These are just some pictures from our weekend. It was an eventful end to our week last week with Mack starting speech/feeding therapy. He's had 2 sessions so far and has done awesome! We realized that he has tightness on the right side of his face and mouth and weakness on the left side. I think it was because of his torticollis (he was tilted to the right with a tight right side of the neck.) Anyway, the speech therapist gave me lots of oral motor stimulation exercises to do with him which are torturous, but I push through it because I know it will make him better.
After the exercises, we have to feed him. We use a special spoon, called the EZ spoon (it is a magic spoon!) We have to bypass his tongue and gag reflex and put the food on the right side of his mouth so he will use his tongue to reach over and get it down his throat. The first time I did it, I anticipated an immediate gag, but he swallowed with no gag! The next thing I knew, he had eaten an entire tablespoon of rice cereal! Without spitting any of it up! I thought I was going to cry. We have since tried several fruits and vegetables and also attempted some meat. He is doing so good! Today was the first day he didn't really even cry with the oral motor exercises. I can tell his tongue and mouth are getting stronger! We follow up with the feeding specialist one more time this week and I think she will be impressed at how good Mack is doing. We aren't eating like a normal 7 month old yet, but he definitely turned a corner this weekend.
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| Give them all the outside toys they can want and all they really want to do is play in Daddy's truck when he's cleaning it out. |
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| The red neck playyard. Yes, my infant son is sitting on cardboard boxes in the driveway. What can I say? We did live in Alabama for 4 years. |
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| Mack and a small glimpse of his half smile |
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| Emma AKA "Hollywood" |
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| I took this picture, pulled the camera back to look at it, and my heart skipped a beat. She looks so grown up in this picture! I can't stand it! |
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| Feeding in the side of the mouth with the EZ spoon. Yes, there are usually tears during this, but he eventually gives in. |
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| He likes to fight us with that right arm - He's incredibly strong for a 7 month old. |
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| Liking it! |
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| Tolerating me snapping pictures and this whole feeding thing |
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| How Emma wears flip flops (right foot.) I tried to get her to change them but she never seems to be bothered by it. |
1 comment:
Love the pictures; the ordinary moments are sometimes the most precious.
So proud of our boy (and his mama) for doing the hard work. Bless.
I've seen a few pictures of Ellie that did me that way; seeing glimpses of her future self stops you in your tracks.
Sweet Emma. She owns me.
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