4.28.11 - Easter and Updates

Easter weekend was great.  We took a trip down to San Antonio to see Dustin's side of the family.  It's always so much fun to get together with his family.  We don't get to see them very often, but it's like you pick up right were you left off and we just always have a great time. 

We had an Easter egg hunt on Sunday with all the cousins and Liam had a blast (with no nap that day until 4 when we left to drive back!).  He completely wore himself out, but was all smiles and giggles.

Cousin Kayla was his helper so mommy and daddy could capture the moments via photo and video!

Liam is just walking up a storm!  He is EVERYWHERE, even trying to run sometimes (which never ends well for him...poor thing usually always falls when he gets going too fast!).  He still scoots around some when playing and when he's outside, but he follows directions well when we have to tell him to stand up and walk!  I think sometimes he actually forgets he can do that now!

And for the feeding, it is going well.  We have remained off the tube for more than a week and things are going really well.  I still have to supplement his fluid intake sometimes with water through his tube, but he is taking in all calories by mouth.  I also started the Carnation Instant Breakfast to supplement calories and he seems to like it.  His weigh-ins this week show he is still right around 24 lbs., give or take a few ounces and I'm praying the new home scale we bought is accurate.  I weigh myself first, and then weigh us both together and subtract my weight.  The lowest reading for his weight I've ever got is 23.2 lbs.  Which still isn't too bad considering how much more active he has become in the midst of weaning.  The dietitian will be her next Friday for an official eval so we will see then if we are able to keep chugging along.  I am planning on possibly having her come out more frequently, since our doctors visits lately (thus weight checks) have been few and far between. 

The only part about the feeding process is what Liam eats.  It still bothers me that there are not a lot of high calorie food options that are riddled with high fat, salt or sugar.  Since Liam doesn't eat a large volume of food, every bite counts for him calorie wise.  And while I do still feed him a balanced meal (meat, veggie, grain) I feel like bites of the good-for-you stuff are wasted bites because they lack calories....frustrating.  I know I'm probably not alone in my feelings over this, it's just never what I pictured for feeding my child.  I was reading an article today about the diet for people with congenital heart disease and basically, we are doing everything opposite of what the article recommends.  I know I can't get too worried about it.  Hopefully, this is a temporary stage of food choices!

I also thought I'd share some pictures we received from Liam's helmet appointment.  They emailed us a collection of comparison photos for the time frame he had his helmet for (9 months!).  It is pretty cool to see him grow up through these photos and see how great the helmet worked!

Pretty amazing what they can do these days!  Just glad we were done before the summer, so we didn't have a case of the smelly head this year!!