feeding — KIDS — SALTY BLONDES

As I mentioned in this post a few months ago, Cal is still heavily relying on being fed through his g-tube. HOWEVER, he does eat a little bit of "solid" food. We feed him mostly pureed baby foods, and also try giving him bites of softer foods that we eat. I feel like when my husband and I eat in front of him, he loses interest with whatever baby food mush we're trying to give him and wants what we're eating. Which I'm totally okay with! Yesterday I was eating one of those chicken wraps that I made (blog post on those here), and he was acting like he wanted a bite. So I gave him a black bean after mushing it a little in my fingers. The chipotle dressing on the wrap is a little spicy so I thought he might hate it. But he kept acting like he wanted more and probably ate 5 or 6 beans! Haha. Seems like nothing, but I was so happy. #itsthelittlethings

When I do feed him baby food, I have Dr. Brown's Baby products to thank again for making Cal's meal time go as easy and smooth as possible. I'm sure I've mentioned many times that I'm a bit of a clean freak. I love the non stick base on their bowls to keep them in place, but my favorite solid feeding product they carry is their spatula spoons. I use those suckers to wipe Cal's mouth clean after every bite and they work like a charm. I wish I had the will power to just let Cal go crazy with his food and make a mess. But I don't.

I can't believe my baby is almost one! I really thought Cal's g-tube would be much more temporary. I thought we'd have it out by the time he turned 6 months for sure! My hope is that as he gets older and we are able to reason with him a little more to a point where he can really understand, that he'll realize he doesn't need it and will start to eat more on his own.

On a bit of a side note, we had our first scary gtube experience two nights ago and I want to document it real quick. We went to the Murray hospital to see my grandpa, who just had emergency heart surgery, and as I was getting Cal out of the car, I accidentally yanked his gtube completed out of his stomach! He was in the middle of being fed. So I had his little backpack with the pump in one hand, but as I was pulling him out I felt something get stuck. I thought it was his shoe since that’s happened before so I just tugged and continued pulling him out, not knowing the tubing was caught around the bottom of the car seat. I wasn’t even pulling that hard, but he started screaming and Daniel saw the gtube was completely out. Since he was in the middle of eating his milk and stomach contents spilled out all over him. He calmed down pretty quickly and went back to his happy self. Since we were at the hospital we rushed him over to the ER with my emergency gtube kit I had in he car (that I had never had to use and I was panicking a little). The hole in his stomach can close in as little as an hour if it’s not held open! Anyways, to shorten the story, we put in a Foley catheter at Murray to hold it open, but ended up being transferred to primary children’s to get a new tube put in since Murray didn’t have his size. He was such a brave boy, I know it hurt him and I felt like the worst mom on the planet. It was one of those thing where you’re like, did that really just happen?! Can I PLEASE go back 30 seconds and redo that?!

ANYWAYS, luckily Cal is quick to forgive and forget. Love that boy so much!

One more thanks to Dr. Brown's for not only helping me feed my baby, but also for feeding MY OCD with their matching bowl and spoon combos ;)

Thank you Dr. Brown's Baby for sponsoring this post. All opinions are my own.

Hi guys! It's been a while since I've posted an update on Cal. He's 9 months now (SO crazy to think he'll be ONE in less than 3 months!?!). He is such a little love. So full of joy and he has the sweetest, easy-tempered personality.

His followups with doctors and specialists have slowed down, which is good! We were able to cross off a couple of things we were worried about when he was born, and are now just following up with those doctors every 6 months to a year (his kidneys, and blood counts look good!). He still sees cardiology every couple of months, but things with his little heart have stayed stable. When he was born his cardiologist thought he would for sure need a valve replacement within the first year of his life. Now he's saying he thinks we may be able to wait a couple more years because things are looking okay. More time for Cal to get bigger and stronger and that's what we want!

We still work with a physical therapist quite often since Cal is definitely behind in hitting a lot of his milestones. He just barely learned to sit up on his own, and we are SO proud of his progress, but still have a long way to go.

He also has an occupational therapist come work with him because he still has his g-tube. Getting him off the g-tube is currently our biggest goal for him. He is such a happy, content little boy, but his g-tube seems to be the one thing that bothers him and even causes him pain, I think, sometimes. If it accidentally gets pulled or rubbed the wrong way, or even when I clean around it sometimes, he gets upset and I just so badly wish he could get it out. On the bright side, it's helping him get all of the nutrients he needs to grow and develop, and for that, I am grateful.

When he was in the NICU we was only taking about 30% of his full feedings by mouth (bottles with my pumped milk), and the rest was given through his ng tube. We worked with some amazing occupational therapists in the hospital on his feeding. Both of the therapists we worked with swore by Dr. Brown's Baby bottles. Not only are Dr. Brown's bottles known for reducing colic, spit-up, burping and gas, they also have different sized nipples for different baby stages to control the flow of the milk. We started Cal out with a premie sized nipple, and moved up to a level two.

Cal never progressed to the point where he was drinking enough to come home from the NICU, so after two months living in a hospital, he ended up getting the g-tube placed so he could come home.

We've been able to work on feeding him in the comfort of our own home, and still supplement what he needs through his g-tube. He never really learned to master drinking his full feedings from the bottle, but Dr. Brown's also has some great transitional products for going from bottle to a cup, and also products for solid food feeding. Cal has done much better with smooth pureed food than he did with a drinking a bottle, and has learned to drink from the Dr. Brown's Soft Spout Cup.

We are so blessed to have so many amazing baby products out there to help with Cal's feeding journey. Now Cal just needs to learn to love food as much as his mama does so he can get that dang tube out ;)

Thanks for reading! Please let me know if you have any questions on Dr. Brown's baby products or if you have or know anyone who has a baby with a g-tube and have questions about that.

Thanks you Dr. Brown's Baby for sponsoring this post. All opinions are my own.