Hungry, Hungry Henry

Grammy came over Tuesday morning, while I prepared my lecture for Wednesday's first class of the semester. I cleaned some plastic rings that I had bought Henry awhile ago. I wanted some toys that we could put on Henry's mat so that he would be more encouraged to reach for things. We had fun with the rings. I turned Henry over to Jeff at some point because I had to pump. Apparently, Henry had "the biggest blowout ever" (according to Jeff). I was accused of getting out of there, leaving Jeff to deal with a very messy situation. Honestly, I didn't smell anything. Having been doused thoroughly the night before, I wasn't terribly apologetic about the situation.

We met with nanny candidate number three Tuesday afternoon. We liked her. As with nanny candidate number two, we aren't convinced that she is necessarily going to stay in Tucson for the long haul. Nanny candidate number two just moved to Tucson one month ago to be closer to her boyfriend. Nanny candidate number three moved to Tucson from Denver a few months ago to live with her husband's family. Nanny candidate number two is very quiet. She does seem to genuinely like children and is the one who has worked with children who are autistic. We like that she's had experience working along side occupational therapists. Nanny candidate number three has a degree in massage therapy. Given our recent positive experience with infant massage, we view this as a plus. At the moment, I think that we are leaning toward number two ever so slightly. We plan on calling their references today.

After the interview, I went to Babies R Us for some supplies. I ended up buying several teethers for Henry and some toys (soft blocks). Grandpa came over in the evening. After Grandpa left, we gave Henry one of the new teethers. It is one that vibrates when the baby bites down on it; it is supposed to soothe the gums. He really liked it until he started waving his arms around with it and bonked himself hard on the head. I was pumping at the time and heard this really loud wail. He hit himself so hard that it left a pink mark near his eye. We've decided to put that particular teether away until he's progressed a little bit more on his fine motor skills. We ended up giving him a bath to soothe him.

Grammy came yesterday morning to take care of Henry while I went to school for class. It's a research methods class...a large lecture of 105 students. After class, I came back home, and Jeff and I headed out the door with Henry to his Dr. Hassan appointment. Henry smiled at the nurse as she weighed him. She said that she was surprised and that most babies don't smile during measurements; they usually cry. Henry is just a very happy little guy. Henry weighed 15 lbs 9 ozs, and his head circumference was 42.9 cm. His length was 25 inches. The measurement for length is the most variable, depending on who is doing the measuring. When Jeff and I measured him at home a few days earlier, we thought he was 26 inches. We think that the head circumference measurement was accurate. Henry had just had a 4 ounce bottle before he got to the doctor's office, so we weren't convinced that his weight was really 15 lbs 9 ozs. Dr. Hassan said that Henry looked good. I said that his weight had stalled a little bit over the holidays. Dr. Hassan said that his growth curve looked good still. He lifted up his blanket and pointed at Henry's stomach and said that Henry's weight was just fine. "He's a healthy baby, mom." We told Dr. Hassan that Henry was out pacing my breast milk production and that we'd need to introduce some formula at some point. Dr. Hassan said that we should use a hypoallergenic formula. The top of the hypoallergenic formulas is Neocate (which we've been using to fortify his milk since late August). He mentioned that the Neocate is rather expensive; I think that he was trying to gauge our reaction to this. I said that was fine. We'd feed him whatever is best for him. Dr. Hassan got us two cans of Neocate to start us off. That was generous. A 14 oz can costs about $37.50. Expensive stuff. The plan is to have me continue to pump, and then to give him Neocate when the milk runs out.

