Tuesday, July 4, 2017

Anastasia's Turn

I feel like I keep posting about Rowan's progress. I wanted take a minute and focus a little bit on Anastasia. 

Up until 6 weeks ago Anastasia could only tolerate formula and maybe some level 2 baby food. The kind for a 4-6 month old infant, super pureed. She had a nasty food aversion. It was a test of wills when it came to feeding her solids and she normally won.
About a month ago we decided to help her get over this once and for all (with some advice from a feeding / speech therapist). This girl seriously needed protein and to get some meat on those little bones. We got her a cute new high chair just for her (before then she and Rowan took turns in his high chair). We got a variety of dis-solvable foods; Cheerios, baby puffs, little crackers, tiny baby dis-solvable stars, yogurt bites, ect. Then we'd have her sit in the high chair and layout the bounty. 
At first she'd just put the food in her mouth and promptly spit it back out. But slowly the food started to stay in her mouth long enough for her to taste it. We'd leave her in the chair (with one of us sitting with her) for 30 minutes, several times a day. We wanted to give her time to choose to eat. Whatever stayed in the longest, Anastasia would receive more of that item.

Finally it just clicked, with baby cheddar puffs. Anastasia actually ate them. We'd get 1/2 a dozen of those cheddar puffs and let her eat as much as she wanted. Shortly there after, we introduced "Li'l Bits" which is baby food with actual bits of real food in it. We repeated the same process as before. 

She's now up to eating 5-6 containers of Li'l Bits a day (2 per meal) and snacking on easy to eat finger foods. We're working up to regular foods in the next day or two.
Anastasia is beginning to talk a little more. She waves and says "Bye Bye". She'll do this whenever she goes down for a nap or to sleep for the night. I love it! Every time, she waves bye to everyone in the room. 

She can say "No, No, No", Bye bye, Momma, and Dadda. She's a little behind in her in her speech, however, Jill (the speech therapist for Rowan from Early Intervention) is keeping an eye on Anastasia. If she slips further behind we'll be on top of it. 
Lastly, she's starting to walk, she'll cruise around the sofas in the living room. Anastasia will walk with assistance. We're thinking by Char's birthday she'll be toddling on her own. Here's to hoping and lots of physical therapy.  

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