The first week our goal was to test your volume tolerance. We moved all of your feedings (about 800mL in a 24 hour period) to the day. Six feedings per day. Every three hours. 135 mL per feed of formula. Best thing: we got to get rid of the pump and do gravity feeds. No tears were shed over not using the pump. Worst thing: our new feeding schedule started with a lemon water flush at 6:30 am, followed by weigh in and feeding at 7:00, and it ended with your last feeding at 10:00 and a water flush at 10:30. You did amazingly well; your mama was exhausted though.
Highlights of the week:
- We quickly discovered you needed to be occupied with playing or watching videos in your stander or you would try to "help" us a little too much;
- You had some allergies issues and spent a few days coughing quite a bit. It didn't take us long to learn to keep our fingers on the clamp...you only coughed your formula back out of the tube and all over me once.
Week two we started switching one formula feed per day for a blended feed. I was ready to go with the first blended feed, got it all mixed up and ready to go...and we clogged your button. Twice. Clogged so much we had to take it out to clear it and re-insert it.
We finally figured out that the blender we have was not going to do well enough at grinding up the bits of chicken or rice so we had to bite the bullet and purchase a Blendtec. We had hoped to put it off a bit while we saved some money and make the Ninja work until we knew for certain the BD was going to be a go for us, but you can't do a job properly without the right tools. Thankfully, I was able to find a good deal on Amazon with next day Prime delivery!
So day 1 felt like a failure, but we were able to get one blend without chicken and rice into your system. The Blendtec came in the next day after we had done your two feeds (sans chicken and rice again), but with enough time for me to mix for day 3. WOW - what a difference!
We celebrated Saturday when you got your LAST FORMULA FEED!!!! You weren't too sure why we were wanting to take a picture of you, and didn't seem nearly as excited about it as we were :)
We launched straight into week three trying to get the calorie count up in your feed without making the volume increase too much and finally got that figured out. We also worked on slowly increasing the volume that you could tolerate until we could drop the 10:00 pm feed. So for the next two weeks we'll stay where we're at with 170mL per feeding, 5 times a day. We go back on Feb 4 for a weight check and to visit with the nutritionist so things will be fairly stable until then.
Getting into a new system requires a lot of trial and error, but hopefully we're out of that phase for now. It also means that Mama goes insane until she gets the system down. Our system right now includes about an hour of prep work every Saturday (in addition to the usual snack prep for sisters' lunches and meal prep for family dinners) to get all of your chicken, tofu, veggies and fruits cooked, blended down, portioned out in the correct amounts and into the freezer. I make your blend once a day, then pull out the frozen stuff for the next day so that it has time to thaw before making tomorrow's blend. I also have to blend a double batch on Saturday's since we're gotten back into the schedule of staying at Grammie's house all day on Sunday between morning and evening worship services. I think we've got it all figured out and will just spend the next couple of weeks polishing the system.
In other news this month:
You are working on pulling up on EVERYTHING! We installed a grab bar in the living room / kitchen so you can eventually learn how to get on and off of your scooter by yourself - so far you just like pulling up on it. We've had to be really careful about watching when you're on your scooter because you try to pull up on the chairs, which aren't too stable, and almost pulled it over on top of yourself the other day!
We also let a few things go this month - one being cloth diapers, the other being your high chair! You love sitting in the big chairs like sisters so I figured it was time to bring back out the booster seat and you LOVE it! You scoot up to it a lot and say "Lexi's" - I guess just making sure that we all know who gets to sit there :)
You've also taken a LOT more interest in standing up and walking - which means we've got to get that foot surgery on the books as soon as they'll let us because you are NOT going to wait for them!
One of our PT goals is to start working on going up the stairs. Generally you can make it about two stairs before you give up and want to turn around and go back. To be fair though, there are a lot of them, and it takes way longer to go up than down!
The last big update is that we've started working on potty training! After showing off some of your new tricks to the PT, she asked if we were potty training yet because your smart and would probably pick it up pretty quickly! We said we had a potty chair but hadn't really pushed it yet because we don't want to frustrate you if you can't get to the chair by yourself or we can't get you unhooked, unbuckled, and onto the chair in time. So we've started putting you on it right after you get up from your nap and first thing in the morning, and you've gone every time! The next step is learning the sign for potty and how to say potty so you can hopefully let us know when you have to go! You've woken up from your nap and sleeping dry the last couple of days so hopefully you're learning how to hold it until you're on the chair.