We went on our evening walk. Henry said hello to Janice and Tripod (Janice’s son’s three-legged dog). Our pup Marley was taken with Tripod and was incredibly flirty. Henry was entranced by the dogs. Jeff gave Henry a massage after the walk, and then I gave Henry some rice cereal. His feeding went well. Messy of course. Grandpa visited in the evening. Henry was a little grumpy. After Grandpa left, Jeff fed Henry rice cereal again (after he rejected the bottle, had a diaper changed, didn’t want to play, etc). Henry gobbled it up. He got his lips around spoon. In fact, he was so enthusiastic about it that he kept grabbing Jeff’s hands to get the spoon to his mouth more quickly than Jeff’s pace had been. I think that Henry would have swallowed the whole spoon, if given the chance.

Henry was still up by 11:30PM. We decided to fix him a bottle, hoping it would soothe him to sleep. Jeff made up some Neocate formula, so that we could mix the Neocate (as formula not fortifier) with the breast milk. On Friday, Cuyler (Henry’s OT) had mentioned that she had tried all of the formulas. She said that the hypoallergenic formulas Nutramigen and Pregestimil did not taste good. Neocate is the most broken down formula. Nutramigen and Pregestimil are the next class of formulas. And, then there are the typical cow’s milk formulas, that most people use. There is Nestle Good Start, which is a fast gastric emptying formula that is made from cow’s milk, but it is processed so that it contains primarily whey; a good part of the casein is taken out; casein tends to curdle in baby’s stomach (which is why a lot of formula babies get colic). Cuyler ranked Good Start somewhere between the usual formulas and the Nutramigen and Pregstimil types. She recommended that we ask Henry’s pediatrician for some samples, because the hypoallergenic formulas are very expensive and they don’t taste good, which makes it harder for the baby to want to eat them. Jeff and I decided to try the Neocate to see what it would be like for Henry. We both took a spoonful each. Jeff tried it first. Then me. Oh my! It tastes so awful. Truly, truly disgusting. Back in September when I couldn’t eat dairy but had to keep my protein up, I was drinking this really icky protein powder made of pea isolates that form a complete protein. It was gross. Well, Neocate is ten times worse. It tastes like super nasty pea isolate with a tangy metallic aftertaste to top it off. Now Jeff and I are wondering if his food consumptions goes up when we don’t fortify his milk because of the calorie counts OR because the fortifier ruins the taste of the milk.

Given that Henry appears to be on the track for being an excellent solid food eater, I’m hoping that his solid food consumption will increase so that giving him formula bottles will be unnecessary. I’m still planning to pump. Tentatively, I’m planning to do this until he is one year old (adjusted). It’s an awfully long time to be pumping breast milk. And I know that most moms have stopped by now. When it becomes necessary, we may end up trying Henry on Good Start to see if he can handle that. Given his history, I’d like to avoid cow’s milk products as much as possible until he turns one year old (adjusted).

Henry was in bed by midnight. He slept until 8:20AM. I’m afraid that he turning into a night owl like me. He wasn’t terribly interested in his bottle this morning. And, he kept choking on the milk. Jeff was wondering if he is having problems adjusting to the different swallowing patterns (milk versus rice cereal). Around 10AM, I made up some rice cereal for him. He gobbled it up again. He was taking big bites. He was pulling my hand with the spoon toward him with all of his might.

Grammy came in as I was feeding Henry. She was impressed by his appetite. I told her about the Neocate and jokingly offered her a taste. She decided to try it. About 1/2 tsp. She said, "That's the worse thing I've ever tasted." Jeff mentioned that he thought it had a metallic taste to it. I hadn't used the word "metallic" to him even though that's what I was thinking. Ick. It's gross. Interestingly, their website mentions something about a sweet taste to it. Have they tried it? I'm not knocking Neocate's importance in the baby world. It is used for short gut babies and babies with allergies. But we should still call a spade a spade. Sweet? I don't think so.

I’m going to get some banana or pear puree at the store. We were going to wait until our Cuyler appointment to try anything new, but given his bold enthusiasm toward the rice cereal, I now think that we should plunge ahead into the wild world of fruit purees. Henry has been eating rice cereal for 6 days straight. Plus, we had tried it twice over the holidays. He's ready.