Hi everyone,
We
didn't get to start trying a "dipped spoon" yesterday like we had thought. The therapists felt
Kenzie wasnt ready. They use a tool called a
nuk which is almost like a brush to get kids to swallow. OT and ST cant get
Kenzie to open for the
Nuk without her gagging or screaming. So they all felt that we are going to do feeding therapy sessions with the
nuk until she opens for it. So right now a session involves the
Nuk brush being put up to her mouth. The therapist says "1, 2, 3, open" and hopes that
kenzie will allow her to brush her tongue with it. Right now
Kenzie has allowed it once out of maybe 30 tries. All of the other times she cries, but the good thing is that she only gagged and vomited once! When she cries they gently turn her head back to
midline and wait for her tongue to move down. They then take the brush and run it along her tongue and tell her shes done a good job. She gets to play with her toys a little then and we try again. We are really hoping that
Kenzie will figure out quickly that the
Nuk is not scary and will accept it. Once she does
consistently, they will start with the dipped spoon... always seems like its a step back before we can go
foward.
As for separating,
Kenzies been doing very well when i leave her in the playroom. Unfortunately she is still not liking her Speech and Occupational therapists. She cries for most of the sessions. Partly I think its that shes so tired with this rigorous schedule and her lack of sleep. She has a hard time
falling asleep at night because of the lights, noise, and action in the room and really only has time for 1 nap. We think also she is getting a cold now (again) and that won't help anything.
Onto the good stuff... we've had a great few days with Grandma Daryl and Grandpa H. We've gone out to some dinners and last night therapy dogs came to the hospital. It was so much fun to see
Kenzie happy! I think she really misses Chubby as she was holding out her hands to all the dogs and was trying to pet them.
I even gave up a little more control over
Kenzie and took a break for the first time in 14 months. I let
Kenzie's grandma sleep at the hospital so I could go to the hotel at night and guess what???
Kenzie's still alive! Those who know me get the joke. Because of everything with
Kenzie I have always been petrified to leave her anywhere overnight especially in the hospital. So i did do it on my own terms, I waited till she was in bed at night and made sure I was back when she woke up... but she did have a solid 10 hours without me.
Kenzie's napping now and then has another meal at 330. We will grab some dinner after that and say goodbye to Grandma (Grammy) and Grandpa H (pop pop - as
skylar calls him) Then in just 32 short hours Jordan will finally be here!!! We really can't wait... seeing him on
webcam at night just
isn't enough.
typical to my life my computer for some reason stopped allowing my little camera chip to work so i cant upload any pictures other than the ones from my phone. the ones you see above are from yesterday. hopefully ill get a card reader and be able to
upload some better ones soon!