I'll leave you with this little ray of sunshine - you've found your favorite song on this toy and know exactly which button to push to make it come on!
We finally figured out that the blender we have was not going to do well enough at grinding up the bits of chicken or rice so we had to bite the bullet and purchase a Blendtec. We had hoped to put it off a bit while we saved some money and make the Ninja work until we knew for certain the BD was going to be a go for us, but you can't do a job properly without the right tools. Thankfully, I was able to find a good deal on Amazon with next day Prime delivery!
So day 1 felt like a failure, but we were able to get one blend without chicken and rice into your system. The Blendtec came in the next day after we had done your two feeds (sans chicken and rice again), but with enough time for me to mix for day 3. WOW - what a difference!
We celebrated Saturday when you got your LAST FORMULA FEED!!!! You weren't too sure why we were wanting to take a picture of you, and didn't seem nearly as excited about it as we were :)
We launched straight into week three trying to get the calorie count up in your feed without making the volume increase too much and finally got that figured out. We also worked on slowly increasing the volume that you could tolerate until we could drop the 10:00 pm feed. So for the next two weeks we'll stay where we're at with 170mL per feeding, 5 times a day. We go back on Feb 4 for a weight check and to visit with the nutritionist so things will be fairly stable until then.
Getting into a new system requires a lot of trial and error, but hopefully we're out of that phase for now. It also means that Mama goes insane until she gets the system down. Our system right now includes about an hour of prep work every Saturday (in addition to the usual snack prep for sisters' lunches and meal prep for family dinners) to get all of your chicken, tofu, veggies and fruits cooked, blended down, portioned out in the correct amounts and into the freezer. I make your blend once a day, then pull out the frozen stuff for the next day so that it has time to thaw before making tomorrow's blend. I also have to blend a double batch on Saturday's since we're gotten back into the schedule of staying at Grammie's house all day on Sunday between morning and evening worship services. I think we've got it all figured out and will just spend the next couple of weeks polishing the system.
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| Jars labeled and ready for eating |
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| It's not the most appetizing color, but it works! |
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| Tofu, Chicken, and Blueberries/Peas/Spinach in the freezer |
In other news this month:
You are working on pulling up on EVERYTHING! We installed a grab bar in the living room / kitchen so you can eventually learn how to get on and off of your scooter by yourself - so far you just like pulling up on it. We've had to be really careful about watching when you're on your scooter because you try to pull up on the chairs, which aren't too stable, and almost pulled it over on top of yourself the other day!
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| Grab bar in entry way |
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| You got yourself stuck in the pantry because you pulled up on the shelf but didn't know how to sit back down! |
We also let a few things go this month - one being cloth diapers, the other being your high chair! You love sitting in the big chairs like sisters so I figured it was time to bring back out the booster seat and you LOVE it! You scoot up to it a lot and say "Lexi's" - I guess just making sure that we all know who gets to sit there :)
 |
| I asked you to smile and you started making monkey noises... |
One of our PT goals is to start working on going up the stairs. Generally you can make it about two stairs before you give up and want to turn around and go back. To be fair though, there are a lot of them, and it takes way longer to go up than down!
The last big update is that we've started working on potty training! After showing off some of your new tricks to the PT, she asked if we were potty training yet because your smart and would probably pick it up pretty quickly! We said we had a potty chair but hadn't really pushed it yet because we don't want to frustrate you if you can't get to the chair by yourself or we can't get you unhooked, unbuckled, and onto the chair in time. So we've started putting you on it right after you get up from your nap and first thing in the morning, and you've gone every time! The next step is learning the sign for potty and how to say potty so you can hopefully let us know when you have to go! You've woken up from your nap and sleeping dry the last couple of days so hopefully you're learning how to hold it until you're on the chair.
I'll leave you with this little ray of sunshine - you've found your favorite song on this toy and know exactly which button to push to make it come on!
