Day 9: Doing Better

Whitney and I are doing much better today! It's okay to have the not so good days sometimes. I can't believe how much she is eating and how much her behaviors are improving. Just last week her eating skills were minimal and she was crying and whining at every meal. Now she is eating more in the beginning of the meals, getting tired in the middle, and finishing with big drinks. I'm in the room with her and the therapist for breakfast, lunch, and afternoon snack. I'm taking the lead and still getting some help from the "teacher." Dr. Katz (The head honcho) came in to talk to me about a meal he watched today. He said he was so impressed with me and that I'm doing an amazing job. He said he rarely sees moms doing what I do naturally with Whitney during mealtimes. I feel like I don't have much experience with compliments so I felt a little awkward and didn't know what to say. But I'm still glad he told how he felt because I'm here to help Whitney learn how to eat and am trying to do my best. 

Breakfast went very well. Whitney ate a few nibbles of banana, half of a hard boiled egg yolk (she won't touch the scrambled eggs here), and some good bites of a bagel with cream cheese, and 2 1/2 ounces of grape juice! She liked holding the foods and exploring them. 

For morning snack in our room together Whitney ate a small Apple slice, 1 tbsp of yogurt, and 2 oz of chocolate kids boost essential. She is getting more consistent with her drinking skills, which is so good because that's were most of her calories are coming from. 

"Thanks for the great advice water bottle...if only." 

Whitney showing off her crafts she made in the play room! And now off to lunch! 

Lunch went really good too. Whitney drank 3 oz of strawberry boost, 2 apple slices, a tbsp of pizza, and one very small Christmas tree (aka broccoli)! Meals are lasting just under an hour today. 

Whitney got a letter from her cute little preschool friends today! 

Whitney loved turtle talk with Crush again today! I don't know if she'll ever get tired of it! She told him she's going to be tinker bell for Halloween and tried to fly! So funny. 

Afterwards we played out side for over an hour. So fun! But afterwards, I washed her feet and legs and I noticed she was covered in small slivers! She was kneeling on the wood floor a lot and didn't realize it was scratching her legs! She's had slivers before but never this many! So sad. I had the Dr look at it and she gave some suggestions. We'll wait till tomorrow to see if we need to pull them, but for now we hope they will just make there way out an not bother her too much. Whitney was so brave letting the Dr. Look at them and really wanted her her to just kiss it all better! The Dr. was so nice to pretend to kiss Whitney's whole feet, legs, and knees!   

Afternoon snack and dinner went so good too! For snack she ate another piece of broccoli, a quarter slice of cheese, half a saltine cracker, a small chunk of watermelon, and 2 1/2oz of vanilla boost! 

She watched Wonder Pets for about an hour till dinner time. She ate 2 corn kernels, 2 peas, few small bites of plain hamburger, half a bacon, tasted potato soup, and drank 3oz of lemonade! That's a big variety for her in one meal. 

She got to take a shower afterwards!  I like to use preferred foods as a motivator during mealtimes and then do a big reward at the end like going to the play room, turtle talk, movies, shower, ect.  She made a big water mess though! Oops! Although it's impossible to keep the water in this shower because there's no tub and the shower curtain is too short to contain any water. But Whitney was splashing too much and I didn't noticed till it was running out the door! 

Then we had a little snack before bedtime of an Apple slice and an ounce of milk. 

Everyone says its quiter in our room and that we are lucky to not be in the middle of the floor where all the nurses are...but I don't think so!  We constantly hear the 'cleaning crew' rolling around and opening the door across from us to dump trash and linens, all day and night. Also the staff elevators are always busy and we can here everyone talking there. And then there's the play room right next to us and I can hear everything coming from it because we share a wall. It's all fine and like whatever during the day, but at night it's a different story. Whitney is always talking about the noises and even getting scared. It takes her about an hour to finally settled down and fall asleep every night.  Anyways, not trying to rant here,  it's just on my mind at the moment! We do usually sleep through the night though which is awesome!  I'm also glad that we don't hear too much beeping machines and crying kids. 

Thanks for all the love and support and prayers for us! 

Weight: 15.2kg