Eating Machine

Greyson is on an eating kick. I'm not sure an hour goes by that he is not eating something. His favorite snacks are:
- Cheerios (Cereals)
- Chex (Chex)
- Any type of bread (Bun)
- Archer Farms Fruit Leather (Fruit Bars)
- Milk with a spoonful of Carnation Instant Breakfast and 1 packet of pro-biotics (Special Milk)

In addition to the near constant snacking he is eating big meals. Not every meal, but most he'll eat as much as I eat - and I'm eating for 2!

I've noticed that some of his pants are now too short so I think we are just in the midst of a HUGE growth spurt. It's crazy!

Someone is eating more and it is NOT the pregnant one!

Ever since Greyson started eating solid foods we've for the most part just given him a small helping of what ever it is that we are eating and that has been plenty. We haven't had to change the amount of food we prepare, we just haven't had quite as many leftovers. But that is changing.

We have a hungry monkey on our hands. It's come little but little, but now it is safe to say that Greyson is an eating machine! For the past week he has had 1, sometimes 2, multi-grain waffles, cut into strips and dipped in blueberry syrup, at least a cup of cheerios, about a 1/2 cup of milk and a cup of juice (10% cranberry juice 90% water). This is all before 8:30am!

Lunch is usually our weakest meal, but if he is in the mood he'll eat well. A typical lunch is 4 or 5 slices of deli meat, a piece or two of toast (dry - seriously he freaks out if I even butter it) and about 1/2 cup of fruit.

He snacks all day long on crackers. I've been trying to buy multi-grain crackers so I can feel a little better about it. He LOVES crackers. There is a bonus to his insane cracker consumption: It's teaching him shapes! Triscuit Thin Crisps are Triangles, Multi-Grain Clubs are Rectangles, the butter crackers are Ovals, the Cheez-it's are Squares. He asks for Cheez-it's by name, but everything else is by shape.

Tonight we made breakfast for dinner and he eat 3 scrambled eggs, most of a sausage patty (not his fav) and 2 Grands Biscuits with gravy. He ate more eggs than I did! And last night he ate 2 whole slices of pizza. After dinner tonight Michael and I agreed that we are going to have to start making larger portions, our little bird isn't eating like one anymore!

We love a good snack!

I am ALWAYS hungry at 3:00pm. I don't care what I had for lunch, or when I ate it, come three I'm starving. Bad things come from the 3:00 munchies without a plan. So much like meal planning I'm trying to plan a snack.

Today we had rice cakes with almond butter and blueberry jam and watermelon.
It was AMAZING!

Greyson loved it and so did I.

This week at the store I found Whole Grain Rice Cakes super cheap, plus I had a coupon. I think I spent $0.72 on the pack of 12.
The ingredients: Whole Grain Brown Rice, Salt.
That's it! On their own they are a little dry, but topped with almond butter and jam - they are snacking perfection!

Greyson and I each had one, plus some watermelon.

Here is today's "Yum!", or the daily meal plan. Look for it daily at the top of the side bar.

Good things to eat

Watermelon and steak!


And his first time eating Corn-On-The-Cob!

He looks a little scared in this photo, but he really thought it was cool.

Eating: Big Boy Style

Last night Greyson and I fell asleep early in our bed. He normally doesn't sleep in our bed, but it had been a LONG day and we were both exhausted. So Greyson got to sleep with both his parents for a change. I think it was the most interesting for Michael, he was actually awake to see Grey's late night "feed me" routine.
Greyson rolled to face me and then smacked my chest, as in "Hey, I'm hungry! Get to work boobies!" I, of course, pulled them out, fed my son and we were all back to sleep less than 10 min later. Just another reason why I love breastfeeding - it is so much easier than fixing a bottle at 3am.
Greyson clearly knows where the "goods" are kept. He actually won't take a bottle from me any more. If I can't nurse him for some reason he will hold the bottle himself, but would rather have it from the source.

