welcome to my crazy, part deux.

if you remember, i wrote a little bit ago about switching shilo to a blenderized diet.  i let you all in, just a little bit, to my crazy with nutrition for my kids.  not all the way in, just a little.
and i would like to revisit that, now that we are a couple of weeks out.  first of all, i have NEVER been in love with an inanimate object before.  but, i have considered taking my blender out on a little date.  perhaps a little snuggling on the couch would be appropriate?  i'm not sure.  but seriously, this blendtec blender can pulverize just about anything, and i can push it into my daughter's belly.
but that's not really what i want to talk about.  i'm not the first parent to do a blenderized diet.  and i'm not the only one who can attest to what i'm about to write.  so while i'm aware that i sound like a complete nut, every last bit of it is true.
within a few days of switching from formula to blenderized foods, shilo rolled over for the first time from back to belly.  and then did it like a 100 more times.  she is sitting on her own for a few seconds at a time (and getting closer to doing it well all by herself).  when her therapist put her up on her hands and knees, she rocks back and forth, like children who are getting ready to crawl.  she is mouthing everything, like typical babies do.  she didn't do this before. she doesn't gag anymore.  at all.  i can put things in her mouth, and she doesn't gag.  most kids with low tone have issues with constipation.  nope.  not here anymore.  she just seems happier, more alert, and to be taking off with all of her skills.
and this thing deserves a paragraph all it's own.  my kid, doesn't. puke. anymore.  she went from puking anywhere from 2-20 times a day, to not having puked in....i don't know how long.  and when i say she puked all the time, i'm not talking like she spit up.  i'm talking projectile, multiple feet out from where she was, her whole stomach quaking and retching   and the biggest miracle of this, is that the meds we are pretty sure make her puke, have been increased.  still, no vomiting.  i'm not sure if any of you have cleaned up puke all the time before, but i tear up every time i think about it now.  i can also give her bigger volumes.  before we switched, 4 oz was about as much as she would tolerate during the day.  even then she still puked.  and they had to be run over so many minutes, causing us to spend at least a few hours every day sitting with shilo hooked to her tubing. her night time feeds could be bigger because she slept through them.  now i can do 5-6 oz. of food, a few ounces of water between meals, and push it in as fast as i can, and she's completely unphased.
the bigger things we know are coming, because she's not puking, she is more interested in putting things in her mouth, and letting me put things in her mouth.  she will suck on/chew on hard crackers i give her to play with during meals.  she will put the little fruit in a net (i'm sure there's a more technical name for these baby things) in her mouth and chew.  i think we aren't far off from her actually eating by mouth, because she no longer has negative associations from all the vomiting.
while it feels like common sense that feeding my kid real food as opposed to sugars and chemically enhanced milk proteins has made her feel better, i'm still in awe of how much it has changed our lives.  and the blender we have doesn't make it hard.  measure the stuff into it, push the soup button (sometimes twice) and i have a puree of awesome food for my kid, that is good for her.  the other night, she had soup with cannellini beans, kale, quinoa, carrots, and bluberries.  even my veggie and fruit loving big, likely would not have eaten that combination, at that age.
all right, thanks for sticking with me through my crazy excitement.  if you have a kid with a g-tube, and are interested in this, please, please, spend some time reading other people's experiences.  i have yet to hear anything negative about this. and very few doctors or even nutritionist are completely on board with this sort of thing, for whatever reason.  luckily shilo's dev. ped. is.  i am so excited to tell her what we are experiencing!  i feel like our lives are no longer dictated by a feeding pump, and puking.  the freedom is amazing.

for those who are interested in the nitty gritty, here's the breakdown of what we do:

on formula:  4 oz each at 8 a.m. noon, and 4p.m.  200 m.l. at 7 p.m. 200 m.l. at 10 p.m.  wait for the pump to beep so we could go to bed.  totaling around 506 calories a day.

on food:  breakfast, lunch, dinner at whatever times we are eating, and whatever we are eating (for the most part).  1-2 oz of water about 20-30 minutes before lunch, same before dinner.  i use milk as the liquid base for her meals, and then she gets 200 ml of milk at bedtime as well.  she also gets a slow flow of water all night long.  her fluid (without figuring in the fluid in the foods) equals around 18 ounces.  her food volume anywhere from 12-18 ounces.  and her calories are anywhere from 650-800 or more a day.  i have pretty much stopped counting calories, because every time i do, we are so far from where we were on formula.


*end of my crazy excitement*