step by step

Sawyer has been growing like a weed lately. He is such a little character and is constantly providing entertainment because he knows he has our undivided attention. He definitely is strong-willed and knows what he wants. He wants to be held almost all day, but I make him walk. So I hold one hand and he follows me around the house and helps me clean up his messes. He doesn't particularly like to be abandoned in the living room with all his toys to distract him because it means he has to sit and be alone for a few minutes. You'd think I don't get anything done all day, and that's pretty accurate. Which is okay with me, but I hope he learns to be more independent.

It finally happened today. I was driving and out of nowhere, the image of Sawyer as a baby with a Replogle in his nose popped into my mind. I suddenly realized that I miss him being that age. I have always been so anxious for him to GROW and to gain weight and learn how to eat and catch up that it didn't really affect me when I packed away the clothes he's outgrown. But it finally dawned on me that I'll never have those moments back. Fortunately, we took close to a thousand pictures, so hopefully that will help keep the memory fresh in my mind.

Taylor decided to take over in the feeding therapy department one night and re-introduced the sippy cup. He was pretty open to putting his mouth around the spout, and if Taylor squeezed it slightly, just enough milk came out for him to swallow. Then he opened his mouth again and again like a calf drinking from the udder. It reminds me of the first time we did kangaroo care and he opened his mouth and instinctively searched for an udder. He eats everything we put out in front of him, granted they are in small enough pieces and soft. The desire is definitely there. But for the past month, he's been having choking episodes that makes him start gagging and cough up a good amount of stomach content. The biggest culprit is bread, which he loves. So we need to have his esophagus examined to see if there is a narrowing or motility issue and what we can do to help make eating a better experience. For now, we just feed him bits of chocolate because it instantly melts and it's delicious.