Today is my birthday. It’s been an okay day, with church this morning and naps this afternoon. The kids are tucked in bed, sound asleep, and I’m sipping red wine and blogging. So I guess I can call today a win.

Friday morning Grayson had a GI appointment. I schlepped down to the Med Center, giant double stroller and two children in tow. The appointment was fine; we have two new medications to try. One we are putting in Grayson’s stomach, to try and reduce the secretions, and then hopefully the vomiting. The problem is most everything we put in the stomach comes right back up. So the plan is for me to suction out what’s in his stomach through a syringe, then give him the medicine. This sounds gross, but it’s a whole lot less gross in a syringe than all over himself coming out through his mouth. For those of you who are confused, Grayson’s feeding button has two ports- a G and a J. The G goes into his stomach and the J to his intestines. Because he vomits so frequently, we put everything (formula and medicines) in the J. Even though we put nothing in his stomach, he still throws up 4-5 times a day the secretions his stomach makes. So…we are trying. So far, he’s kept the medicine down 2/3 times we’ve given it in the G, so I’m optimistic.

Yesterday we all got up early, and Grayson started the day with a bad seizure. It only lasted 4 minutes, but left him in a lot of pain and very out of it. We had plans to go to a local fall festival, and went ahead and went. Grayson slept in the stroller almost the whole time- I think it was good for him to be outside. Charlotte had fun being pushed around and also getting some kisses from her pal Wyatt.

When we got home, Charlotte went down for a 3.5 hour nap (magical!) but Grayson, having slept the morning away after his seizure, was in no mood for a nap. So he and I hung out all afternoon- it’s not often I get one-on-one time with my sweet boy, and we had a good time snuggling, singing and of course jammin’ with Veggie Tales.

Tonight, I read this post I wrote two years ago, and it really upset me. Two years ago this month was really, really rough. I had to come home from vacation early because of Grayson’s vomiting, and the weeks that followed were filled with fear and helplessness. WHY did no one step in sooner? This is my perspective: I have an 8 month old who nurses, then drinks 6-8 ounces from a bottle. She weighs 18 pounds. Grayson was 12 months old, weighed 15 pounds and I was excited when he took 3 ounces from a bottle (which came back up soon after). Clearly, there was a huge problem, and in my opinion intervention should have taken place much sooner than it did. Most likely we wouldn’t be anywhere different than we are today, but I so wish we wouldn’t have had to go through those weeks of absolute helplessness.

I have to post these two pictures of Charlotte, because they just make me laugh. You might be a “medical” family if your baby carries around a syringe as a prized possession, and doesn’t want to let it go even to eat her dinner! She is very interested in Grayson’s feeding equipment, so I give her a syringe to “help” with his meds.

 

Also, Mommy isn’t the only one obsessed with bows!

Hope everyone had a great weekend! There are lots of babies due or already born this week- such an exciting time. So happy for all of you!