Meat, Roast Beef, and Chicken...Oh My!

This week, Henry has been spending the day at his grandparents' house. Aunt Carolyn came over on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday to help out with the Henry Watch. My mom reported that Henry has had a wonderful time playing with Aunt Carolyn. I believe that one of the days Carolyn got to change a messy diaper. I was wondering how all of that was going to play out because neither of my sisters has had much experience taking care of babies. But as my mom has pointed out, Carolyn has taken care of sick animals for years, and this past year, she has worked with cows and horses (and their back end issues) in her veterinary school courses. So changing baby diapers is hardly enough of a challenge to get even an eyebrow raise out of her. Needless to say, Aunt Carolyn has been handling Henry like a pro.

Henry's diet continues to expand exponentially. He had meat sauce on Monday during his lunch. I think that he has some sweet potato too. On Tuesday, I picked Henry up in the early afternoon because we had an appointment with Selah at 2PM. During her visit, I was eating Peanut Satay Noodles (Trader Joe's). Henry got very agitated until I gave him some of it. He liked it. He rejected his lunch of spinach and potatoes on Wednesday in favor of some pieces of roast beef from my mom's sandwich. And, tonight, he had some pieces of chicken from Jeff's chimichanga. How I wish I could give him some tofu to try as well!!! But with his food sensitivities, we are planning to wait a little longer before experimenting with soy. A couple weeks ago, Cuyler suggested that I introduce dairy and soy into my diet (which he would get bits of via the breast milk) before we try the foods on him directly. I have had a little bit of cheese here and there this week. Jeff had nachos for lunch today, and I had a single chip with cheese on it.

In any event, it seems to us that Henry has gotten over his oral aversions. A lot of preemies, especially micropreemies, tend to have oral aversions. There are many reasons for that, including the fact that the vent tubes are uncomfortable, so there is an association between the mouth and discomfort early in life. Henry was only on the vent for 12 days (and the after his eye procedure and hernia surgery, but those were of short duration). In micropreemie world, that's not terribly long (not short exactly, but not bad). So perhaps that's why his oral senses have progressed well.

Henry seems to like meat and chicken. When I was pregnant, my friend Brenda asked me whether or not we'd feed Henry meat. Our plan was to give him meat and chicken in his diet. And if, when he's older, he decides that he doesn't want to eat it, that's fine too. We'll eventually educate him about factory farms and how to select such products sensibly and ethically if he wants to continue eating them as he gets older. For now, I'm pleased that he is eating meat, considering that we can't feed him tofu or cow's milk at this point. We are tempted to try a little bit of yogurt on him sometime in the near future. It isn't a priority by any stretch, but we are curious about whether or not it would be problematic for him. Some people say that in the process of making yogurt, something changes chemically, such that some people who can't handle cow's milk are able to handle yogurt made from cow's milk. We suspect that Henry, technically speaking, has a food "sensitivity" as opposed to an all out allergy. But considering that we are feeding him so many different new foods, we'll probably wait a little bit on the yogurt and give it to him when we don't have so many other things going on. That's a food that we'd have to monitor very closely.

There is a bit of irony in Henry's enjoyment of meat, considering my personal feelings on vegetarianism. Jeff thinks that it isn't so much the taste that he loves as the feedback that he gets from the texture of meat. For example, with mashed fruits, there isn't a whole lot of feedback that one gets from the texture against the gums. But with the Gerber puffs, there is a whole lot of feedback that says "Hey, I'm a piece of food in your mouth." Consequently, Henry just loves, loves, loves those puffs. In any event, whether it is taste or texture when it comes to meat and chicken, he seems to like it, and we want him to get the iron and protein, so meat and chicken it is.

On Tuesday, we had an excellent appointment with Selah. Long story short, Selah taught Henry to drink from a straw. He learned it in 2 minutes. I had been unsuccessful in trying the straw with him a month or two ago. She used some of her OT techniques. He picked it up right away. He seems to like it too.

On Tuesday night, Jeff tried Henry out in his new bicycle seat. In anticipation of Father's Day, Jeff decided to buy himself a series of presents. One was a bicycle seat for Henry. The other was a backpack seat for Henry. The Baby Bjorn was killing Jeff's back, because Henry is getting heavy (19 lbs 5.5 ozs as of Wednesday morning).

Henry wasn't keen on his helmet. But we put it on him anyway. He enjoyed the bike ride. He liked looking at the ground as Jeff peddled. We ran into several of our neighbors. Hal and Swani always enjoy seeing Henry. They had just come back from Santa Fe and brought him a small horse stuffed animal, which is cute.



On our way back from the walk, Jeff turned to me and said, "Why is Henry bobbling his head against my arms?" He stopped the bike to get a close look at what Henry was up to. Turned out, in all of the excitement, Henry completely passed out. Awake one minute. Completely zonked the next. I ended up carrying him home. The bike seat requires the child to sit up and use his muscles for balance. Henry is definitely getting to be quite a big boy; he's heavy.

Yesterday afternoon, Jeff and I went over to my parents' house together. We decided to take Henry swimming while we were there. We had a good time. I think that Henry thought the water was a little too cold. He was mildly interested in the water, but I don't think that either of us would make the claim that he loved it by any stretch. The day of hard play at Grandma and Grandpa's and our swimming session exhausted him. He feel asleep in the car and went straight to bed until about 4:30AM this morning.

Incidentally, Henry's 10 month due date day was yesterday. He is officially 10 months old adjusted.

Today. He played hard at Grandma's. He played when he came home. He ate Jeff's chicken chimi filling. We went for a walk. Henry waved to Evonne. He crawled all over the living room. This week, he figured out how to climb onto the ledge in front of the fire place and television. He showed me this new skill twice this evening. It is a skill that I'd wish he was not so enthusiastic about. We are trying to keep him away from the big screen TV. He had a big bottle and is fast asleep (so is Jeff).

Tomorrow, our new nanny starts with her daughter in tow. We hope that works out. Keep your fingers-crossed for us!