It's been a fun week at our house. Joe has explored his food options and been doing very very well and baby food is soon to be a thing of the past! Last week I expressed some concern with Sarah (Joe's OT friend) about his eating. Although he came to us much too early he is nearly 15 months old which means he is 12 months old adjusted. I felt he needs to try new textures, flavors, and varieties. She agreed 100%.
Several months ago I had a horrible scare.......I was feeding little Joe level 3 baby food, beef and veggies, and the little man choked on me. It scared me soo much that I never let him have any level 3's again! I also experimented with bitter biscuits and mum mums and the same thing. He would go crazy and bite a huge piece off. I would stand over the top of him like a total psycho and the second a chunk broke off into his mouth, I would grab his little face to hold still and stick my finger in his mouth to remove the piece. He would look at me like, "jeez Mom I'm trying to enjoy my treat and you are ruining it!". So we just quit all together because I felt bad doing that too him. I mean he eats and adult sized bowl of rice and baby food sometimes seconds, why rock the boat right? I realized that isn't right to do to Joe, he needs to eat big boy food! Besides, what is more wonderful than eating? There are so many wonderful things to eat and Joe needs to enjoy too!
Fortunately for us Sarah is a feeding expert :) She came over and we ate cream of corn...yummy (Joe thought so I guess) mixed with rice. He did really well. He gagged a few times, but the key is to remain calm, smiling, and talk him through it. He eventually chewed chewed chewed and down it went. Yeah Joe! I learned that sticking my finger in his mouth and freaking out was not good. In fact he wouldn't let Sarah put a piece of biscuit in his cheek because of my past experience. Oops. He figured it out fast though! I guess since Joe was on the vent when he was born that can cause your gag reflex to be closer. Ours is quite aways towards the back of our throat, but Joe's is quite close to where he swallows.
Yesterday we decided to get really crazy and give Joe spaghetti his Daddy made for supper. His first time eating spaghetti ( I will post pics later promise). Sarah came over to help supervise. We cut it up really small and when we feed little Joe the key is to stick the food into the side of his mouth .... in his cheek. This will force him to chew chew chew. He did very well only coughing and gagging a few times he does better on the left side of his mouth than the right. The right side is his trouble area in general though. Sarah also brought us a very cool cup, it is plastic, but very malleable. We can pinch the edge and kind of funnel the fluid into his mouth. It has a cut out opening so when we tip it up it doesn't hit his nose. He did awesome awesome with it! He drank a glass of juice and 3 glasses of plain milk! Bye Bye bottle and formula.........Joe's a big boy now! Heck we can skip the sippy too! Joe also got to try a beef stick, I think he enjoyed the way it made his gums feel more than anything. Darn teeth! Sarah also showed us that cheese cloth works to filter out pieces that my choke him. We wrapped a choc chip cookie in the cheese cloth and let him chew that a little bit. He wasn't so hip on that though, but at least gave it a try!
Pictures to come soon............I promise!
Picture taken by the lovely Janel Johnson at Janel Johnson Photography
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Joe's Progress
Joe has had quite year himself! I've decided I want to gloat about my sweet boy's progress in 2010!
On 12/31/10 we had his evaluation with his therapists. Joe receives PT and OT once per week at our house by two very amazing wonderful ladies Kim and Sarah. Every Wednesday night is OT with Sarah and Thursday night is PT with Kim. These are 2 nights a week I always look forward too because Joe and I enjoy our time with them so much. As I was saying.........Joe had his 6 month evaluation since his therapy began in July 2010. We went over the goals we made in July 2010 seeing if they were accomplished and set up new goals for the next 6 months with our case manager Bonnie, who is also an amazing wonderful lady!
Joe's goal in July 2010 for OT consisted of a lot of feeding/eating stuff. At that time we were introducing baby food and trying to get him to eat it and make most of his meals it instead of drinking bottles exclusively. Well that goal was most definitely accomplished! Joe loves loves to eat baby food, rice cereal, and we've even been giving him people food (if it's soft enough of course). He still drinks his jug, but we mix it half formula and half milk, sometimes more than half milk. We have also introduced the sippy cup. He uses it as a teething ring, but is making progress. The other issue Joe was having back in July 2010 was Joe didn't lift his right arm or open his right hand at all really. He did everything with his left hand and left arm. We set a goal that Joe would use his right arm, bring it mid line, and use his right hand to grab and play with toys. He has made much progress with that also. He lifts his right arm and brings it to mid line, but he still struggles with opening his right hand. His hand is in there with all the activity, just not grabbing. So we have gotten him a little hand splint that he wears 3 hours on and 3 hours off during the day. This will promote keeping his hand open and get it to become involved in playing. We are also going to continue massaging and stretching his little hand to help prevent it from being so tight it can't open. I would say he accomplished almost all his OT goals to some degree.........way it go Joe :) Our new goals are to continue working with his hand getting him to do things with it, stretching his whole right arm and shoulder to help prevent stiff tight muscles, feeding himself (which he does in a very messy uncoordinated way), and I would like to see him not on the bottle and only using his sippy cup for drinking.
