Abby's Update - Better Late than Never!

I just logged into my blog and realized I hadn't logged in since August - eeek! Sorry everyone for the lack of updates! So many days I have written it on my to do list and I just have not gotten to it.  So much has happened with Abby's progress, lots of ups and downs, regressions, triumphs etc.  I will try to give as much of an update as I can!

To start off with great news, Abby is now 19 lbs 5.5ozs and I'm pretty sure she is almost 30 inches!! We just ordered a new car seat - so thats a good sign :)

In the past few months we have continued to struggle with  getting Abby to eat savory foods, drink anything other than water out of a drinking container, and her volume intolerance.  For a while there Abby was testing us big time, she wouldn't open her mouth to accept the food, if she did accept it she would spit it out or start gagging, but finally after I'd say 4-6 weeks we aren't dealing with that anymore! She is still however coughing/gagging/choking her food once or several times during a feed - we simply ignore it, make sure she's not actually choking by watching her cues, then we continue on as if nothing happened.  I'm still at a loss as to why she continues to do this, even with us completely ignoring it, she gains nothing by doing yet, yet she still does it. hmmm...

We have slowly increased Abby's food intake, both with her Carnation Instant Breakfast milk and with her solid foods - while I have backed up on breast feeding, now only doing it twice a day, and throughout the night (insert long sign and banging head on the desk).  We literally increased one item at a time by 1/4 of an ounce for 3-5 days, then would increase another meal by 1/4 ounce - and now we are at 2 ounces of puree'd food 3 times a day, and 1.5 ounces of CIB milk 3 times a day.  This still doesn't seem like much at all compared to other kids her age, but it's what her body needs and is thriving off of - she has been consistently gaining about 1 pound per month - this is AWESOME!  Since I have backed off of the breastfeeding, it's a little tricky to make sure she is still hydrated since she cannot tolerate much additional volume - so we keep it slow and steady and offer her a sip here and there of water throughout the day. Wet diapers have been normal, so hooray!

In the past we were distracting Abby with a plethora of toys throughout the meal, but we have somehow moved on from that (yay!) and now she gets to watch a movie while she eats - currently she only wants to watch Nemo... over and over and over..just keep swimming! LOL  She is actually eating her finger foods great - we start each meal with finger foods now instead of ending it with them, as we saw that she wasn't interested in them after she became full from her puree- but now she eats a good amount of finger foods and then all her puree so it's a lot more calories!  Here is a picture of her from today of her eating spanish rice and kiwi! I think she does best with a savory food when it is in a finger food form - such as rice, lunch meat, cheese, etc - but once we puree something or give her a savory soup shes not such a happy camper.

We continue to have Allyne at our home 3 times a month, and we've been approved by our insurance for 18 more visits - Praise God!! We are so glad that we decided to go with Clinic 4 Kidz - the way that their system works is just what we needed! Even though they are only physically here 3 times a month (and all day long from Breakfast through dinner!), Allyne is available any time via text, phone, email etc - so it's really been great for us and she has helped us through a lot so far!

Here are some more pictures where you can see how good Abby is looking - she has a little belly and some cheeks now :)  Thank you all for following our journey and your continued prayers!

We hope to get Abby to drink milk on her own one day soon - lots of work ahead!

Mama Bear

2 Pounds, 2 Inches!

Hey Everyone!

We are still alive over here! Sorry I haven't posted an update in weeks!  We are in the middle of moving and remodeling some of our new home so things have been hectic to say the least!  But I made it a point to post today as Abby is officially 14 months old today and are you ready for her stats!? She is 17 lbs 13 ounces, 28 inches... which means, she has GAINED over 2 pounds in 2 months and has grown 2 inches!!!  Isn't it amazing how food really affects the body so much and so quickly!

