Milestone! Cheerio time!

We have reached a very big milestone at our house. Miss Siena is now eating Cheerios! Last week we met with the occupational therapists with a concern about her eating habits. She was choking or gagging on everything (puffs & baby food is all we have given her so far because of this). After observing her and letting her play in her food (what a mess!) they gave me some suggestions on how we could get her to improve in the eating department. Turns out that she had issues when food was at one particular spot in the back/ middle of her tongue. She just couldn't manipulate her tongue the right way and the only way to get it off of her tongue was to gag. They mentioned that the sensory system is often underdeveloped in preemies and that with practice she should figure it out soon. They had me give her bigger items that she could maneuver a little easier than the puffs that she choked on often. This was hard for me of course since she was having trouble on what should have come easy for her, but through thickening up her food considerably and placing the puffs on the sides of her mouth where she actually had to chew them she has seemed to figure it out. I gave her broken up Cheerios this weekend and then yesterday I gave her whole Cheerios. Today I gave her several at a time and she had no problems at all! It is like she figured out that she is being watched now so she decided to get her act together.

This of course opens up a whole new world for her.... snacks at the zoo, Cosi, church...... the possibilities are endless. How far she has come..... how lucky and blessed we are!

The following pictures are from December.



Our big girl at dinner time


Fancy angle


I am pretty sure Bray was making her laugh in this one.


No binky for Siena but this is how we sometimes find her. We know it has been a long day when she doesn't make it through her bottle.


Uncle Mike was fast enough to catch her for a picture


Not happy.


Grandma Pooh with Zachary & Siena. Can you tell they are 5 months apart?
Notice how disturbed both Siena & Santa look. From the previous photo, they obviously have a rough history.


Sara working on getting a smile out of Siena


All bundled up to see the zoo lights with Grandma & Grandpa Pooh. The lights were the best ever!


Rumor has it that I have Thanksgiving pictures & of course birthday pictures that have not been added yet. Stay tuned.