PT was a little different. He has made some nice progress, but we still need to work on the same goals we set last time. He is rolling over like mad! I am very excited about this! His first time rolling over was in July. He seemed to do it only when he was really mad (which isn't often at all), then he just stopped rolling over completely in mid August. That concerned me, but he has made up for lost time and is rolling himself everywhere now. He is also enjoying his tummy time. He use to despise being on his tummy and would scream like someone was attacking him when he was on his tummy. Now he plays with toys on it and holds himself up nice and tall. He also uses his arms well during his tummy time and holds himself up by the elbow. This is a huge accomplishment for Joe! It must of been all the attention and busyness at our house in December! We have been working on sitting up. He is close but no cigar. Every once in a while with us sitting with him he will sit up for a few seconds by himself. I can tell he is frustrated he wants to go move around and he tries so hard, but can't. Our goal of rolling from both sides has been accomplished, so now we are going to keep working with him on sitting, getting up on all fours, standing along furniture (we are far from this), and maybe some crawling (we are far from this too). Those are hard goals but we live one day at time. We will just keep working towards those things and I believe in time they will come. Little Joe has very tight muscles especially the right side of his body from being so preemie. Plus he is growing so fast that it seems the growth spurts make his hips and thighs get tight. We do lots and lots of stretching. We do stretching with the exercise ball and Joe has a special chair we strap him in and he can sit up and play. Kim even brought him a little desk to use with his chair! Joe looks so professional!
I am very pleased with Joe! I think he is so amazing for all he's overcame in this past 15 months. Right now he has his first ear infection. You would barely know by his behavior. He is his happy pleasant self, smiling all the time. He has really became vocal too. He plays on the floor yelling in total happiness :) He is saying Dada and Bebe....sounding like baby. Of course Raymond is thrilled and encourages him to say it all the time, Dada that is. Joe sees the thrilling reaction from his father when he says this, so he continues on saying it, "dada dada dada dada....." it is so sweet to watch them in complete glory over such a simple word! We are still working on Mama! I can't wait to hear that word for the first time........it will be the most thrilling event of my life!
Happy New Year everyone!
On 12/31/10 we had his evaluation with his therapists. Joe receives PT and OT once per week at our house by two very amazing wonderful ladies Kim and Sarah. Every Wednesday night is OT with Sarah and Thursday night is PT with Kim. These are 2 nights a week I always look forward too because Joe and I enjoy our time with them so much. As I was saying.........Joe had his 6 month evaluation since his therapy began in July 2010. We went over the goals we made in July 2010 seeing if they were accomplished and set up new goals for the next 6 months with our case manager Bonnie, who is also an amazing wonderful lady!
Joe's goal in July 2010 for OT consisted of a lot of feeding/eating stuff. At that time we were introducing baby food and trying to get him to eat it and make most of his meals it instead of drinking bottles exclusively. Well that goal was most definitely accomplished! Joe loves loves to eat baby food, rice cereal, and we've even been giving him people food (if it's soft enough of course). He still drinks his jug, but we mix it half formula and half milk, sometimes more than half milk. We have also introduced the sippy cup. He uses it as a teething ring, but is making progress. The other issue Joe was having back in July 2010 was Joe didn't lift his right arm or open his right hand at all really. He did everything with his left hand and left arm. We set a goal that Joe would use his right arm, bring it mid line, and use his right hand to grab and play with toys. He has made much progress with that also. He lifts his right arm and brings it to mid line, but he still struggles with opening his right hand. His hand is in there with all the activity, just not grabbing. So we have gotten him a little hand splint that he wears 3 hours on and 3 hours off during the day. This will promote keeping his hand open and get it to become involved in playing. We are also going to continue massaging and stretching his little hand to help prevent it from being so tight it can't open. I would say he accomplished almost all his OT goals to some degree.........way it go Joe :) Our new goals are to continue working with his hand getting him to do things with it, stretching his whole right arm and shoulder to help prevent stiff tight muscles, feeding himself (which he does in a very messy uncoordinated way), and I would like to see him not on the bottle and only using his sippy cup for drinking.