Abby overall is doing great, she's growing into a feisty little one and definitely knows what she wants!  We love her laughs, giggles, kisses and yes chubby squishy legs and arms and cheeks are coming in!!!! :D

Allyne came to work with us again August 6-8 and we were able to up Abby's daily purees to 1 and 3/4 oz which is a 1/4 oz increase.  It's not much but with Abby's volume intolerance we have to go extremely slow or that food will just be thrown right back out, and I HATE when that happens, I feel so helpless :(.  Allyne would also like Abby to begin to have more savory "tastes" during the day, so we are to give her 3 savory bites before each meal (like chicken noodle soup broth, or refried  beans, etc etc) - to be honest (Allyne I hope you don't read this! haha jk) this has been a bit touch and go on consistency because we have barely been home and it's been really difficult to implement this into each meal, I need to do better!

With the current types of foods Abby is eating (fruit purees), she is at about a 6 month old's level eating wise, so our goal is to get more savory foods/veggies in, and then slowly add in meats!  Meats will be a tough one as they are harder and longer to digest so that may be a factor in that small tummy of hers.  We'll see!

Pretty much a few days after Allyne left this month, Abby started to regress in some of her eating behaviors - she has been twisting her tongue so that the spoon and food ends up under her tongue, or expelling (spitting it out), gagging a lot and just being a lot more difficult to feed/distract!  So Allyne is having us make sure her purees are nice and thin and that we make sure to not offer her the bite until her tongue is in a frontal flat position to accept it.  She is getting better but she still is gagging once or twice per meal, I don't know why??? But besides that, we are really happy and thankful for all the progress Abby has made!!

Hopefully I can post another update within a month, but don't be mad if I don't, theres so much to do with the new house, and work, and oh take care of a little bambina who likes to pull on mommys leg all day, then when mommy gives her attention she runs away and plays! hahaha love her to pieces!

Her new swing at the new house!

Mama Bear

She Eats, She Scores!

Abby has been making amazing progress this past week!  We went for her GI check up today and she measures 27" (up from 26"!!) and her weight is 16 lbs 4 ozs (that's 7.5 ounces in 10 days!) - for those of you just tuning in, this is AMAZING weight gain for Abby...in the past Abby was gaining 1-3 ounces per MONTH! Thank you Lord! Whoo hoo! Happy dance!

In the past 2 weeks of working with Abby we are now to the point where we hardly ever have to say "open ahh" or "big ahh" she just does it! She sees the spoon coming and she opens right up - we have been getting her feeds done in 5-10 minutes.  WOW! What a difference! Thank you Allyne for helping us out SO much, we can't wait to see how Abby checks out in a few months!

I mentioned in a previous post that we noticed Abby's tummy feeling pretty hard and full after feeds... well I think we reached her limit the other day when we offered her some mac n cheese noodles, and then 2 hours later she was throwing up and throwing up, poor baby.  Allyne seems to think that Abby may have some volume intolerance issues, and the pasta was just too much for her tummy to digest and clogged her up.  So we are going to keep the volume right where its at for now 1.5 oz puree 3x a day and 1 oz Carnation Instant Breakfast milk 3x a day.

We were having such a hard time with Abby's milk feeds, most of the milk ended up all over her bib and chair, so I asked Allyne if it were okay to maybe try and thicken the milk into a light pudding so that we could spoon feed it to her.  Allyne was down to give it a try so we added some organic corn starch to thicken up the milk and guess what, Abby took it with no problems and ate it in 3 minutes! Hooray!! I also did a little test and gave her 1 milk feed while playing with toys and 1 milk feed while watching the iPad.  Well when she was watching the iPad she would barely open her mouth - I think she was too zoned in and she couldn't do two things at once! hehe. So toys it is!

Thank you to everyone who has been following Abby's journey and keeping her (and us) lifted in prayer!  We are SO grateful and appreciative!

Here's a cute video of Abby "reading" her "book" lol she is getting cuter by the day! Watch for the hand gesture and PAH! LOL (If you can't view the video, click here).

Okay, bedtime, good night!

When Empty, All Done!

