Ruby Hope McKee Starling

We aren't going to mention Ruby's lack of symptoms or how we might have dodged a bullet.  Don't even say it or think it.  For now we are going about life as usual.

We saw Dr. Z the GI Doctor yesterday.  He went on and on about how Ruby is a miracle baby and how good she looks.  It was a good visit and he gave some guidance on weening her off the NG tube.  We are going to leave it out until she absolutely needs it.  He said not to worry about her loosing a bit of weight.  The plus side of her being sick the past couple weeks is that she is now over 16 lbs.  Which is a nice way to go into a more aggressive ween schedule.  He also said once she off the tube we can start to ween the Nexium.  Nexium does have some side effects in adults. It isn't really good for bones to take for a long time.  That's in adults, we don't really know the effect it has on children.  The scientist in me wants to research it like crazy.  The Mom in me is just going to go with the flow.  Ruby needs it and getting all worried about the possible side effects it's not going to change the fact that she needs it.  If causes problems later on we'll deal with it. 

Anyway, I pulled the tube as soon as we got home yesterday afternoon.  Ruby didn't take much from the bottle yesterday after the tube was out, but she did eat a lot.  She ate half a small dosa with coconut chutney (I got some frozen ones from the Indian Grocery down the street) for lunch.  Dosas are like crepes filled with potatoes and vegetables.  It wasn't spicy.  Ruby really loves strong complex flavors so mild Indian and Thai foods are really popular with her (and Mom and Dad for that matter).  Then during OT after her nap she ate 4-5 veggies straws and a couple tablespoons of hummus.  Veggie straws are really one step away from potato chips, but she likes them and they are made with vegetables.  I'm not thrilled to be feeding her junk food even if it is organic.  She loves to dip them in hummus.  I made the hummus with half as much garlic as normal and it seems to have worked perfectly.  She was smacking her lips and smiling.  She even let Alyson (her OT) feed her hummus with the NUK brush.  It was such a good session.  She was laughing and interacting the whole time.  She has no trouble telling us when she's "all done".  Her signing has really picked up in the past couple days.  She has also mastered drinking from a straw.  She drank a lot of water all her meals yesterday.  I also offer her whole milk in a straw cup at each meal.  She will drink a bit but not much, really she prefers water.  We don't put the formula in the straw cups, because we don't want her associate the straw with formula.

Before bed last night she drank a full 6 ounces from the bottle!  So the day ended on an even better note.

Here's Ruby love'n her hummus

I'm procrastinating about going for my run this morning.  I missed my group this morning as they started at 6am and I didn't wake-up until 5:50am.  I'll post a few more pictures and then I'll go.

She loves my watch.  Which is just gross.  I will come in from a twenty mile run and all she wants is for me to pick her up so she can suck on my watch.  Yuk.