And Little A is off the tube!

It has been exactly 10 weeks since we last pumped any milk through Little A’s tube and it was only about 3 oz.  He has been drinking all of his bottles and eating all kinds of foods (Bamba is his absolute favorite snack). We have increased his food intake to about 4 oz 3x a day and of course snacks along the way and he determines the amount of milk he will drink daily (we try between 18-24 oz).  On June 27th, we went to the Swallow therapist and she was so pleased with him. Little A not only showed her how he can eat strawberries and blueberries, but he showed her how he takes bits of his veggie straws with his front teeth and moves the pieces over (sometimes with the help of his finger) to the side of his mouth for chewing.  She gave us a rubbermaid straw cup to start practicing with him. Well after two tries with the therapist he did not need her help at all to get water to come up the straw. He did exactly what he was supposed to. He continues to work on it with different straws, but if he sees any kind of straw you bet Little A is coming over to try to take a drink.  This weekend Little A also mastered drinking his milk from the sippy cup lid on his bottle, but when he is sleepy he prefers his bottle nipple (and yes he knows the difference just by looking at the bottle)! Today, July 1 we took Little A to see a G.I. in hopes that we could finally get the g-tube that we have not used in 2.5 months taken out. After explaining why Little A had the tube put in in the first place, how we haven’t used it in months and how his swallow therapist gave us her OK, the G.I told us there is no reason to keep it in.  It was taken out and we were told how to take care of it the spot. Think of it as the hole in your ears if you have your ears pierced. If you never wear earrings the hole closes up. The same thing for the spot where the g-tube was. It should heal itself and close up completely within 2 weeks. We just need to use a mixture of butt cream and mylanta on it , so Little A’s skin doesn’t get irritated from any stomach discharge. At this point, changing some gauze for a couple more weeks will be a piece of cake. Fingers crossed it closes by itself, so we don’t have to go back for a couple of stitches. I can’t even begin to describe all of the emotions I felt by the time we got back to the front of the office.  I was excited that this was finally happening; I was in disbelief that we really made it this far in literally 12 months; I was feeling like one proud mama bear for all of the hard work Little A did; and feeling grateful to my husband and mom who helped get Little A here! I had tears of happiness rolling down my cheeks by the time we got to the car and didn’t know who to text first. Thank you to all of our friends and family who showed us so much love and support….It helped us keeping going and keeping pushing ourselves and Little A whenever we were able to celebrate the small stuff with all of you! Only thing left to say is: Little A did it! He is off the G-tube! I am grateful that he was able to get nourishment from the g-tube as long as he needed it, but I am even more grateful that he no longer needs that support!