Weight Gain

Connie was weighed this morning (right after he threw up his morning feeding) and his weight is still climbing nicely. He was up another few ounces from last week and is now 21 lbs. 14.5 oz. Yesterday was his first day of getting 10 more mL (1/3 of an oz.) in each of his four daytime feedings and we decreased his overnight feeding by 40 mL. The goal being to get him off of the continuous overnight and strictly on daytime feeds, either by mouth or enterally. This is a slow process, for sure, but one we are confident that he can achieve in God's time. Our OT said yesterday that he is making wonderful progress, faster than her other clients with similar feeding issues. Guess he's a bit competitive. . .I wonder where he gets that from ;) Of course, today he's only taken in 5 mL of milk and 7 mL of water. I blended up our leftover meatloaf, carrots and potatoes from last night's dinner for him for lunch and served it along with ritz crackers. He won't hardly take anything off the spoon from me, so I let him use his nuk brush to dip into the mixture. He sure covered his face and bib and arms, but I'm not sure if any got in. It's good experience for him nonetheless. We're hoping that once his self-feeding skills improve, he'll really take off. He's just still pretty averse to anyone going near his mouth and he wants the control. I forgot how nice it was to have a bald baby at feeding times. When Mary Kathleen was at this stage, she was bald so mealtimes were a bit less messy! He gets it in his hair and everything. She didn't mind being cleaned up. He can't stand to have his face wiped. We're really starting to see a little personality come out in him. Today he was playing peek-a-boo with his blue bunny elephant and putting it on his head all by himself. He also knows what it means when I say, "Give me a bite." He puts the food or whatever he has in his hand up to my mouth and offers it to me. It's so cute how he's starting to understand more and more. I'm just so proud of him!

Mary Kathleen appears to be completely back to normal based on her activity level, but she is still complaining about her throat hurting.

Record Setting

In keeping with the record highs temps today (73 degrees), Connie has reached a personal best on liquid intake. He took about 50cc's (almost 2 oz.) from a take 'n toss sippy cup. It was 1/2 skim cow's milk and 1/2 breast milk. He liked it cold. He had some bites of banana and vanilla wafer as well. We really pushed him during OT today. We've got to get him to stop this business of pushing the spoon away. While he was drinking out of the open cup, he laughed and swallowed a lot of air and then the milk went down the wrong pipe and he started coughing and gagging and threw up everything he took in!

Mary Kathleen's fever hasn't come back today and she's eating again. Keep the prayers coming as she is still in that "contagious" stage since we're less than 24 hours away from the last fever.

Fishing Partners

Connie has spent most of the last two days with his fishin' partner, Grandpa George. Grandpa graciously offered to come over to help after learning that Mary Kathleen had come down with a fever of 102.99 and was vomiting late Sunday morning. Terrified that Connie would get it, we wanted to do everything we could to keep them separated and minimize the risk of me transmitting it to him after handling her. She was miserable with a headache and sore throat to boot. All she wanted was to be held, sleep and be held some more. She had her three year old check up today anyway so we had the pediatrician check her out. He said she has blisters in her throat (ouch!) but the strep culture came back negative so he said it is a virus. Her fever went down after an early morning dose (yes, I've been up since 4:45) of a tylenol suppository and stayed down throughout the day, but started creeping back up just before bedtime. She was able to hold down her pedialyte, a banana , half of a jello cup, a popsicle and a few bites of toast today. This is marked improvement over yesterday where I don't think more than an ounce stayed down. She was acting more like her old self this evening, so we're hoping she's licked this bug. Please pray that Connie can escape the snares of this virus and stay healthy.

He has been drinking more volume from a cup. Yesterday he had at least an ounce and a half of very watered down orange juice out of an open cup. We don't really drink much juice and it's the only kind I had. In retrospect, citrus fruits probably weren't the best choice for him, as he ended up throwing up some later on. Tomorrow I'm going to try the same trick with some apple juice (also watered down) and see how he does. He's so over the yogurt game already. He only wants to participate if he gets to do it himself and he can't! It is SUCH A MESS! I let him try, make the mess and all, but I don't think any of it is getting in. He enjoys himself though, and right now that's the most important thing. He loves watching people chew gum and he makes chewing noises with his mouth while he watches. He tries to pop bubbles and is fascinated by the whole process. He is imitating a lot more lately too. He has this high pitch sound that he makes to tell you that he's ready to play the talking game. First he makes a noise and then I repeat it and then we continue and he laughs and keeps making up new sounds. They are all pretty high pitched. Grandpa says he's going to be in choir like his mama and he'll probably be a tenor, a beautiful tenor voice. His hair is finally starting to lay down a bit and isn't so funny looking on the top. The front almost needs a trim. I looked at him tonight and noticed that if you don't sweep it to the side, it hangs down over his eyebrows! I know he's my kid and all, but I swear he gets more beautiful every day. Tonight he woke up and was up from 9:45-11:30 and the whole time he was giggling and giving me "love pats" and being so sweet. I was so tired and all I wanted to do was pump so I could go to bed, but I didn't want to miss a single minute of enjoying him enjoying life. It's hard to describe, but I'm sure if you have kids, you understand at least on some level.

Thanks for checking in, and don't forget to pray that he stays healthy while this nasty bug works it's way to some other household.

P.S. Thanks Grandpa for all your help. Connie wanted me to add that he can't wait to steal your glasses again soon!