Weekend 5 & Week 6, Days 1 & 2

We are still here hanging in there!  We’ve been busy having fun with Eric, and blogging has taken a backseat…sorry!  It is so nice to have Eric here for the weekend and week…he came at the perfect time for me.  We have been in a little bit of a slump.  I am told that at six weeks, kids in this program typically hit a “wall” and it is hard to get them to perform much longer.  While I completely get this and will accept that our end is near, the desperate mom in me is still doing everything I can to keep him going and extend our stay.  We have made great progress in the last five weeks:

      1.       Gavin now loves peaches!  If you remember, our baseline session where Monster Gavin made his clinic debut was with peaches.

      2.    Gavin is successfully able to use his tongue and chew solid table foods.  It might take him FOREVER, but he can eat about ten little bites of a solid and swallow without gagging or vomiting!

      3.       Gavin eats pureed table food!  His diet has drastically expanded from his beloved yogurt, and we can even have a meal without it!!

      4.       Gavin is weaned from his buttonJ

So, we have accomplished a lot in this long SLOW journey!  Our next step is texture grading. 

Eric came in Saturday around lunchtime.  We had told Gavin all week that Daddy would be here Saturday, and he was eagerly awaiting his arrival!  In all the excitement, Gavin managed to fall asleep five miles from the airport, so he slept through Eric’s arrivalL.  We went out to a local pizza/microbrewery, and when we got to the restaurant, Eric was transferring him to the stroller when Gavin mumbled in half consciousness, “is it Saturday?!”  Gavin managed to sleep through lunch, and Eric and I had a very enjoyable and relaxing time!  After lunch, we went back to the Clown House and Eric and Gavin played outside on the playground for about two hours.  They were two happy guys!  My weekend was focused on cooking food for Gavin.  I made spaghetti and meatballs on Saturday night.  On Sunday, with Eric’s help, I made chicken stroganoff, chicken and rice, and a lasagna…all low sodium!  We stayed in to have dinner at the house both Saturday and Sunday nights so I could cook.  It was SO nice to have Eric here for some help!!!

 

Sunday was our friend from the clinic, Noah’s 2^nd birthday!!  Jennifer sent us a video of him blowing out candles on his cake…Gavin watched it at every meal!!  Thank you JenniferJ.  Sweet little guy even got to have some cake and ice cream for the big day!  We miss having them here in the house and at the clinic to celebrate all these little milestones with.

Monday was another rough day at the clinic.  Eric came to the first session, but unfortunately, that didn’t seem to give Gavin any incentive to excel.  Things went downhill with the first biteL.  By the third session, I was watching from closed circuit TV in the other room.  Monster Gavin was out in full force.  The real battle seemed to focus again around his much needed water.  Gavin took a nice long nap just before this session, and he did not drink very much before the session started.  Once we started he immediately started crying again for his water.  Last week, we had discussed the option of allowing water in the circle rotation during a meal to prevent the binge drinking that occurs before each meal, filling his tummy.  At the end of the day, water will always be included in a meal as Gavin gets older, so it is not entirely realistic to remove it now.  With that in mind, and my concern that he truly was low on water for the day, I asked the therapist if we could include a little in the meal.  When a change is made to the structure of the meal, like any other toddler, Gavin tests the limits to see how much he can get.  It took a few rounds of the circle and a lot of tears for Gavin to understand that he gets three drinks of water after the milk, but he picked up on it.  The funny part was that a few opportunities when Gavin was given his water to drink, he refused.  This again shows us that his response is more behavioral than anything.  He needs water though, so I think this is a good modification to the circle.  The last session was better.  Gavin was very excited to tell everyone that he gets water in the meal now!

After a long Monday back, Eric suggested that either I get out for a break or we go out to dinner.  I really wanted/needed a nice glass of wine, so we decided to go to a local Italian restaurant, Smitty’s.  It was very good!!  Two nice things happened at dinner to remind me that we are going to be okay.  First, Gavin ate half a little bag of Teddy Grahams without gagging or being prompted to eat!  And second, we were told by just about everyone in the restaurant how good our little boy isJ.  He does such a good job (most of the time) when we go out to eat.  We are really proud that he can sit there so well with very little effort on our part.  He’s a good kidJ.

Today, Tuesday, I decided we needed to add an extra incentive to encourage good sessions, so I told him if he ate all of his bites at ALL four sessions without spitting or acting up, then we would go to Chuck-E-Cheese’s, Gavin’s favorite place!  He was all excited and on his way there after the first very good session.  Unfortunately, the second session involved some spitting and we had to resort to using a baby spoon after a number of refusals.  It wasn’t horrible, just not great and not acceptable.  The last two sessions went well!  Eric made it to the last session, and we FINALLY started texture grading!!!  In addition to the smooth purees in his meal, Gavin was given a bowl of apple sauce from a pouch that was not pureed first.  He did great with it!!  Eric sat next to him for the meal, and I think that helped.  After the last session, the sweet little guy looked at us and said, “Now we can go to Chuck-E-Cheese?!”  It was so hard after such a great two sessions to say no, but we have to keep our high standards.  Instead, we decided to go to Chick-fil-a to play on their playground and get some ice cream.  We got three ice creams…one for each good sessionJ.  On our way back to the Clown House, we passed the clinic and Gavin asked if we could go back for a fourth session so he could do well again and go to Chuck-E-Cheese’s!  Hopefully we can make it tomorrow!

Gavin got a few more cards the past few days!!  Eileen and Carey sent another card, and so did our Missouri Ross relatives up on “The Hill”!  Thank you all so much!!  Your words of encouragement are so helpful!  Gavin also got a package from Grandma and Grandpa and another one from Grammy and Grampy!  Grandma and Grandpa sent a SF Giants shirt from spring training…thank you guys!  Grammy and Grampy sent a Cheerios car with a trunk that opens so you can put cereal in it!!!  Gavin LOVES eating cereal out of the back…thank you!  Gavin also got a present from Lacy and Andrew here in the house…they got our little water boy a huge cupcake cup!!!  Hopefully it will inspire him to eat as he drinksJ.  Thank you guys!!!