Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Making great progress!!




Jonathan is doing very well! He just got weighed today and he is 14lbs 7 ozs that was music to my ears:) I think this time he really is teething he is drooling, crabby and not wanting to eat much. His hands are in his mouth a lot more, he is making great progress in therapy, I love our therapist Allison she is really caring and she just lent us a chair called called tumble forms its great its foam and we put Jonathan in it we can position it so it lays back and he has to do very little with his muscles or we can bring it up more and he has to really work on his neck muscles! I would say two months ago Jonathan couldn't hold his head up but now that he is putting on the weight and sleeping he holds it up for awhile he even will play with his toys. He is really getting the hang of putting his toys to his mouth and hands into his mouth, he still exercises extensor tone which makes it difficult for him to control his arms and hands but with therapy he has really come along! We had a difficult morning with p.t because Jonathan was really stiff even after his medication and it was affecting his right arm which is very unusual it usually his left, however he is now looking to the left all the time where he was looking to the right.? We don't know what to think it really seems like he is doing this mentally because its when he is having a tantrum or he is not getting his way he will stiffen which ever muscle we're trying to work on and if we give in he is fine(sometimes)! Its very confusing to us and therapists. If he had head control he would be crawling we put him on his belly and he gets his own legs by himself under him and moves across the carpet with his head dragging its not very far he goes because he doesn't get that he has to bring his arms back up but once he gets that head up I bet he starts crawling real soon! His head is growing again which is a relief it is now 43 1/2 cm and we think he is about 28 inches.



Jonathan is going to Cincinnati feeding clinic on Feb. 3rd. This is probably the hardest thing ever to deal with a child that won't eat! Its very strange that he used to eat about 20 ozs from bottle and eat 4ozs baby food and now its almost all by ng tube he doesn't even want to suck on the bottle, its completely frustrating I tried baby food and he took a couple bites, he doesn't want his cereal anymore however we went to Mcdonalds and he sucked all the potato and grease off 3 french fries so he has the suck down he just doesn't want baby food or milk, he has gotten so clever as to when he sees the tube we feed him in he cries, turns blue but you know he is hungry because he eats ever 2 hours he just doesn't like milk, is there flavoring I could add? is he old enough for pedisure they make flavors? He did eat about an ounces of gerber blueberries and pear dessert today and he seemed o.k with that. I believe its a behavioral thing because he sucks just not on the bottle and he eats (not enough) foods he likes o.k so only fries he can't live on that or can he? I did find a hopefully wonderful thing called benecalorie its only available online its made by nestle nutrition, it main purpose is to add calories to food to people having a hard time gaining weight and not eating enough to gain the weight. I was reading an email from an Australian woman who used it for her preemie 28 weeker and she gave it to him at his two night feeds because she didn't want him to feel full during the day and not eat by mouth, it worked! She claimed it was tasteless and it had no volume so it wasn't was hard on his belly, and she could mix it with everything and the consistency was no change to the food or formula. So its pricey but it will be so worth it it comes in 1.5oz cups and it boosts 330 calories thats 7 calories per cc!!!!! It also packs in protein. We will start slow but hopefully this will work!

Christmas is just around the corner I still have no ideas on what to get my hubby, I don't talk about him much but he is wonderful, he works hard so I can stay home with Jonathan and we live in a beautiful home in a great subdivision, I have the greatest parents around they have helped me so much my dad wad letting me get sleep when Jonathan was having a real hard time with his pain, I love my husband and my parents so much, i have no idea what i would have done without them!

1 comment:

The Buckley Family said...

The pictures with Clifford are so cute and I love the one of his big smile in the chair!

By the way, you can add flavoring to the milk, either vanilla extract or strawberry flavoring. As tempting as it may be, don't add chocolate because you don't want him to only want that. Also, I was thinking, since you said he has a strong suck but doesn't like the nipple, maybe try one of the sippy cups with a straw instead of a bottle? I'll also bring along what Lorraine started us with for a straw on Sunday so you can see, it worked great for us!

Jamie