Today we were all on our own with Abby's feeds and the day went pretty good!  Today is our nieces 5th birthday (Happy Birthday Ari!!) so we were out at her birthday party most of the day so I had to prep all Abby's food (and milk) ahead of time.  I'm really hoping that in a week or two making her food and all the measuring I have to do will become much quicker, as today I spent a good hour in the morning making her lunch, measuring out all the additives, packing finger foods, measuring out her milk and packing up toys, etc etc.

Abbys solid feeds are getting so much easier and quicker, it's really amazing for us to see how well Abby has progressed in such a short time!  I think she is beginning to understand the "when empty, all done!" concept!  I've been texting back and forth with Allyne today and she thinks that if Abby keeps doing so well we'll be able to up her solid puree intake to 1 and 3/4s ounce soon!  :) The harder parts of the day are her milk feeds...this little girl just does not want to work with us much on this one! Hopefully as we continue to just keep on with the protocol, Abby will start to cooperate more as she will see that everyday, 3x's a day her milk is going to come, we're not backing down!

Here's a pic of today's happenings....

Abby loved watermelon! My notes of everything Abby ate, grand total of 593 calories today!

So far so good!  Praying Abby continues to progress and that her little tummy starts to stretch to hold more volume.  We've noticed that her tummy protrudes and gets pretty hard even after just 1 ounce of food or milk, so we have to keep an eye on that.  Allyne says we may have to keep her quantity low but give it to her more times a day... we'll see!  

That's all for now! Good night!

Clinic 4 Kidz: Day 5

Today was our last day with Allyne for this month, she will be back August 6-8 for another 3 days of treatment!  This week went by fast, but slow at the same time, it left me exhausted, physically and mentally but seeing how much progress we've made so far makes it all worth it and I'm excited for her to come back in August!  Matt said she really is like an angel God sent to us!  :)

Matt did today's breakfast and morning milk session on his own today and did a great job!  After talking to Matt on how he felt with everything he commented how the whole process seems so overly simple but then when you go to do it there is much more to it.  We are both just so excited (and relieved) that Abby has been responding so well.  Allyne warned us that now that she will not be with us through the day Abby may try to pull her old tricks on us but we have to stick to the protocol.  I actually noticed this last night when I was doing Abby's milk session - she was trying all sorts of different things to get me to stop and give up (let all the milk spill out, stuck her tongue out and wouldn't close her mouth, sealed her mouth shut, turned from side to side, ripped her bib off, etc) and to get control back, but I just stuck with it - ignored what she was doing and proceeded on.  That is another thing that we have learned this week - to not address or even say anything when Abby pulls her tricks out or starts to fight us but just keep pushing forward like nothing.

With Abby's milk feeds we notice that after about 5-6 minutes Abby gets pretty antsy and irritable, so the new protocol is that once we see her start to do this, we then pour the rest of the 1ounce that she hasn't finished into a little cup and syringe feed her the rest.  This is not something I'd like to be doing, but we don't really have an option, she needs those calories.  I took two small videos of the milk feed, one is here, and the other with the syringe is here.

My mom came around 11 and was trained to feed Abby - she went through the whole being feed and her feeding Allyne approach and though it seems silly, it really is very helpful.  Here is some words from my mom (Mama Brown)..."In preparation for my training today I read the blog, took notes and watched the videos over and over.  Today Allyne went over the techniques using herself and I as examples, I'm glad i had my notes  because it helped to refer to them and I was able to add additional notes.  Then it was my turn to feed Abby, Nico was right, it's a little bit harder when you are actually trying to feed Abby.  So much to remember. In the past, I loved to play around and be silly with Abby when i fed her but now this is serious business.  Even my tone of voice was important.  Over all I think I did ok for my first time.  Allyne thought it was a good idea for me to continue to do more feeding so I could become more comfortable, so I stayed to do the dinner feed.  Well wouldn't you know, a few hours later I had a brain fart and forgot a few of the techniques I had just learned.  You may have not noticed because Abby is doing so good but technique is important because we don't want Abby to go back to her old ways. As for her milk feeding it went well. This is a time when I could be a little silly and interact with Abby while she watchs a video.   So I will have to help with feeds at least a couple times a week so I can fill in when needed and not be intimidated."  Thanks mom, yes get the practice, we need a date night! :) 

In between feeding sessions and nap times Abby enjoys playing around the house, going for walks outside and today, I peeked in the living room and saw her dancing, so I got a quick video of it, she is too cute!!!! 

