Fresh Food Feeder is Fabulous!

Susanne was hoping to get back in bed after the first feeding of the day to try and get some more sleep. She knew that she needed to be rested up for the drive today. She was 45 minutes into falling back asleep when Paxton woke up crying. He needed suctioning and then he was good.

Susanne got ready slowly, but surely. She always seemed to run out of time. It was the third time in a row that Susanne had a wet head during Paxton's therapy session. The doorbell always rang right as she would start blow drying her hair.

Paxton did well during therapy. Susanne started off by warming Paxton up with some facial and oral exercises. Then, she offered him a taste of an oral swab. He really seemed to enjoy exploring the swab with his tongue and suckling around it. It would release a small amount of water each time he did this. It was encouraging him to swallow without feeling threatened. This would hopefully help him to be more receptive to other items in the future. Paxton played with the selection of pacifiers that Susanne offered him. He would mainly push each one out with his tongue or lick the end of it. He would start to gag if Susanne pushed it completely in his mouth. He wasn't used to anything forcing his tongue to lay flat. It scared him immensely. Next, Susanne tried offering him a small portion of banana in his fresh food feeder. He was able to push it out through the mesh and mush it around in his mouth. He actually seemed to like it. He worked on it for well over fifteen minutes with no resistance. Since he had done so well today, they decided not to push it. They didn't offer him any other food during the session other than the banana. They allowed him to end on a positive note. Susanne was so thrilled to finally see some progress even though it wasn't substantial.

Susanne thought that it would be a good idea to leave as much stuff in Virginia as possible since she would be returning in a couple of days. She didn't feel that it was necessary to carry it all back and forth. This helped to lighten her load tremendously. It still took her quite some time to get everything packed and ready to go. She had to make multiple trips to get it all in the car. Her goal was to beat rush hour traffic. The last thing she wanted was to be stuck in a sea of non-moving vehicles for hours on end. She also wanted to beat the ice storm that was supposed to be headed in anytime now. She didn't care that it was coming to the area, she just hoped it was gone by the time she would be coming back up that way on Thursday.

The drive was not bad at all. Susanne felt awake the entire time with no episodes of dozing off. This was an improvement compared to the most recent drives. Paxton did well also. He made a few sounds along the way, but would respond to a head rub or the entertaining toy attached to his car seat.

Scott greeted them at the door. He had picked up dinner on his way home, which made Susanne extra happy that she had food waiting for her when she got there. They spent the night hanging out. They both procrastinated with going to bed because they didn't want real life to start up again. They wanted to savor every precious moment they had together.