Caught up by 2?!?!

There is a notion that premature babies should be developmentally "caught up with their peers by 2". In fact, as of the seconds birthday no one adjusts their age any more. In all of the therapies they will see Alex as actually 2 as opposed to 21 months. The pediatrician will use the chart as if Alex was a term baby meant to be born in September and not December. I, however, will continue to adjust his age in my head. I don't know if this will ever change for me. Will he be 18 but I won't think of him as voting until that December. Or 21 and not drinking legally until Almost Christmas?
This idea was put into place in a time when 26 weekers were not surviving. When the viability age was 28 weeks. In fact, in the last 10 years since I've been "in the business" I've seen the viability age drop from 24 to 23 weeks. Now that these "micropreemies" are surviving, most, if not all of them are not caught up by 2. My hope is that Alex is caught up by kindergarden.
This also brings up a point which I've never blogged about. I'm a nurse practitioner. I have A LOT of medical knowledge. I have also learned A LOT over the past 2 years. Never once in all the times either myself or one of the twins has been in the hospital have I ever mentioned this. But each time, yes every single time, all of the staff knew I was an NP. This is both my greatest blessing and my greatest curse. It's a blessing that I do know what's going on. I am an active participant in care. It is a curse I know what comes next. It's a curse I KNEW we would not get out of a 26 week pregnancy with 2 healthy babies. It's a curse that I know what it means when Lauren went back on the vent In Jan of 2010...that she wasn't coming off anytime soon.

Alex is getting assessed by his therapists to see how he does....here's what we have so far:
PT (gross motor)- Alex has caught up to his adjusted age but when he turns 2 he will be behind...we are wotking on jumping from an open floor and going up and down stars standing up.
Speech- What he can say he is at a 12 month level. What he can understand he has caught up to his adjusted age...so obviously when he turns 2 he will again be behind in that category.