To give you a quick rundown of what Abbys eating looks like during the day, check out her schedule below.

Breakfast - 1.5 oz of puree with 1tsp heavy cream and 1/2 tsp saffola oil, finger foods to eat/play with (finger foods are on her terms so she can eat/taste or not eat/taste whatever she likes)

Morning Milk Session - 1 oz of whole milk with vanilla or chocolate carnation instant breakfast powder

Lunch - 1.5 oz of yogurt with 1tsp heavy cream, finger foods

Afternoon Milk Session - 1 oz of whole milk with vanilla or chocolate carnation instant breakfast powder

Dinner - 1.5 oz of puree with 1tsp heavy cream and 1/2 tsp saffola oil, finger food

Evening Milk Session - 1 oz of whole milk with vanilla or chocolate carnation instant breakfast powder

To us this seems like so much more food than Abby is used to, but then I really look at the quantity and it is still so little compared to so many other babies I know at this age (or even younger!) - but it is progress and we hope in the coming months we can continue upping the quantity.  I mentioned in my previous blogs that we were going to weigh Abby today, and I did, but it is a little disappointing after she's been eating so much more.  She's up 2 ounces since Monday.  But after talking to Allyne she said we need to give it a few more days to really register on the scale since reaching her caloric goal just started on Wednesday.  So I'll keep you posted!

Tomorrow we do everything on our own, lets see how it goes!

Lets do this mom!!!

Clinic 4 Kidz: Day 4

Today was another productive day with Allyne, Abby's feeding therapist.  We met a caloric goal of right around 600 calories today, this is great!  I believe Abby has been averaging about 15ozs of breastmilk per day so this accounts for 300 calories (20 per ounce).  Before we started the clinic Abby was eating an average of 100-130 calories a day from solid foods, since Tuesday Abby has more than doubled her solid food intake!  WHOO HOO!!!

We are so happy with Clinic 4 Kidz.  Though Allyne is the only one here, she is communicating with Dr. Patel throughout the day and also with their nutritionist - they both seem to respond pretty quickly which is great!

Today I did the breakfast and lunch feeds as well as all the milk feeds.  Matt was trained for dinner and did half of the dinner session...more on that in a bit.  For breakfast we mixed in some yam and carrot into peaches and mango all pureed and she ate all of it without any problems! We are still slowly introducing veggies to her as we've gone straight veggie before and she does not respond well.  We are hoping that within the next month we can get her to enjoy more savory flavors.  A tip she also gave us is when we are out eating or even at home, if we have a soup or something we can dip our finger in, put a little on Abbys finger and say taste it, just to get her used to new flavors.

This is how we introduce new flavors.  First bowl is fruit, second is fruit with veg, last is all veg

 The awesome thing about Clinic 4 Kidz is they are really tailored to your family and what your home environment is like, how you live on a daily basis and they mold a protocol that is going to fit in with what you already do.  This is something places like the Los Altos Feeding Clinic don't address.  I was telling Allyne that I am out and about a lot and I do quite a few feedings outside the house or in the car, so for lunch we headed to Chilis and Abby ate great.

She finished all her pureed food and then had fun with her finger foods, she even went for my salad (she's definitely showing much more interest in food!) put her hand in it and then licked her hand... check out her reaction below! haha at least she tried it!! (If you cannot view the video, click here).

After lunch we took Abby to the park, mostly to kill a bit of time so we could later do a milk feed in the car.  I was able to get an app for the Gigglebellies and purchase some of the song shows she likes that way we could play them on the iPad without any internet/wifi connection during her milk sessions.  The feed in the car went pretty well, though the last few drinks she was getting pretty fussy but I think she was just really tired!

