Mom and Gabe Day

What happened to this day? It went by so quickly. I stayed with Gabe last night and Manny stayed with Christian. We woke up early this morning and went back to school shopping with our class supply list in tow. I can tell you that I miss the days where I would get whatever I wanted Gabe to wear, bring it home, and dress him. No complaints. Now, he needs to be involved. Talk about a headache. But we had a nice time together, got some goodies and new shoes for Gabe, and finished the shopping excursion out with take out from Applebees, courtesy of one of my August mamas! It was nice because Gabe and I have always had Mom and Gabe Days/Nights where we have a "date." This is either renting a movie and eating junk food, camped out in living room or going to eat or whatever we feel like doing together.

Manny got some time alone with Christian. He did some range of motion with him, he was able to be there when they did Christian's first trach change, and help take care of Christian. Manny loved it and felt so blessed to be able to take care of Christian and that Christian was here to be taken care of.

Christian had a good day, I'm pleased to say. He did throw up two of his feedings because they're trying to increase the volume. Increasing the volume and spacing it out further (for example, they give him 105 ml every three hours) helps him learn to eat as if he were taking a bottle every couple of hours. He's not really liking this plan so we're tinkering around with what is going to work for him.

The doctors also increased Christian's dose of baclofen. This drug helps loosen his muscles so they aren't so tight. I'm glad they did this because his movement was so fluid today. He was opening his chest and he was able to open his fists. He seemed a lot more comfortable.

I held Christian for two hours straight today. I didn't want to put him back! He was so comfortable and relaxed I just couldn't let him go. But I swear the kid wants to nurse! I know, I know, it's very reflexive, maybe in my head, blah blah blah...

I was wearing a tank top so I put his cheek on my chest so we were skin to skin. He kept turning his head and burying his face in my chest and he was making sucking motions. Not huge sucking motions, just intermittently. Of course, it doesn't make sense to him but something inside of him knows that nursing was probably his favorite thing ever. And he's just going for some more! He just doesn't know how to make sense of it. And that's another new thing he's doing...little sucking motions. Nobody else has seen this except for me, by the way. Figures.

While holding Christian, he just kept staring at me. The nurse even remarked how he was staring at me and he knew he was with his mama. I can't wait until we're home so I can hold him all day long.

Something else Christian is doing is yawning, or what looks like a yawn. At first I thought he was going to throw up but the nurse was actually there to witness and she said, "That looks like a yawn!" But his eyes watered just as if he'd yawned and he took a deep breath. Baby steps.

Off to another crazy day tomorrow. Gabe is turning 11! Happy birthday, baby!