How do you like them apples-sauce!

I was kidding myself when I posted Wednesday night that we would go to speech therapy Thursday morning. I woke up feeling like I had been hit by a truck. Realizing all the new equipment I had to organize, along with Anya sleeping in until about 9 am made me decide to stay home. I had not been home consistently for ten days and then only to grab a change of clothes and sleep if I was lucky. Adam is really, really great at keeping up with dishes and laundry but there was a lot of things to organize: Anya’s new equipment drop off and pick up, and paperwork, not to mention Christmas preparations. Yesterday was spent attending to all of this and trying to recover from having maybe three hours of sleep for several nights.

Anya has two sets of therapies, one set at Children’s and one with First Steps. First Steps is awesome because it is free, and it comes to the house. This afternoon the OT with First Steps came. We had missed an appointment last week and I had called her to say she might want to spend the time re-assessing Anya, as she had started doing so many new things. Prepping to work on eating, I had only given Anya half a feeding so she was hungry. Carla didn’t think she would do much feeding, as she figured working on strengthening was higher priority.

She was in for a surprise. As I have said before Anya has started rolling over a bit, as well as holding up her head. She had an outstanding tummy time session; this is particularly difficult for her. We had more than enough time to work on feeding. Using hand towels Carla showed me how to cradle Anya securely in her highchair, and then she used a spoon to see how Anya took it. Turns out Anya’s left side of her mouth is less sensitive than the other side, so we need to focus on putting food in that side. Carla showed me how to let Anya see the spoon and the bowl I am using, talking about what is there. ‘Apples!’  Then I give Anya the chance to smell it, and then say ‘taste’ and put it close to her mouth. As long as she doesn’t avoid the spoon we scoop a small amount in. I couldn’t really tell at first what Anya thought, other than she didn’t hate it. She didn’t get upset or avoid the spoon, and allowed Carla to give her a few more spoonfuls, smacking her lips.

At one point Carla put the bowl down while we were discussing details. Suddenly Anya started vocalizing, in a kind of complaining insistent way. ‘More? You want more?’ Carla said. Anya took several more spoonfuls! Needless to say Carla and I were impressed, this has been the first time I have seen Anya so interested in eating or drinking. Thank God for professionals skilled in feeding issues, I had no idea she was that ready. She didn’t take a significant amount, but at this point we are working on getting her used to eating, not getting any nutrition that way. That will take some time. Carla was excited because she rarely sees kids come out of the hospital doing better than when they went in.

So today was a small victory! My joy is dampened however by the murders at the school in Connecticut. Having come so close to losing a child from illness I can only imagine the pain these families are going through. May they find peace. Please God may we work together to stop these senseless killings that are becoming more and more frequent, and not be torn apart by politics and pride.