I can finally see...

Everyone on the blenderized-diet yahoo group talks about how after switching to BD they were able to get their kids to handle a much larger volume of food. We haven't had that experience thus far. I was barely able to get the same amount in Charlie with BD as with formula/breastmilk. But last night was different. I don't know why. Maybe because for the first time I did more food than formula. Who knows?

So I set up her pump last night with her 18.5 ounces and got it running. After about 30 minutes it was clear to me that the blend was too thick. It just would not run! So I went downstairs and brought back up an empty bottle and another one with 5 ounces of water in it. I poured out some of the blend into the empty one and poured 4 ounces of water into the bag and shook it up. It ran easily. Then I put the rest of the BD in with her bag and ice pack. I felt discouraged because I wasn't able to make the blend properly for her. It's not a huge deal for her to miss some calories once in a while though. Have you seen how fat she is!? LOL

After an hour or so I checked her residuals (this is where you let the contents of her stomach flow back into a large syringe to see how much she's digesting). I had the pump at 50 and she had 5mls in her. That is LOADS better than normal. Usually at 50, she has at least 20-25 sitting in her belly. I've never pushed her much past 50 because it was clear she wouldn't tolerate it. So I turned her pump up to 55. Checked her again...still good. Up to 60...still good. Up to 65. I want to get all of this in her before she wakes up and 65 should just about do it. I am *amazed* at how well she is digesting this! I really hope she does this well with it from now on because it opens up a whole bunch of possibilities. And I think it's time to order the 1200ml bags instead of the 500!

I was still feeling she wasn't getting quite enough extra water, but even diluting her formula, she didn't digest it well enough to get everything she needed in her. I'm going to keep pushing her at night to get the extra fluids in.