PT was a little different. He has made some nice progress, but we still need to work on the same goals we set last time. He is rolling over like mad! I am very excited about this! His first time rolling over was in July. He seemed to do it only when he was really mad (which isn't often at all), then he just stopped rolling over completely in mid August. That concerned me, but he has made up for lost time and is rolling himself everywhere now. He is also enjoying his tummy time. He use to despise being on his tummy and would scream like someone was attacking him when he was on his tummy. Now he plays with toys on it and holds himself up nice and tall. He also uses his arms well during his tummy time and holds himself up by the elbow. This is a huge accomplishment for Joe! It must of been all the attention and busyness at our house in December! We have been working on sitting up. He is close but no cigar. Every once in a while with us sitting with him he will sit up for a few seconds by himself. I can tell he is frustrated he wants to go move around and he tries so hard, but can't. Our goal of rolling from both sides has been accomplished, so now we are going to keep working with him on sitting, getting up on all fours, standing along furniture (we are far from this), and maybe some crawling (we are far from this too). Those are hard goals but we live one day at time. We will just keep working towards those things and I believe in time they will come. Little Joe has very tight muscles especially the right side of his body from being so preemie. Plus he is growing so fast that it seems the growth spurts make his hips and thighs get tight. We do lots and lots of stretching. We do stretching with the exercise ball and Joe has a special chair we strap him in and he can sit up and play. Kim even brought him a little desk to use with his chair! Joe looks so professional!
I am very pleased with Joe! I think he is so amazing for all he's overcame in this past 15 months. Right now he has his first ear infection. You would barely know by his behavior. He is his happy pleasant self, smiling all the time. He has really became vocal too. He plays on the floor yelling in total happiness :) He is saying Dada and Bebe....sounding like baby. Of course Raymond is thrilled and encourages him to say it all the time, Dada that is. Joe sees the thrilling reaction from his father when he says this, so he continues on saying it, "dada dada dada dada....." it is so sweet to watch them in complete glory over such a simple word! We are still working on Mama! I can't wait to hear that word for the first time........it will be the most thrilling event of my life!
Happy New Year everyone!
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Many Thank You's
I wanted to devote this post to telling all our amazing friends and family how much we love them and appreciate all the support during this difficult time.
We are very blessed to have such an amazing and supportive group of people in our lives!!!! I don't know what we would of done without any of you! You all have left me speechless with gratitude.
Things are still tough at our house. As each day passes moving on with daily life gets easier, but Princess is still in my thoughts many many times a day, along with her brother Robert. I imagine I will think of them everyday forever, enjoying all the wonderful moments we spent with them.
I have been reflecting on the whole experience and was so surprised at all the food, cards, flowers, gifts, phone calls, texts messages, visits, emails, etc we received. I shouldn't of been surprised at how amazing my friends and family are, but the amount of kindness was so helpful for us!
I apologize to any of you I haven't got back to timely. I appreciate and was comforted by all the messages and calls. It was just sooo busy in December with everything going on and the holidays. I am relieved it's over, but sad to begin the new year without Ella and another year without Robert.
We will move forward and enjoy each day as it's a blessing. We are looking forward to the New Year and have all our wonderful memories of Ella to take with us!
We are very blessed to have such an amazing and supportive group of people in our lives!!!! I don't know what we would of done without any of you! You all have left me speechless with gratitude.
Things are still tough at our house. As each day passes moving on with daily life gets easier, but Princess is still in my thoughts many many times a day, along with her brother Robert. I imagine I will think of them everyday forever, enjoying all the wonderful moments we spent with them.
I have been reflecting on the whole experience and was so surprised at all the food, cards, flowers, gifts, phone calls, texts messages, visits, emails, etc we received. I shouldn't of been surprised at how amazing my friends and family are, but the amount of kindness was so helpful for us!
I apologize to any of you I haven't got back to timely. I appreciate and was comforted by all the messages and calls. It was just sooo busy in December with everything going on and the holidays. I am relieved it's over, but sad to begin the new year without Ella and another year without Robert.
We will move forward and enjoy each day as it's a blessing. We are looking forward to the New Year and have all our wonderful memories of Ella to take with us!
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