Ok, so its been almost 5 months since I've blogged. It felt like a lifetime to me and to be honest, more than once I considered simply closing the blog and calling it good.
It could be attributed to many things: priority shifts, sheer exhaustion, lack of time (always), lack of inspiration (sometimes), homeschooling, recognizing my limits, being busy... In the end it doesn't really matter. The amazing thing is this, according to my live traffic feed, you continue to visit me! That astounds me, and is a profound honor, really. So, I suppose as long as that contiues to happen if I have something to say and time to say it I will. ...and when I can't, I'm really sorry. Sometimes everthing but the absolutely essential just has to get tossed.
So, I do have something utterly important to share. (drumroll, please) (no, I'm not prego) ; )
We are entering a new era in Mic's oral feeding progress!!!
The condensed version goes something like this. ...I am (finally) becoming more comfortable with following my gut on this journey (in addition to my over 7 yr. of experience), and I finally "felt" like it was the right time to try a calorie cut again. This is done by giving her fewer calories per day in her tubie. We decided to eliminate one of her three daily tube feedings. Since I am all about practical, rather than count every single calorie and have to weigh every gram she eats (which would be supper stressfull, pressurized, time consuming and completely unrealistic in my current reality) we set up some simple safety net rules pertinant to Mic's reality. (ie, gut funcioning regularly, not losing more than x amount of weight, ability to ward off illness, ect).
Aaaaaand...about a month into it its going really really great so far!!!!!!!!! I can hardly belive it! (sorry, Lord, I know...lack of faith...) THIS. IS. HUGE. I don't know if I can really explain what a big deal this is. But to put it in numbers I basically took away a fourth of her total calorie needs each day, and so far, based on our criteria, she has been able to compensate for it orally.
I will confess that if I were to eyeball what she is eating orally, she IS eathing more than she was but maybe not "THAT" much more. Or in other words, if this were a calorie matching exercise, it might have failed already. I continue to watch and pray with a critical eye. But really do believe we are onto something good!
Please continue to lift us up to the Father. All your prayers, encouragement and support have NOT been in vain. You are a part of this step forward and we are just a little closer to victory!!!
Disclaimers: This decision does carry its risks. I will not go into all the reasons why it is finally right for Mic, but I will say that even some months back it wouldn't have been right. No part of this entry constitutes medical advice for anothers situation. The process towards oral feeding sucess is as individual as each person involved.
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