Day 3: Some Good & Not So Good Meals

Day three down and lots to go! Whitney and I had a solid nights sleep! She is tolerating her night feed well.  She was in the same position in the morning as I put her in last night. Did I mention she fell off her bed the first night here in the early morning.  Ouch. So I make sure to adjust her after she falls asleep. Today we definitely felt some push back and delaying/stalling during meal times from Whitney. She still did good but she's definitely trying to hold onto her will and trying to do it her way.  We are trying to work on breaking her bad habits. We are giving her lots of reinforcements and positive feedback. We are trying to get her to take bigger bites and bite on her back and side teeth instead of just nibbling on her front teeth. Whitney is doing much better with drinking her milk and smoothies.  

"Good Morning!"

You might be wondering how we watch and listen to Whitney while she is alone with the therapist? Well it's pretty cool and simple and even my family can watch! It's just a camera and a program they have. 

 So for breakfast Whitney ate a couple tiny bites of bacon, 10 nibbles of banana (this time the way she likes to do it and not cut up), 15 Cheerios, 10 nibbles of a plain bagel, and 2 1/2 ounces of whole milk. She did it all so well too. That's a lot of food for her and a lot of work! 

Then snack time with me Whitney ate 10 Cheerios, a few bites of apple, and an ounce of strawberry milk. Snacks are a little bit less food and less time than the big meals. 

Whitney went to the play room for an hour and had lots of fun making a craft, doing puzzles, and watching some of Monsters Inc. while I got some alone time.  And by alone I mean talking with everyone who comes in and calls me to talk about Whitney and food and the program and whatever else. 

Photos of the day are my pregnancy with Whitney and a NICU family photo. 

Some times even sweet little girls in the hospital need to go to time out for being disobedient (not involving the meals but for other reasons).  She was actually willing to go eat and wanted the timer on, hehe. 

Lunch time with the therapist did not go so well for Whitney. She was not excited to go in and cried from the start and through out the session. Except for one incident, the therapist did good with working with Whitney to try to eat a little of her grilled cheese sandwich and tomato soup and drink milk. 

Whitney was so tired after that she was practically falling asleep in the wagon ride back to our room!  I put her in my bed and we cuddled and napped together. 

The next meal went really well and I like the way this therapist works. Whitney still whined quite a bite though and didn't eat much but she was still recovering from the last meal. 

Then we went for a walk outside and then to the Seacrest studios here at CHOC, it's their own radio station on the tv here.  We'll before we left we listened to music and danced together. So she was in a  dancing mood which was good because they wanted her to dance with them on tv!  Then she played pictionary and guessed lots of different drawings. Whitney got to draw too and she drew lots of teeth, so cute. I'm sure daddy would be proud!  She got some Cookie Monster head phones for her prize! 

For dinner, they wanted me to record it to see how she does eating with me. They are probably wondering why I don't have questions or why she vomits or just how we act together.  We'll see what they say!  Whitney ate about a tablespoon of sliced ham, 2 peas, nibbled a cooked carrot, licked some chocolate ice cream that kept dripping on her pants, and 2 whole ounces of milk. 

Then she got her bath fun and then we had night time snack of 2 ounces of peach smoothie and some tastes of chocolate pudding. She is doing good with the drinking! Can you believe 4oz of high calorie liquid by mouth in one night! Totally awesome. 

We are trying to see what flavors and textures Whitney prefers and do a little food chaining from there.  The menu is pretty important. Trying to order a balanced diet with preferred foods is interesting.  The therapist mostly want to work on her bite sizes and drinking skills. 

She got to watch the little mermaid after snack, then fell asleep around 9:45pm.  Good night everyone and thank you for the prayers and well wishes! 

Weight: 15.4kg