Week 1, Day 2

Today had some harder moments.  And moments where I think, "man, she isn't eating yet!" and then moments where I remind myself, "it's only the 2nd day.  We've got 12 more days of actual therapy, plus weekends.  That's 48 more sessions.  There's still plenty of time for progress.  Be patient."

Matt took Sunshine to her first session this morning while Buttercup and I stayed back and did school.  We set up at a large table in the play room and had a good time.  Therapy went well too.  They started with thickened water, and thickened apple juice and throughout the day progressed to stage 1 apple sauce and Pediasure.  Yay!  Progress!

Some of the struggles of the day:
Sunshine's having a hard time getting her mouth open the way they want her to in order to take her bites.  She isn't really sucking on the straw but likes to try to chew on it.  Her third session, right after a short nap time, was rough because she was so tired.  She'd napped less than an hour and was dazed through the whole session.  She got another catnap before her fourth session and did much better.  She isn't eating or drinking enough to eliminate any of her tube feedings yet.  We think her night-time fevers and periodic fussiness could be related to teething.  There is little we can do to help her, but at least we are less worried that she may be sick.

Tomorrow and Friday they may have Matt and I do some of the feeding during therapy so we can continue to give her practice over the weekend.  So far we have mostly been observing.  It will be good (and hard and scary) to be the one doing the feedings again.

Matt and Buttercup came with us to the last session and stayed in the play room at the clinic while Sunshine was doing her therapy.  Both girls had some time to play when therapy was done.

So, today, I'm trying to stay positive as progress is not as fast as I would like it to be.  I see more and more what a long road this is.