Bye-bye BaBa?

I had to laugh walking out of our dietician appointment on Friday. Our son, who for over a year of his life wanted very little to do with his bottle, forcing his mom and dad to come up with some creative ways to get those important calories into his tummy, now finds great comfort and friendship in that plastic 6 ounce container. "BaBa" is his code word for "I'm ready for nap/bed/cuddle time." As his mama, I have loved seeing him grow attached to his bottle, mainly because it highlights God's faithful presence in our travels from worry, feeding tubes, counting and charting cc's and waking Luke three times a night to eat, to feeding time being a process of nourishment, trust and enjoyment. I can't say I never allow fearful thoughts to creep in — Why wasn't he hungry today? Will he stop gaining weight? — but those thoughts are no longer the norm. I was able to tell Judy, our dietician, yesterday how much I appreciate her walking us through this process, continually urging me to trust that Luke knows what and how much he needs.

All that to say that Judy does want us to begin transitioning his two daytime bottles into a sippy cup. Luke does great with cups at meals, but I have been hesitant to wean his bottles at morning naptime and afternoon quiet time. For some reason, I feel like that 8-10 ounces of milk mixed with Pediasure during the day is a safety net of calories in case he doesn't eat as well at meals. I mentioned earlier that I still let fearful thoughts creep in now and then, right? Judy's rationale is that she has seen too many toddlers refuse to drink milk in anything but their bottle. She is okay with him keeping his bottle first thing in the morning and right before bed (phew!) so we will slowly (can I put this off until Thanksgiving?) try to meet this new challenge. I have to remember, Luke has consistently proven to us how well he adapts to these transitions. Much better than his mama, that's for sure!

The rest of our time with Judy was great. I got a lot of questions answered and she was again so proud of how good he looks and how well he's doing. He weighed in at exactly 23 pounds (11th percentile) and measured 30.5 inches (10th percentile). His weight to length ratio is about 55 percent, so she wants us to back off the Pediasure a bit. Instead of mixing 3 parts Pediasure with 1 part whole milk, we'll reverse that recipe, so Luke will be getting mostly whole milk.

Luke at 13 months feeding himself prunes...I'm pretty sure some got in his mouth

I am so grateful to God for giving us this resource in Judy. We don't see her again for 3 months and I am sad to say that I think she'll be discharging us soon. I just hope she realizes how valuable her knowledge is to families like ours. Thank you, Judy!