I'm not asleep, I'm just blinded by all the flashes.

He is showing this same independent spirit when it comes to eating solids. He would much rather feed himself than have us do it. So I'm letting him. I know that it's not as efficient and it makes a big mess, but this just isn't a fight that I think is worth it. He is not eating solids for nutritional value and they do not replace a meal, so what if more ends up on his face than in his mouth. He'll need to learn to feed himself at some point, why not start now?

We use a 2 spoon method. One gets loaded with food while
Greyson tries to find his mouth with the other one.
It works surprisingly well.

Seriously, where did my baby go? He is growing up too fast!

Yum, yum, yum.

Greyson is still on track for coming home (although we still don't have a date). He is eating 53ml at a time and starting to make a dent in our freezer full of boob milk. I'm heading up to see him now and to drop off more. The kid is an eating machine! He gets this hilarious expression on his face when he wants to eat and then he starts chomping. Seriously, chomping and if we don't get food to him fast enough he starts doing his little half cry. He is so ridiculously cute!

Greyson Video #4

Michael and I headed up to the hospital tonight to hang out with Greyson. Man, we love this baby! He had some fierce hiccups when Michael was holding him.

Darn Those Hiccups!

After Michael held him turning his feeding I took a turn holding him. Greyson settled in and fell asleep. Eating is tough for Greyson, he tends to destat during meals so once it was over he was pooped - but much to our surprise he did not actually poop! Instead he was passing the most wretched toots*. Really, really, stinking toots! We thought that surly he had pooped - the stink was lingering! Nope, just some stinky toots. He also had some major burps. Maybe he is just a really, really gassy baby and that is part of his trouble.

Hey, Little Man! Those hands, just make me giggle.

Proud Papa, checking out his awesome son.

Taking a post dinner nap on Mama.

*Sorry for talking about your smelly toots, Greyson!

Apnea, Eating and RSV

Everyone is still trying to figure out this apnea thing with Greyson. The caffeine hasn't had much effect and neither has extending his feedings from 30 min. to 1 hour, or elevating his the head of his bed. So yesterday they tried reducing the flow of oxygen in his nasal cannula thinking that perhaps he is getting too much oxygen too easily and then forgetting to breath at other points. So his flow has been cut by half. I'm hoping he'll show sign of improvement soon. At this time it is his biggest hurdle.

Greyson will be getting his RSV vaccine tomorrow. Having a preemie baby in the middle of winter means he will be especially susceptible to RSV and his little lungs really don't need that. He will be getting a shot every month until winter is over and then start again in the fall. Poor little guy, that is a lots of pokes.

His feeding tube has also been moved from his mouth to his nose. He seems more comfortable this way and is taking a pacifier more easily. It doesn't actually "pacify" him, but it helps to teach him how to suck - a still he will need to master before coming home. Yesterday while up in the NICU I was thinking about how little crying you hear. I've only head Greyson cry once and it was very short lived and fairly wimpy. I wonder if that will keep up when he comes home?

Greyson with his nasal feeding tube. All bundled up and taking a nap.
(Bonus with the new tube - he doesn't try to pull it out as often!)

Supply

Since Greyson is still eating through a tube I have been exclusively pumping. Every two to three hours I'm at it again. It is not one of may favorite things, but it is something that I can do for my little man. So I'll be pumping as long as it takes.

As part of my cleaning today I organized my "supply" in the deep freeze I have 1 gallon freezer bags with 80ml bottles (provided by the NICU) of milk from 12/11, 12/12, 12/13, 12/14 and 12/15. I usually produce 120ml per pumping and since Greyson is only getting feeds of 30ml* we have quite the stockpile. Plus the the NICU has a freezer bin full too!

All the bottles were taking over our kitchen freezer - now the plan is to just keep the current day upstairs and move the rest in the deep freeze. I can't wait until Greyson can kick the tube and start bottle/breastfeeding.

