For real Dad, not tired.
Rhys has gained an entire POUND in one week. He now weighs just over 13 pounds. Not sure where the heck that came from, or how he did it, but we will take it! To put it in perspective, he gained one pound the first four weeks he was home so you can imagine our delight that he has gained one pound in seven days. He has been on the brink of needing a bigger diaper for the last couple weeks, but we have been trying to finish his size 1s since we didn't have many left. Today I looked at him when I was dressing him after his bath and his little size 1s look a lot too tiny. Size 2 it is!
Rhys continues to get purees with a spoon once a day (actually I missed yesterday, oops) and he just isn't in to it. He does it great when he actually does it (sound familiar?), but he keeps turning his head and avoiding eye contact. Again today he started what looked to be a gag but didn't finish it. It was almost like it was his way of protesting because he definitely didn't gag while he was trying to swallow. That is just what we need, him to start gagging in response to different textures all of a sudden. I think he doesn't want to work for it. Hopefully continued practice will make it easier to feed him because at this point I can't imagine him taking a whole meal by spoon. I know it starts like this with every baby, but gosh these smallish things seem like monumental tasks.
The nutritionist came yesterday and she was very nice. She took our crazy milk recipe and told us that while they typically don't recommend cereal for babies at the age Rhys first got them she also understands the need to do what was best for our picky preemie. She calculated it and said that based on the calories in our concoction and the volume he takes he should be getting what he needs to grow sufficiently; however it might be right on the edge of what he needs for "catch up". But she said he will catch up later so not to worry. She is going to come once a month to monitor his weight gain, etc and will also be able to help us pack in calories when he starts eating more regular food. Until last week Cody and I had literally written down every bottle Rhys had eaten since discharge to keep tabs on his calorie intake. I wouldn't call it paranoid, but we just wanted to make sure he was eating what he needed to since we had so many issues in the beginning. We haven't done that since we got back from vacation and it is kind of nice to not stress about it. It is still important for us to be aware of how much he's eating (and we keep a mental daily tally) and make sure he gets enough but he should now be old enough to give us signs of when he's hungry and full. Oh what a fine line... difficult to teach yourself the difference. I read today that 1 in 5 American 4-year-olds are obese. Is that for real? I guess it doesn't really surprise me, but I don't want to that to be Rhys because I force food on him as an infant. So, as long as he continues to gain good weight I am happy. Hopefully he will gain good weight quickly so we can kick the O2 to the curb! What a day that will be. I think I will throw a party.
Rhys continues to get purees with a spoon once a day (actually I missed yesterday, oops) and he just isn't in to it. He does it great when he actually does it (sound familiar?), but he keeps turning his head and avoiding eye contact. Again today he started what looked to be a gag but didn't finish it. It was almost like it was his way of protesting because he definitely didn't gag while he was trying to swallow. That is just what we need, him to start gagging in response to different textures all of a sudden. I think he doesn't want to work for it. Hopefully continued practice will make it easier to feed him because at this point I can't imagine him taking a whole meal by spoon. I know it starts like this with every baby, but gosh these smallish things seem like monumental tasks.
The nutritionist came yesterday and she was very nice. She took our crazy milk recipe and told us that while they typically don't recommend cereal for babies at the age Rhys first got them she also understands the need to do what was best for our picky preemie. She calculated it and said that based on the calories in our concoction and the volume he takes he should be getting what he needs to grow sufficiently; however it might be right on the edge of what he needs for "catch up". But she said he will catch up later so not to worry. She is going to come once a month to monitor his weight gain, etc and will also be able to help us pack in calories when he starts eating more regular food. Until last week Cody and I had literally written down every bottle Rhys had eaten since discharge to keep tabs on his calorie intake. I wouldn't call it paranoid, but we just wanted to make sure he was eating what he needed to since we had so many issues in the beginning. We haven't done that since we got back from vacation and it is kind of nice to not stress about it. It is still important for us to be aware of how much he's eating (and we keep a mental daily tally) and make sure he gets enough but he should now be old enough to give us signs of when he's hungry and full. Oh what a fine line... difficult to teach yourself the difference. I read today that 1 in 5 American 4-year-olds are obese. Is that for real? I guess it doesn't really surprise me, but I don't want to that to be Rhys because I force food on him as an infant. So, as long as he continues to gain good weight I am happy. Hopefully he will gain good weight quickly so we can kick the O2 to the curb! What a day that will be. I think I will throw a party.
Rhys with cousin Isaias this weekend.
Umm, how about cousin Isaias is 6 weeks old!
Today I am: 8 months and 3 weeks old
Adjusted I am: 4 months, 4 weeks and 1 day old
1 comment:
We got a ton of grief over Sarah's lack of weight gain early on (I do realize that Rhys and Sarah started out worlds apart) but I struggled to force feed because I fear having an obese 4 yr old too. Our pedi is finally happy, even though she's still barely on the charts because he can see she is fine developmentally. To me, that's a great indicator. If they can do what they're supposed to, surely they're getting enough, right? Hopefully that theory works out!
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