to everyone!!
Hi Curt and Patricia,
Welcome to BrillKids! 
My name is Melanie, my husband is Philip and we have one son Cayden.
I am so glad to hear that Jacob is healthy and home with his family now.
Thank you for sharing the information about “corrected age” my friend had a baby about two months early and he has been concerned about her developmental stages.
I was so excited when I learned about BrillKids through MonkiSee MonkiDo and still am excited everyday to read such wonderful insights from parents around the world. I also read many of the old posts here and often use the search engine to find alot of information that has already been discussed on this forum.
I know of two Dads that are on this forum DadDude and PokerDad. Here is a link to a recent post that the two of them are on.
http://forum.brillkids.com/homeschooling/update-about-h/msg79180/?topicseen#new
DadDude has also created a free website called Reading Bear and my son loves it. It is the homepage on his ipad
http://www.readingbear.org/
Oh why didnt I think of making reading bear the home page! You are brilliant :yes: :yes: :yes: . Thankyou
Welcome to the forum Curt.
Adjusting the age for preterm babies does take the pressure off. Its more the physical capabilities you need to adjust for, and remember this include things linked to them. For example eyesight effects what they see and thus what they can read! I know its obvious but… socially, emotionally and mantally your baby should be spot on. So loads of cuddles
Once again I will say exposure is what counts long term. Eyesight is improved with use as are all the other parts of our bodies (been to the gym lately?). You are in the right place you will find everything you need here on this forum. Have fun learning along with Jacob. One small point to remember your baby is very young, please remember to let Jacob rest. Not just sleep, sometimes grumpy babies just need a quiet dark room…much like myself 