Bubbles

Natalie's temperature this morning was normal, and she's in a much better mood than yesterday, so I guess no sickness. We're really in a quandry about feeding her, since she can't really regulate herself. When we were just feeding by tube, we knew by trial and error how much she could handle, and we tried to increase it by 5 ml every couple days. But now that we're feeding her both by mouth and by tube, AND she doesn't know to stop when she's full, it's a challenge.

At CHOC, we always feed her on an empty stomach to encourage her to eat, and then give her a tube feeding at the end to bring it to 5 ounces total intake. Today I've been giving her 2-3 ounces of formula in her tube first, then feeding her by mouth to try to get her to understand that eating fills her up and she should stop when she's full. There have been a few erps, as we sometimes call them, from an over-full baby, so we're learning together.

Here's a pic of Natalie with her first doll, Bubbles, named after Grandma Alice's favorite doll. This doll is machine washable and comes with a (thankfully!) removable push button thing that mimics a baby giggling. IMO, the giggle lasts too long in a house that also has a 2-year-old who loves to press things over and over again. We took the giggle out and have it on the mantle. We press it every once in a while to spook Lukas "where is that coming from?"