Yada, yada, Noodle… blah, blah, Noodle…
I know I talk about my daughter WAY too often. But she’s what keeps me going, and I can’t mention things in my home without including her!
As you know, she has “special needs” due to her birth injury. We are truly blessed that these needs seem to be limited to her feeding (with small developmental delays, none of which is anything as terrible as they technically should be considering her history). These feeding issues impact us every single day. We’ve worked with OTs, PTs, speech therapists, and feeding consultants (in addition to regular visits with the GI doctor). We are doing all we can at home, but it’s not enough.
With the little one on the way, we need to get her eating. Therefore, we’ve been put on the list for an intensive day treatment program located a few hours away. We need to go, but I’m not going to lie– it will be TOUGH. I’ll be a single mom during the week, at seven months pregnant. Our days will be filled with hours and hours of intense one-on-one feeding training. We won’t be able to leave the clinic during the day. I’ll have to stand there and watch as my sweet daughter gets more and more upset as we push her harder. She will be puking A LOT. I’m going to get depressed, I can tell you that now. No more fun outings with Noodle, not even to the mall or grocery store. It will be feeding, feeding, feeding ALL DAY, EVERY DAY. Even more than it is now. And it’s a lot now.
We finally got word on Friday that the start date is March 1st. We’ll be out there for about 4-5 weeks, living in a hotel. Thankfully the town is a cute one, but unfortunately we won’t see much of it as we’ll be inside the clinic all day. This is going to be wayyyyyyy outside my comfort zone. And by comfort zone, I mean our house. I’m really going to miss it!
Needless to say, I’m sure I’ll continue to blog so I don’t lose my mind. I’ll be there during the tail end of The Stork Report, but I’m confident I can keep things running smoothly even while away. Hopefully this explains why I haven’t been great at keeping up with your wonderful comments and emails as I want; not only are we trying to get everything in order before our month-long stay, but I have a baby to get ready for! He’s due to arrive a month or month and a half after we get back. Poor little guy doesn’t even have a crib yet.
The next two weeks will be full of squeezing in all our appointments, finding lodging, packing, preparing for baby #2, lining up contractors to fix our house while we are gone, more packing, getting supplies/medications, dealing with insurance, and did I mention packing? My to-do list is three pages long, but my hope is that once I’m out there I can just focus on Noodle. And, do some blogging. And find a Starbucks, because I’m going to need a decaf white mocha on occasion to get through this since wine is on my no-no list.
That’s the latest, and I’ll keep you updated. The good news is that it’s kicked me into overdrive and I’m madly cleaning and organizing to make sure we are ready. Lots of stuff to show you, but for now? I think I need to put my feet up and dream a little about that wine I’m going to have once Baby Boy is born. 😉
As a PT, I know it will be challenging for the both of you, but you never know…she may surprise you yet again! Best wishes for a successful treatment. You look fabulous, BTW 🙂
I love reading your blog and wanted to introduce myself :). I’m an SLP and work with young kids so I understand some of what you’re going through. Hope you get through this okay and with some good results! What a challenging experience.
God bless little noodle! I will keep you guys in my prayers as you go through this though time! She is such a cutie pie! I hated when baby kee was tube fed, and that was only for 2 weeks, I can not imagine what you guys have gone through!
GL with the therapy to you & noodle! I am praying that all goes well & she gets to where she needs to as a result! And PS – you look so cute in your bump pic!
Wishing you luck as you take Noodle for some therapy. Remember to take time for yourself too, while you can…
And I’m just lovin’ that baby belly.
Goodness, my heart goes out to you. I hope everything goes well with your little sweetie and that you can find some sense of groundedness in your time away from home.
PS You look great! I love that photo and the color scheme.