Teaching a 5 year old how to eat solid foods is one of the most frustrating and heart breaking things I've yet to do as a parent. Something so simple, shouldn't be so hard. It makes me feel like a crappy parent sometimes. Like why I wasn't able to teach her this four years ago, instead of doing it now as a kindergartner.
But she's doing good. She's learning what a "bite" is and how big it has to be. She has a hard time and chokes and gags and cries, but we are able to talk her down telling her her mouth is learning and she isn't used to it and saying "chew chew chew" over and over and doing breathing exercises. She still has a hard time with meat, bread, cooked fruits or veggies etc. At therapy they got her to each applesauce (a first!), and a good amount of peanut butter sandwhich. She really struggled with that but was able to
Since she chokes and gags a lot and also since she hasn't been able to eat well since birth they are going to do a swallow study in two weeks. Basically her food will be coated in barium and they will xray her chewing and swallowing to see if structurally there are any problems causing this. If there isn't, they will go full force ahead with forcing her to eat foods she hasn't in the past. She lately has been saying things like "it gets stuck in my air hole" or "it slided down my throat" when she swallows so I'm thinking maybe something might be going on.
Other than that, everyone is doing good. We've settled in with Joey and he's on a good schedule. He naps 3 times a day for about 2 hours, and then a cat nap before bed. He goes down at 7, sleeps till 3:30 or 4 am, eats and goes back to sleep until 7:30. He eats about 6 ounces every 3 hours during the day. HE's a big boy! 14 lbs 2 ounces and 23" long. 97% for height, and 95% for weight. He got his first shot last week and did good.. We are delaying and skipping most vaccines with him, so he'll go each month for just one disease instead of 6-7 at a pop. I'm thankful cause one of the vaxes we refused on wednesday was recalled the next day for contamination of a cow virus. Sure makes me feel better about our choices regarding vaccines.
This has been a hard few weeks with lots of bad things going on. First, a doctor I work with had his 6 year old succumb to a brain tumor. Then a little girl E's age was hit by a car in Greendale and Greendale and Greenfield had to respond. She went to E's school and also attended our church. We go by that intersection every day, and I will never look at it the same way. Trying to explain death to a 3 and 4 year old was hard, especiallly the way she died. The girls talk about her a lot though now. Then a friend from high school who I reconnected with on facebook was diagnosed with cancer. She is young, had no risk factors and has a beautiful baby girl born 6 days before Joey. I don't understand why bad things happen to good people and it has me really questioning my faith lately. I don't understand why God would allow these things to happen. But it's not my place to understand. That will all come the day we meet our maker. But it really makes me see that everything can be taken away in an instant. I could have my baby girl next to me one minute, and the next she could be gone from a freak accident. I could be very healthy today, and tomorrow be diagnosed with a horrible disease tomorrow. So in that way, it has strengthened my faith because I know my day may come at anytime.
Hoping the next few weeks look up though and the bad news stops! We are looking forward to summer. Evelyn has a month left of school, and then it's summer. It will be hard having all 3 home all the time but we are doing swimming lessons, YMCA camp for two weeks for E and T ball for both. Plus we have one up north trip planned and hope to go to Bay Beach and Regner Park a few times.
So that's us in a nut shell!
No comments:
Post a Comment