Our little Pebbles

After many weeks of seeing the feeding therapist we still have seen very little change. Brie is still refusing to eat more then a few bites at a time and she insists on feeding herself. She does not let us get near her with utensils. It is very frustrating. Brie is approaching one year very quickly and I would like to get her off of formula. She hates her bottles, but right now they are still her primary nutrition. This week we are going to try and make things with cheese whiz. She loves cheese crackers so I will try tortillas and cheese sandwiches made with it. Mommy did find some freeze dried veggies and fruits that Brie seems to like. She ate a bunch of peas today and seemed to enjoy the blueberries.

Brie has been feeling a little under the weather the last two days. She has had a low grade fever and has been super fussy. Today after a trip to the pediatrician they said it is either teething or a virus. She has no other symptoms so my guess is she is teething. Her bottom two teeth are completely in so it must be the top ones trying to come through. She did not seem to have a problem with the bottom teeth, but these must be more painful. Hopefully she will start feeling better.

As you can see Brie's hair is getting longer. We need Nanna's hand to heal so that she can give her a haircut. For now it has to go up in a pony tail! She is our little Pebbles.

Still being stubborn!

Gabrielle has been having fun chasing the cat. She laughs the entire time as she crawls and chases poor widget around the living room. Widget now hides during the day or sits on the windowsill so she cannot be attacked.

As for feeding, we have been ignoring the behaviors for the last 3 days. So far we have not seen much of a change. She screams and cries when all of her food is on the floor and there is nothing left for her to do but sit and watch mommy and daddy eat. She even congers up some big crocodile tears. Hopefully soon she will realize what is going on and stop throwing things on the floor. We continue to work on getting her to drink out of a sippy cup. She has been taking about 2 oz of juice a day from the cup. She refuses to drink the formula out of her cup. I am thinking about trying some goats milk with her. She sees the pediatrician in 2 weeks so I will ask them if it is okay to try a little in her cup. I do not blame her for not liking the formula. It smells disgusting and I am sure tastes horrible. She went from drinking sweet breast milk to hypoallergenic formula. Yuck! We have tried to flavor it with strawberry quick, vanilla, Karo syrup and even flavor packets for kids from nestle she wants nothing to do with it. We have been managing to get about 20 oz into her a day so hopefully that is enough.

As far as growth she continues to be 16 lbs. She does seem to be a little taller. Using Nanna's Christmas present of the wall growth chart tonight I measured her to be 26 inches. If that is correct she has grown an inch since her last pediatrician appt at the beginning of January. Her 3-6 month clothing seem to be getting short and her legs hang over the edge of the car seat so I think the measurement is accurate.

Look out Ivy leagues here we come!

Well Brie continues with her behaviors during mealtimes. She has now taken to throwing everything on the floor. We will tell her no sternly, she will cry and then she will do it again. It is a vicious cycle. After two weeks of this we have seen no improvement so we are changing tactics. We are going to try and ignore the behavior. If she throws something on the floor she does not get it back. Once she throws three things in a row on the floor she is done. We will take her out of the highchair and put her somewhere safe and continue with her dinner. This will upset her of course, but after she calms down she will rejoin us at the table. Tonight was the first night we tried it. She actually got to stay at the table and ate a few bites of chicken fingers and french fries. She of course wore more then she actually got into her, but she tried.

After spending some time with Nancy today we are going to stick to foods we know she enjoys and work on the behaviors. Nancy is also going to talk to a behaviorist to seek some more advise on how to deal with these behaviors.

Little miss independent

Brie enjoyed some of mommy's apple and pear. Of course they are much better when she can hold them herself. Prior to these two pieces of fruit she ate 1/4 of my banana as well. She loves to take her own bites off of fruit. It is the only thing she actually asks for more of. At least she likes something healthy!

Crunchy it is!

Brie seems to be doing well with crunchy finger foods. She loves to munch on cheese crackers and other junk foods. We are working on getting her to try things of different textures that are good for her. She seems to like fruit that we are eating. She will take bites of apples, pears and nectarines that we are eating as long as she can eat it like mommy and daddy do.

We have been seeing two therapists one a speech and the other an OT for Brie's feeding issues. Hopefully we will see some progress soon. She has been taking her bottles awake which is wonderful. She generally falls asleep while drinking, but at least we can start her bottles awake. We have spaced her bottles out more so that we can work more solids into her. The goal now is to get rid of the bottle and get her eating all table foods by a year of age. We finally found a sippy cup that she likes. She will not drink anything but water out of it, but it is a start.

As far as growth Brie hit 16 lbs tonight. She seems to be getting taller as well. Her little legs are starting to hang over the edge of the car seat. It will be interesting to see how long she is when we go to the ped next month.

We are going to have our hands full

Well after our visit yesterday with Nancy we have decided that most of Brie's feeding problems are behavioral. Nancy was trying to feed her and Brie kept throwing the food on the floor. Nancy told Brie no and Brie looked at her smiled and proceeded to throw the food on the floor. Nancy said she has not seen a baby Brie's age do this. So we are persevering and trying to change the behavior. Nancy's last comments when we were leaving on Thursday were to stop sleep feeding her. If she falls asleep and has not eaten let her go. Well today I have done just that. After a few hours she was fussing and actually willing to take a bottle awake. Now it does take me walking her to get her calm to take it, but she actually started every bottle awake today. She did fall asleep midway through all of them, but it is a start. Hopefully this will teach her what hungry and full feels like. Solids are another story. She will take a few bites of anything crunchy and seems to really love veggie sticks, but anything mussy or on a spoon and she wants nothing to do with it.
Her weight tonight was 15 lbs 12 oz so no gain this week, but we have been giving her less formula in an effort to increase her solid intake. She has been averaging about 20 oz per day. So it is not enough to gain weight, but she is not losing. Hopefully she will start eating solids better and we can move away from the formula.

Visits to the Pediatricians

Well today Brie went to see her general pediatrician. Overall she is very happy with how Brie is growing and developing. She feels that Brie is on target developmentally for her age. Yesterday Marcus took her to see the developmental ped and their neurologist and she did very well.
Their only concerns were that when she walks holding our hands she is on her tip toes. Other than that they could find nothing wrong. We are to encourage her to walk with her heels flat and they discouraged us from putting her in her exasauser because it allows her to be on her toes. Brie loves her exasauser and spends a little time daily in it so mommy can get some things done and take a shower so that is one recommendation we will likely ignore.
Brie is now able to get into a sitting position on her own. At the ped office tonight she asked me if she was able to do it and I said I had not seen her do it and then as if on cue she got from her belly to sitting. Sunday morning she also said mama for the first time. Marcus and I were both there and it was pretty clear so we think that is officially her first word.
Her latest stats at the ped office tonight were: height 25 inches (<3%), wt 16 lbs (3%), and head 17 in (18%). The percentiles are for 10 months. We did not figure out what they are for her adjusted age. Dr. Stefurak is happy that she is following her own curve and has moved up on growth chart in all areas except her height. Marcus and I are pretty sure she is not going to be tall so we are not worried.
As for her feeding we are about the same. We tried a few days of yogurt and on the 5th day she vomited a portion of almost all of her bottles. Today we did not give her the yogurt and she did not vomit so it looks like milk products are going to have to be avoided. We will likely trial them again in a month or so.