Date Night

Paxton was up once at the end of his continuous feeding, but he immediately went back down. After that he slept until after 11:00am, which was weird. He must have needed it.

Today, Susanne and Scott worked on gathering information for their taxes. They had never been as motivated to do this as they were this year. They were in desperate need of money and this would hopefully provide them with some sort of financial help. They had a lot of different items to go through. They had to consider a long list of things that they hadn't had to worry about in the past. It was truly challenging. Paxton being born and the fact that he had multiple medical issues changed everything. Even after a few hours of hardwork and sweat, they decided they would just have to come back to it again on a different day. It would drive them crazy if they didn't walk away.

Later in the afternoon, Scott spent some time training Susanne's parent's dog, Jack. He was well behaved and obedient most of the time. The one thing that they all wished he would do was to come when he was called. Susanne's parents had a huge fenced-in backyard. If Jack were outside and they called him to come in, he would run the other way. He thought that it was all fun and games. He wanted someone to come outside to chase him no matter that time of day it was. After working with him a short time, he seemed to catch on. If Scott could just keep up with the training, Jack would be a new dog in no time.

During Paxton's oral feeding therapy session today, Susanne and Scott decided to introduce Paxton to some new food. The new choices were pureed peaches and pureed peas. They were excited to see his response. Susanne started the session with some facial massage. It was always a good idea to wake up those muscles. Susanne offered him an oral swab first. He was surprisingly interested in it. He was now starting to open his mouth more to receive it and actually suckle around it. He made the cutest sounds when doing this. Once he got comfortable with the oral swab, Susanne offered him fresh banana in his fresh food feeder. This was Scott's first time getting to see him in action. He was so proud of his little nugget. Paxton would mush the banana around between his lips. He didn't seem to mind it when it was offered this way. If he were to get pureed bananas, that would be a different story. After he proved that he was receptive to the things that Susanne had offered him thus far, she tried peas. He did better than expected. He seemed puzzled by the flavor, but didn't gag once. After about five spoonfuls, Susanne moved onto peaches. His face said it all. He scrunched his little nose in response to the tart flavor. It was definitely not as bland as the peas. After his brain wrapped around what was going on, he seemed more interested. Once he had taken about five spoonfuls, Susanne decided to stop. She wanted to end on a good note. She finished the session with offering the oral swab again. He immediately took to it and went to town. Eating and swallowing was still a major challenge for Paxton, but hopefully with time he would get the hang of it. For now, Susanne and Scott would just enjoy the small victories.

Tonight was going to be a special treat for Scott and Susanne. Gigi and Poppy offered to watch Paxton so they could go out on a date. They encouraged Scott and Susanne to try to have some good quality time alone together. Of course, they chose a Mexican restaurant to have dinner. That decision was a no-brainer. After a tasty meal and a few cocktails, they went to the movies. Out of all of the choices out there, "The King's Speech" had caught their attention. Any movie that received the "Best Picture" Oscae had to have some substance. It proved to be an excellent choice even though Susanne couldn't keep her eyes open for a small portion of it. Unfortunately, this was one of her trademarks. She sometimes had difficulty staying awake for movies, especially if it was late at night. Nonetheless, they had a great time together. It had been quite a while since they had gone out on a date. Hopefully, they would start making a habit of this.