by This might not seem like a big deal to the average person. Just another baby eating spoonfuls of sweet potatoes.
Ok, I guess I’ll grant that he’s a cute baby. And his excitement would make anyone smile. I just might be a little biased though…
I know we share a lot of cute pictures and little tidbits of information here and there. What we don’t talk a lot about is how much work it is to reach some of these “little” milestones. Things that are “easy” for the average baby take a lot of effort for someone who spent a lot of his life recovering from one procedure or another, someone who has low muscle tone, effects of a stroke and a trach and oxygen tubing to battle with – not to mention someone who is operating on 25% less oxygen in his bloodstream than the average baby. Rolling over is an accomplishment. Heck even lifting both of his arms is an accomplishment!
AJ has OT twice a week, PT once a week, Play therapy, Speech therapy (focusing on feeding), and monthly visits to his various specialists – Cardiology, Otolaryngology, Pulmonology, Neurology, Hematology, and I’m-pretty-sure-I’m-forgetting-someone-else-ology. That translates to a lot of work for AJ, and a lot of homework for us – whether that’s trying to work on sitting, weight bearing, trying new foods, etc… Thankfully AJ usually sees most of that homework as playtime or cuddle time, but still. There’s a lot going on…
AJ hasn’t really taken much in the way of food by mouth. His feeding tube is still his only means of nutrition. We’ve been trying off and on for months to get him to enjoy eating. There was a short while before his last surgery when he was making progress on breast/bottle feeding, but it came to an abrupt halt when he caught norovirus. Ever since then we’ve been giving him the tiniest tastes of food, hoping he would eventually taste it without gagging.
Lately, he’s been rocking it. Who knew all it would take was sweet potatoes?!
He’s still wearing more than he’s eating. In fact I’m not actually sure he’s really eating very much at all, but he’s putting it in his mouth, tasting something new, experiencing the texture of something new, not gagging, not crying, and certainly not getting upset when he sees the spoon. Quite the opposite really – I was afraid he was going to bounce out of his chair!
Anyway. This is a victory in our books. I keep watching the video over and over and am just so darn proud of him. And he seems to be pretty darn proud of himself too. 💕
