week two of get grace to eat...

The second week has been more of the same with Grace.  We are continuing to have 6-8 feeding sessions a day.  In which, we are giving Grace both preferred foods (like applesauce, yogurt and mandarin oranges) and new foods (like peas, green beans and cooked carrots).  She has been doing really well with the format of eating when we tell her to eat and eating what we give her to eat.

Since she has done well with that, we added drinking from a cup.  Up till this point, Grace has been getting all her liquids from pureed foods.  So after our first visit to the feeding clinic in December, we started having Grace 'drink' milk mixed with a little yogurt off a spoon.  She did really well with this so the next step was to introduce a cup. 

This did not go well the first day.  Or the second.  By the third day, she was actively participating in drinking from the cup by closing her lips over the rim.  She would take 2-3 sips of milk at the end of each session.  We are using a cut out cup, which means one side of the cup is lower than the other side to make it easier to hold the cup up to her mouth.

We also added new foods to her meals.  Grace ate spaghetti o's and vegetable soup with alphabet pasta.  She seemed to like both of these, but she continues to hold or pocket food in her cheek.  However, at the end of the second week the therapists were very encouraging about Grace's progress.  We were sent home Friday to continue with our current feeding schedule.

There is a lot of down time for Grace, since her feeding sessions are only 10 minutes long.  So she spends a lot of time walking the halls...

And sitting on the floor in the hallway...

And laying on the floor in our back camp...

We also spend a lot of time at the Ronald McDonald House.  It is an amazing place and they do so much for the people who stay here.  I will say that the volunteers and other guests are not used to special needs kids.  So Grace spends a lot of our time educating them on special needs.  What that really means, is that we get a lot of looks and I have to continually say she's non verbal and is screaming because she's happy.  I am in no way complaining about this, since I had no experience with special needs kids before Grace came into our family.  But it does get tiring some nights.

Every night they have therapy dogs which Grace watches from afar.  Last week they had a therapy pig come in for a visit.  Grace was totally intrigued by Arnold the therapy pig. 

She also enjoys the playroom.  She finds new and interesting ways to play with the toys in the playroom...

Overall, it was a good second week.  It still continues to be an isolating experience for me and I feel completely disconnected from Mark and the boys.  But I have received so many texts, emails and calls from friends that I don't feel completely alone.  It is also comforting to know that so many people are taking care of my hubs and boys by bringing them food and helping to get the boys to school.  Grace and I were both happy to get home Friday, see our family and sleep in separate beds...