Allyne began training Matt tonight on doing solid feeds.  Here is a video of how the training sessions go.... yes its a bit silly, but honestly it helps so much to have her feed you and you feel in your mouth what she wants you to do with Abby.  They were both good sports and said I could post this... (If you cannot view the video, click here).

Allyne started her dinner feed then had Matt take over.  We were at first concerned because Matt is a lefty and it makes holding the spoon the correct way a bit more difficult, but Matt did great and he even commented how much of a difference it was to feed Abby - having her open her mouth and us be able to feed her so easily.  The amount of progress we have seen in just a few days is crazy, thank you Lord!  We are also so glad that we went with this clinic, it is perfect for Abby and our family!  The video below is a little clip of Matt feeding her. (If you cannot view the video, click here).

If you would like to see how we do the milk feeds, check out the youtube video here.

Tomorrow Matt will do the morning feed and be trained on how to give her milk, then my mom will come around noon and be trained on both solid and milk feeds!  Allyne will come back for 3 full days at the beginning of August and it is at that time that they will be able to train more people, so we'll have Matt's mom come and my cousin - hey we need babysitters to know how to feed her!! :)

Thanks for following our journey!!!

Clinic 4 Kidz: Day 3

Another day of therapy has come and gone!  So far we've made some pretty good progress, but this is not a miracle quick fix and Abby continues on with her same behaviors.  The difference is I will now respond to them much differently!

Today we almost reached a caloric total of just under 700 calories!!! So awesome! We increased her solids to 1.5 ozs per feed and her milk is still at 1oz per session.  Abby definitely seems to gravitate towards fruits and sweeter foods, but we really do want to get some veggies in there, so we have decided to start mixing in veggies into the fruit and slowly over time we will increase the amount of veggies and decrease the amount of fruits (for her vegetable foods that is).

Today she had many new foods - yam with pure maple syrup puree which we mixed with some fruit and tried it on its own and she accepted both!  We also tried mini pancakes which she seemed to want to eat but had trouble biting it due to its spongey texture.  We tried Dr. Pragaer broccoli/potato bites, sweet potato fries, sweet potato bites, teriyaki meat ball and raspberries - out of all of that she only liked the raspberries and possibly the broccoli/potato bites.

Ohhh and for breakfast Allyne decided to add whipped cream to her "finger food" time and gave her a little bowl and spoon and Abby was ecstatic with it! Here's a little clip..

I was trained today to feed Abby as well - that was a fun part haha.  The way that they train you is they first feed you (with water on the spoon) and then I feed Allyne and she will do some of Abbys behaviors and I have to react the way I will with Abby.  Interesting concept! :)  Sorry no video of that one...maybe I'll catch Matt being trained on Friday and show you how that looks!! :)

I'm tired today so I don't have the energy to give a detailed low down of the day, so check out the video below for some of todays feeds....

Today was the first day that I did a milk feed and a solid feed and let me tell you it's a lot harder than I thought!  With the milk feed you have to hold the bottle a certain way, you have to put it in her mouth a certain way, you have to say the drink command, but not too often to annoy her, and I have to have my hand under her chin to support mouth closure, but then if she lets the milk spill out I have to put my finger up to her lip to support lip closure... I need 4 hands it seems! haha.

For the solid feed I have to make sure Abby is engaged in her toys, I have to offer the food at the right time with the right amount on the spoon, I have to say "open ahh" first, but not too often like I did in the video so I don't irritate her, I have to say "big ahh" if she doesn't open wide enough, and I have to say "finish" if she prematurely closes her mouth. I have to remember not to say "can you finish the bite" and only say "finish", or not to say "are you ready for dinner" but "its time to eat" - it doesn't sound too hard but to remember what to do and when takes some getting used to!  We are definitely seeing improvement though, in my first solid feed today which was for dinner, I got her to open wide for every bite (with some help sometimes) and she ate 1.5ozs in 10 minutes!!! Last week that would have taken me 30+ minutes or not have happened at all! We're excited!

We will weigh Abby on Friday so I'll let you know how much she gained this week!! Whoo hoooo!!

Until tomorrow... good nighht!!!!!!