We have a graduate!

We have a Eating School graduate in the house! WooHoo!!

We are home, and am I loving the fact that I can relax in my pjs drink my coffee and just veg out on the couch.  Lewis didn't skip a beat when he got home, and got all of his cars back in line on the entertainment center.  He loves the Christmas tree, and thinks its just the best when we turn the lights on at night.  I have a date with the blender today, and am making purees and freezing them for the next couple of weeks.  Lewis went back to school today, and had a great day! He was a little unsure at first, but got right back into the swing of things.  He took 3 licks of applesauce at lunch, but kept asking for cheese.  Pureed cheese on the menu next? :0)

When I picked him up he ran and jumped into my arms, and said "I am so happy to see you!" He melts my heart!

We are SO happy to be home!

Let the Holiday season begin!

Feeding Journey-The next steps....

I can't believe I am sitting here typing out this post with our entire room at the house packed up, and tomorrow is our last day of feeding therapy.  It seems it took us forever to get here, and it just flew by in a snap! I couldn't be more grateful for our amazing experience, and for how bright our future is looking. 

Lewis has been completely gtube free since Thanksgiving! He is up to taking around 30 new foods! Bless the Lord! He is doing amazing..scratch that..he is doing AMAZINGLY WONDERFUL..and we couldn't be more proud of him.
Once he got over his fear of food and being touched on his face, he just took off.  We finished the program in 6 weeks, which is just incredible from where he started.  Who knew so much change could happen in just a short time!  Along with myself, grandma, and daddy are all trained feeders, his school is completely on board and now it is just time to start our life.  Feeding him is really time consuming, following the protocol is intensive, making his purees is hard work, getting criticisms on our feeding skills is scary, feeding him in public is stressful...BUT we wouldn't have it any other way!

We still have a long ways to go with his oral eating.  He still is having difficulty with moving his tongue, and any type of chewing or swallowing any type of thick texture or table food. He is still on a squeeze bottle for his drink that I am squeezing for him. We will be going back for followups for the next year.  However, we have a great start and we have every bit of faith in him that in a year he will be feeding himself his happy meal!

Tomorrow is our last day, and his graduation party at the clinic.  Pretty sure the tears will be flowing! How do I possibly even start to thank a group of amazing therapist and staff, that literally have made our dreams come true.  I could give them every star in the sky, and it would still not be enough.  They are miracle workers! We feel just so completely blessed to be apart of this amazing program, and to consider his therapists apart of our lives. 

Can't imagine Wednesday waking up and not going to therapy and seeing everyone that day.

As happy as I am to get back to home, get Lewis back to school, and get back to a routine.  I am going to miss alot of things about our journey in Grand Rapids.
*The Ronald McDonald House has been so gracious to us, and we are so thankful for everything they have done for us.  It was so nice to come home to a warm comforting home, and knowing that others were celebrating in our journey with us. I am going to miss the smiles that came every day when we walked into the door, cheering us on our journey.
*The house has amazing volunteers who cook us dinners, breakfasts, and the best cookies.  Definitely am going to miss the cookies!
*Really going to miss not having to do dishes! :0)
*I am going to miss the wonderful volunteers at the feeding clinic.  There is a lady who comes in to volunteer almost every day, Mrs. Martha, and Lewis just fell in love with her.  She was so patient and loving with him, and just cared about us so much.  OK just started crying just thinking of having to say goodbye to her tomorrow.  Lewis calls her, my Martha, and I am sure will never forget her.
*I will miss the moms of the program! I have became great friends with some amazing ladies, who are inspirations to me.  It is so nice to have a group of moms who just get what you are going through, and are celebrating every bite and drink right along with you.  I have left this journey with some AMAZING friendships that I know will last a lifetime.  They are just absolutely incredible moms!
*I am going to miss just me and Lewis time.  Even though days he just drove me nuts, we really became each others support system.  I am going to miss our little giggles together, our snuggle times at night, and just the awesome bonding time we've had together.  He really is the love and light of my life!

I can't believe we did it!

I am so proud, so happy, and so excited for this new journey in our lives!

The best feeding friends a kid could ask for! AMAZING kiddos!

He loves to do playdough!

Reading books with "my Martha"

First Thanksgiving meal!

The house decorated for  Christmas.  Lewis was always so excited to see the Santa, lights, and trees.

Feeding Journey-New Foods and Brushing

It is only two days into the week, and Lewis has already successfully tried applesauce, sweet potatoes, and green bean purees.  He wasn't too fond of the green beans, but absolutely loved the applesauce.

At clinic we have been working really hard on him accepting a toothbrush into his mouth and brushing his teeth, and today was my turn to give it a try with the therapist.  He did so well for me, that they sent me home packing with his toothbrush and paste.  I gave it a run tonight at the house, and he opened so big for me and we brushed his teeth while singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.  After the song was done, he told me "More teeth brushing!!!" in the most happiest little voice.  It broke my heart, and I cried. 

I couldn't be happier.

This is truly an emotional ride!

Feeding Journey-Week 2

Lewis continued to make huge strides this week in Eating School, and he has continued to progress in the right direction.

I officially survived my first week of my 8 weeks as a single mommy.  It was tough! Every night I was completely wiped out from chasing him around all day long.  Caffeine has become  my friend this week!

