Day 5: Progressing Towards Goals

Day five is done and we are moving on to the first weekend! I'll be by myself for all but one meal for the next two days so wish us luck! I'm excited to see my husband finally but he is not allowed to be present during our meal times and we still have to stick with our strict schedule. I love getting photos and videos of my son all day! I love him and miss him so much but he is having a blast being spoiled!  

Whitney is improving and progressing towards her goals!  She is still doing her best learning how to eat food by mouth. It's really hard for her and she is working so hard at it. We had some really good sessions today! 

Whitney checking the daily schedule this morning! 

Getting her temp taken and heart rate. 

For breakfast Whitney ate a few bites/nibbles of a muffin, sausage patty, 5 rice chex pieces, and 2 1/2 ounces of chocolate kids boost essential.  I watched on the screen and she did great and it took about 50mins or so. 

In between breakfast and snack we watched Wonder Pets! 

For our snack together in our room, Whitney ate 4 pieces of gold fish crackers, 1/4 of a string cheese, and 2 oz of grape juice! She always has string cheese at home and just nibbles on it not even swallowing much so this was awesome. 

For lunch time today they integrated me in to the session! I was excited to be in there although it's much easier to just sit back and watch from the other room! Whitney ate almost a whole strip of bacon!! 2 ounces of milk, and a few bites of cheese quesadilla! She did so much better when I was there and I didn't even participate much!  It still takes a lot of prompting and motivation with rewards and praises and she stalls a bit but we are so proud of her. 

Pants on backwards is the style of four year olds right? 

For afternoon snack at 3:15pm, Whitney was popping chicken strips (small) bite size pieces and tiny carrot pieces in her mouth like candy!  Well not that she likes candy but the way that other kids like candy! It totaled about 2 tbsp of chicken and she ate one big baby carrot. Whitney also drank 2 ounces of strawberry boost drink. But on the last bites of the end of the carrot she got too much in her mouth and it was more than she could chew. She gagged and we couldn't bring her out of it so she threw up everything! I'm still pretty sad about that. She did that the last time she had carrots here too. I'm surprised she still likes them. We cleaned her right up and she took one last drink to wash out her mouth and we talked to her about how good she did and how happy she was eating so that we could end the meal on a positive note.

Dinner and snack time with me went pretty well and was more relaxed and laid back. I didn't push her much or correct her much, just a little and she still responded well. She ate one potato chip, a part of bread crust from her sandwich, and 3 ounces of chocolate milk supplement! Later she had one apple slice with some peanut butter and an ounce of a new strawberry shake! 

We didn't make it to turtle talk again today because the team meeting was during the time it starts but we went down later to watch the aquarium.  Whitney was laughing and loved it the whole time! 

Nice cool weather this evening! Whitney loved all the lights outside!

This is driving me nuts! I ask the nurse to pick up our tray after every meal but they don't! So it's piled up by the end of the day! I hate doing the dishes too but I hate looking at the mess even more! 

We had our big team meeting today and I was very excited to be there apart of it. I took a photo of my print out so I don't have to type it all out, haha! I'm just so grateful for this opportunity to be here with this amazing team helping Whitney learn how to eat and also helping me learn how to help Whitney! :)

Whitney has eaten an average of 300 calories a day this week!!  This is the most ever in her life and I'm so proud of her! She needs 1350 calories a day though so we still have a very long ways to go. She has been getting 500 calories by feeding tube a day so that's only 800 total a day for this week. Please pray that she can increase her oral intake next week so we don't have to give her more formula by tube. 

I'm so tired every night by 9pm which is crazy early for me so sorry if my posts are a bit scattered or repetitive or not as detailed as I like. I like my sleep and seem to need 8-9 hours of it function all day! 

Weight: 15.2kg