Eating..

Just a little eating update. When we got our princess home, we suspected that she had never been given anything to eat but a bottle. The caregiver who deposited her in our arms told us that she was given one bottle a day before her nap. One bottle? She lived on one bottle a day. This means that our sweet one never learned to chew, has some pretty weak oral motor skills, and is very hesitant to let anything near her mouth. I suspect that since her cleft lip was repaired at 4 months old, and she was hurting, that she never went through the oral exploration stage babies have to progress through...nothing going into this sweet girl's mouth.

So...we have feeding therapy in place. We are working on getting her to accept different food textures (ie puree or baby food, mashed food, ect.) and we are also working on the chewing hierarchy. Chewing Hierarchy? Who knew? Well, I didn't have a clue, but the therapist has been good about guiding this momma ever so gently and leading me in the ways of feeding therapy. Our little one is making some BIG progress..though we still have a long way to go.

Here is some of what she is eating these days..

Fork mashed pumpkin pie with whip cream...YUMMY!

Accepting a spoon into her mouth quite nicely these days.

Also sitting in the high chair is no big deal any longer.

Gotta love a hot fudge sundae face.

I am working on trying to get her to pick up the spoon herself.

She is very unhappy about this. She regularly tells momma NUUUU..

while shaking her head and putting my hand on the spoon.

Eating actually brings her great joy as do daddy's antics while she's eating.

He is really cracking her up here! Gotta love her joy. It is so contagious.

Praying for continued progress and that she figures out that chewing thing. She still doesn't seem to have a clue about how to use those teeth of hers. She is still mashing food with her tongue in a sucking motion and can't seem to get her tongue to thrust forward anything out that is too hard to mash with it. That means it's soft fork mashed and pureed foods in her diet until those teeth can function. She is thriving though-nine pounds heavier than six months ago. We are still really struggling with getting her to accept liquids from a cup. She won't have anything to do with putting one of those things in her mouth. We have tried several kinds and none seem to interest her. Still, we press on and are thankful that she has no signs of dehydration despite not taking liquids. It's never dull around here and we love watching her grow..Eating is an adventure. I know the minute she chews a cookie, she won't be able to get enough as my girl loves her some sweets.