*Greyson and I are on a similar schedule. He eats every 3 hours and I try to pump that often too. Currently I'm staying way ahead of him, but I'm worried my supply will go down and his feedings will increase.

Daddy's Turn

Michael got to hold Greyson today. They were so sweet and Greyson looked so content. I'm very happy that Michael finally got the chance. They normally only let us hold at meal times and it seemed like Greyson's meal times never corresponded with Michael being up there. I'm so glad it worked out today.

Dad and Greyson saying hello.

They have us do skin to skin holding to help keep Greyson warm when out of the isolette.

Weigh In

Greyson is back up to his birth weight! Wow! That happened a lot faster than I thought it would. They are also planning to take out his CPAP and put him on a nasal cannula (the oxygen tube under the nose that most people get when they are in the hospital) within the week! Greyson is doing so well.
Today I was able to hold him for almost 2 hours. Unfortunately he pulled out his feeding tube. He's taken to lifting his own head up and moving it around and pulled out the tube in the process. He didn't seem to mind, but it freaked me out. They put it back in and everything is fine.

UPDATE: This evening he is up a half ounce! What a growing boy!

Eating for Two

I'm trying to be really good about what I eat and overall I think I am doing okay, but I need to step it up! I am this little guys sole source of nutrition.
So I'm going to make every effort to drink the entire 2 quarts of water a day and not just let one be enough. I'll make a point to eat 2 servings of dark green veggies a day and not every couple of days. I will get up a little earlier and eat a real breakfast and not let a bowl of cereal be enough. I will get 75 to 85 grams of protien in a day and not have wretched, lazy days when I only eat about 40.
Last week I back slid a little bit, but this weeks I'm going at it for all it's worth!

We don't want the little guy going hungry.

A 12 week sigh of relief!

We heard the heartbeat and all is well. 160 beats per min.
12 weeks was this huge milestone for me and now I can set some of my fears aside and enjoy things. The little bird is growing, he is happy and healthy and in February will be in my arms.

And I've lost a pound. So strange. I know that is common in the 1st trimester especially with 1st time moms, but it still doesn't seem right. I know that it has a lot to do with my food aversions and managing my food allergies. Much to everyone I love's dismay I used to eat a lot of things that "may contain peanuts" or contained soy in the later half of the ingredient list (as long as if wasn't soy flour or soy protein) and then I'd just pop a Benadryl if I felt weird. But as I'm avoiding Benadryl right now I've been extra cautious which has left me with few options. I've been eating fresh peaches like they are going out of style - at least one a day. It's seems I've trade apples in for peaches. Other diet staple include Raisin Bran Crunch, Tall glasses of Ovaltine, Homemade Oatmeal Cookies and English Muffins.
Tomorrow I'm going to have bacon.

Nutrition

I've been working hard to get proper nutrition for myself and the little bird. But it is hard. Just consuming enough water throughout the day is a huge challenge. It seems like the only way I'll be able to do it is if I live in the bathroom. Another challenge - making sure I get enough protein. I can't just toss some BP on toast. Protein for me is much more complicated. Oh, well.

I have discovered V8 Fusion so with each glass I get one serving of Fruit and one serving of vegetables - at least that is a start.

Apples

For the past few days I've been craving apples. I'm on my second apple of the day and would eat more but we are all out. Something about the crisp tartness just makes me happy. So far I've enjoyed Gannie Smith (my usually favorite), Rome (What I'm eating right now) and Golden Delicious (What started off this apple kick and in current first place).
The fiber found in apples is helping things out as well. Seriously, everything is moving around and not working as well as it used to.
Tomorrow morning I'm off to the store to buy more apples. The selection is limited however to only varieties grown in the USA. I just feel better about eating an apple from Oregon than one from Chile.

ADDITIONAL POINT OF INTEREST: I was telling Michael's mom about my recent love of apples and she said that she craved apples throughout her pregnancy with Michael. Here's hoping our little bird is half as wonderful as he is.