Week 4

The beginning of Week 4 has definitely had its highs and lows.  Cody has started pushing back a little bit in some of his sessions.  I have had to be persistent in getting him to take some of his bites and with a couple mouth checks.  I fed him all 4 times at school yesterday after feeding him a couple times the day before AND last night... so we've had a LOT of time together this week.  In all this togetherness I ended up feeling like Cody would never just play by himself and was either needing me to do something for him or he was watching Fizzy Fun Toys on his tablet.  It's sometimes hard to understand exactly what game 3 year olds are making up for you to play and it just got very frustrating.  I'm the kind of mom that loves a teacher work day when I get to go to work and not take care of ANYONE"S kids, but I'm still being productive.  Those are my favorite days.  I'm not made to be at stay at home mom, even though I sometimes need to be because of all of Cody's issues.  So, this week it's been extra hard to be a single parent, because you don't have the option of tag teaming when you need a break.  But... John is coming tonight, so this weekend should be a good time to recharge. 

Cody is up to rounded bolus and I've been approved to feed him that amount at home now.  This weekend we will do 2 "school" meals a day and fill in the rest with his preferred foods.  John is bringing up the second blender, so I can really get going on making more foods to have on hand.  At school yesterday Cody told Sasha and I (without being asked) that he likes rice and strawberries! Good news! So after school yesterday I made rice to feed Cody for dinner... and he HATED it! Either I prepared it differently than they do at school, despite following the given directions, or he's confused about which food is rice.  In the car today he told me rice is yellow.  He may be thinking about corn or french fries. Both are yellow or yellowish in color.  They don't tell him what each food is during sessions, so I think he's just guessing. 

During snack session today, they assessed Cody on cup drinking.  They're using something called a Flexi-Cut Cup that has an indention for your nose, so it doesn't hit your nose when you drink.  He's working on drinking 2% milk right now.  I think I mentioned before that we'd like him to learn to drink water, but it doesn't have much nutritional value, so they're working on milk first.  He already drinks milk, but only from a soft spout sippy cup.  I have to say that I was expecting a huge throw down at the cup drinking session... but Cody did amazingly well.  He never got upset, although he did turn his head away from the cup the first few times.  They did get him to drink the milk and found out what amount of milk per sip works well for him right now. I think his being willing to drink from the flexi-cup on the first day shows a lot of promise for him being able to drink from regular cups in the near future.  

We have had a few friends leave the program since we began, which means we've had some recent additions as well. One of our new friends is a 13 year old boy from Ohio.  His mom and grandmother are with him and we had a nice conversation yesterday.  They are staying at the hotel we were planning to stay at before we found this condo. Over the last 2 weeks before starting the program he had only eaten McDonald's chocolate chip cookies and Tyson chicken nuggets.  In the past he's had other safe foods.  He's severely autistic.  They told me that if they had known about the feeding program at Marcus they would have brought him years ago. His treatment program is very different from Cody.  Most notably he's starting with very small bites of whole food rather than puree. His mom is also in all of his sessions with him from the beginning, unlike Cody who I was separated from until the third week. I think these differences are because of his age.  

I will miss seeing Cole this weekend.  He's with my parents in Albany.  He will actually get to visit with some of my extended family who will be in town to see my cousin run in the Snickers Marathon.  I'm sure he'll have fun and be 100% catered to.  Cody will also have a great weekend with his daddy and maybe I will FINALLY have a minute alone.  I might even get to go to the bathroom whenever I want.  A miraculous thought for this mother and teacher.  

Have a great weekend, friends!