Lewis had a few speed bumps in the road, but we have climbed over them successful and by Friday things were looking bright again.  The first obstacle was that his tummy hasn't been feeling so great since we introduced the pears and thickened milk, and so we were unsure if it was the food or a GI Bug.  I don't think we fully figured it all out, but the good news is that he didn't lose a ton of weight and he is doing better now.  We waited to start introducing a 2nd food in, till the yucky diapers went away.  I think by the beginning of next week, he will be tasting a new food! The second obstacle we faced this week, was that Lewis was missing home and Daddy very much! I spent a few nights holding a hysterical little boy who kept asking me to go home and to go find Daddy for hours at end.  It took just about every single thing in me to not just pack up and go, but I know that God has us here for a reason and he will take care of it all.  His missing home and his upset tummy made him not want to go into his sessions with his therapist, and he starting throwing some horrible tantrums when it was his turn to eat.  His therapist have started to carry him into his sessions, just giving him that little bit of extra comfort that he needs.  I bet it has to be pretty scary to be a 3 year old having to walk into a cold white room with strangers and facing your biggest fear.  I would throw a tantrum too! The extra hugs going into the session have helped greatly though! He is doing better with learning how to close his lips around the spoon, and how to swallow his bites.  At the end of the week he was completely finishing his bites of pears, and his entire drink! What he is drinking from his bottle we are already subtracting from his gtube feeds.  It already feels so nice to not have to hook him up to the pump!

I am SO incredibly proud of him, and the progress that he is making.  He is jumping leaps and bounds, and over all he had a pretty amazing 2nd week in eating school.

Daddy did come to visit this weekend, and on Sunday we took him to the Children's museum.  The bee exhibit, the bubbles, and the fireman station were big hits with the Lewie man.  The Ronald McDonald house has free passes for us to use, so we definitely will be going back.  The Ronald McDonald house was been so amazing to us so far, and we couldn't be more grateful for this home away from home.  I am being spoiled to death, by the warm chocolate chip cookies almost every night.  I am going to miss the counter full of baked goods every morning, afternoon, and night when we go home. 

Driving the car.  This picture sort of scares me for when he is 16, looking at his face and his devilish little smile!

The weather was gorgeous, so we spent some time at the park!

He LOVES to play the piano.  Santa will you bring me a baby grand?

The bubbles were a huge hit!

Feeding Journey-First Bite

Things are progressing faster than we thought they would!!

Lewis took his first taste of food today! They started him out with some very tiny bites of  Beef Stew, then moved on to pears, and he is also trying a pediasure thickened with honey from a squeeze bottle!

He is still having some difficulty with spitting the food back out and closing his lips to keep the food in.  He needs to work on keeping his lips tight together, chew down with his teeth, and making the muscles in his cheeks to move.  He at this point has no movement in his cheeks, and has not had one successful bite down with his teeth.  He is still having some behavioral issues, and some oral sensory issues. 

BUT HE TOOK HIS FIRST TASTE OF FOOD!!!

I am one PROUD mama! Things are looking good!!!!

Halloween 2011

He kept trying to give the monkey his banana, and then would say its stuck!

He was nose to nose with a Cow!

He loved the train!

On October 16th we met up with Becky, Mike, Sophie, Kaden and Lewies Grandma and Grandpa for the Saginaw Zoo Boo. It was beautiful weather, and the set up was just perfect for the kids. Lewis loved the animals and the train, and he really caught on to the 'Trick or Treat!'

This past weekend, Jeremy and I took him to the Zoo Boo at the zoo in Grand Rapids.  Can you tell we love our zoos? :0) Once again Lewis had a blast, and LOVES his animals!

This was so neat, to be so close to a lion!

He loves his chickens! LOL

Today on actual Halloween, they did a fun little costume parade with the kids, they got to paint pumpkins, and got a little loot bag of treasures.  Lewis was way too exhausted from Eating School to go out tonight to any houses, so we got dressed up for some pictures and a treat bag from Ronald Mcdonald himself.  Hopefully he won't hate me when he is 16 for not taking him out! Then hopefully next year he will actually be eating the candy. Makes me smile thinking about how awesome our future is going to be!

Too tired to even sit up for a picture

Our best attempt at a family photo this year..don't we both look exhausted!!

Feeding Journey-1st week

I can't even believe we have finished our first week of "Eating School!" We have waited and dreamed of this happening for so long, that it feels so strange to be typing out our first week.
What a week it has been though!

The week before I think I had about every single emotion running through my body.  I think I can sum it all up in a quote, "If you build it, it will come."  It is sort of a quote I like to live my life by, as cheesy as it may be.  In other words if you think and believe positive, then positive things will happen.  We went into this journey with the attitude that this is it, we are putting everything we have in to it.  It has to work, we have no other option.  Nothing like some pressure on mamas shoulders! :0)

Our first few days of school have been good.  He did really well with not showing any behavioral issues at first, but the 'honeymoon' stage is over with his therapists and they are emerging.  The first few days his sessions consist of chin touching and learning to open his mouth big.  Once he did that with only 20% of behavioral errors with each touch, he got to move on to a dry spoon.  Introducing the spoon in is where we are getting some resistance with him..but its to be expected.  They are very big on positive reinforcement, praise, and if he does good with his bites he gets to play with a toy for 10 seconds.  All of this is happening with him in a room by himself with his therapists, while me and Jeremy watch through an observation room. 

I am already seeing improvements with this eating, and I am looking forward to maybe seeing him take his first bite of food next week. 

It is amazing to watch these kids taking on their biggest fears without their mama holding their hand next to them. 

All of the kids are so precious, and we are some brave mamas!

We are staying at the Ronald Mcdonald house, which has been really great.  We have had dinner prepared for us almost every night so far..such a blessing! It's not home, but its the best closest thing to it. 

We don't have school tomorrow, because of a feeding conference in the area.  It was a nice surprise for us to get one more free day with Jeremy.  We think we are going to check out the zoo boo at the John Ball zoo in the area. 

Settling into the Mcdonald house on our first night

Were here!

He had a great session on our 2nd day, so he got to ride the trike

Superman! How cute is he in that helmet!!

So far so good! Our future is looking VERY bright!!