Sunday, July 24, 2011

NG Wean: Days 6 and 7

Day 6
Breakfast was in 2 phases.  She didn't act particularly hungry when we sat down to eat at 9.  She did eat her largest amount of waffle and enjoyed watching me make scrambled eggs, coffee and heating her lil smokies.  Once the eggs and sausage came, she was interested in both but only touched the sausages.  You could tell she was really interested in the texture of the eggs in her mouth and she would inspect the strands of egg that would hang off the chunck that was in her hands.  It wasn't until 11  (NPO for Prograf at 10) that she finally ate with signs of hunger.  She was quite fussy in a normal toddler way throwing mini fits if she didn't get her way.  I assumed it was hunger and reheated her breakfast.  No interest.  I brought the banana yogurt and she would lick her lips if I touched it to her but she didn't open her mouth for more.  I decided to pull out her new toddler spoon and pretend feed her rubber ducky.  She got into feeding the ducky and attempted to eat the yogurt off of his tail (the yogurt was on his beak) but still didn't respond to the spoon of yogurt on her mouth.  I scooped some yogurt into one of the dividers on her tray.  I didn't tell her what was I doing...just walked away.  She immediately picked up her spoon and began to dip her spoon to eat the yogurt.  Within a couple of minutes she made a little fuss.  I joined her and she both fed herself, let me put more on her baby spoon with her toddler spoon, and let me feed her with the toddler spoon.  2 oz later she was done.  I called the fellow to let him know we didn't have a poop yesterday and was concerned if we didn't see one today.  He said to wait until Monday at which point I told him we have a clinic visit scheduled.  She pooped a beautiful, well-formed, solid foods poop during the call.  Much happier baby.

Lunch was really more of a snack at 1 before her nap.  She was really tired and in quite a daze after having listened to some classical music with Alan.  I knew we would have to depend on the old staple of a peanut butter sandwich.  She quite refused it and goldfish crackers until Alan and I both sat down in the dining room with her.  We turned away from her and chatted while she picked up the sandwich and ate.  She finally drank bit more (she hadn't had anything from her straw cup since she first woke up this morning.).  Again we played with sipping and then squeezing the straw to make it squeal.  After her nap, we played for a bit before sitting down to eat a snack at 4:30.  I fixed a Gerber toddler meal of pasta and green beans.  It was as I had hoped a fairly good finger food meal but she had a hard time with how slippery it was.  She kept scrunching her nose at the green beans but continued to put it in her mouth as best she could.  Alan sat with her for this meal and tried to assist her.  She would get pretty indignant.  She fairly quickly chirped "Dah!" (done) over and over with a smile and the hand signs.  We immediately cleaned her up but then set up a picnic of cheese, crackers and turkey breast...she immediately began eating her slice of cheese after I had handed "Daddy's cheese" and "Mommy's cheese" out.  She picked hers right up.  Once she got tired of that we added a bit of peanut butter on her baby spoon from her toddler knife.  That got the eating going again and she was more interested in the Ritz cracker. 

Dinner was surprising as she actually tore pieces of bacon off and ate it.  She was really enjoying holding and being able to eat the fusilli pasta.  I had a feeling that would be a fun one for her.  You could tell she wanted more than the rate she was able to eat.  She kept trying to eat the bowl it was in.  Knowing she tried as hard as she could, but that it was getting too close to bedtime, we put her to bed with a 175ml formula feed so she didn't go to bed hungry.

Day 7
Today was fairly frustrating for each of us.  Clara is continuing to do a great job.  Intake is no where near where we want it.  Decided supplementing with formula is a good thing to give her enough energy throughout the day.  She is still building skills necessary to eat the solid finger foods she prefers.  We are trying to give her the opportunity to eat yogurt and other spoon-fed foods throughout the day so that if she is hungry, she CAN eat enough to become satiated or full.  That is also why we pulled out the chocolate shake again.  She enjoyed taking turns with Mommy and Daddy as we all drank from the same shake.  Frustrated by a decreased interest in her straw cup, I started a window sill of different cups and bottles for her to choose from.  It worked well.    Today's drop in attitude from Clara and Mommy had to do with Clara's decision to throw a fit about naptime.  Naptime ended up being a 3 hour ordeal.  She is rarely upset by anything and rarely cries.  I fear the independence of a true toddler is coming out.  She even threw her face into her hands a couple of times to show that she was upset...about nothing.  :-/  Hoping labs look okay tomorrow.  Night feeds aren't working out too well, and we have been at 600+ as her total fluids the past couple of days not 800.  She has been peeing plenty, so I'm not worried about dehydration on a macro level.  Hope her kidneys are okay.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I'm loving that eating is progressing for Clara. Just hang in there and this will be over soon. Cindy Jordan

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