Back on the charts

A bit of good news this rainy Friday: our doctor visit this morning weighed James in at 16 lbs, 6 oz - which places him officially on the growth curve. He's in the smallest 3%, but he's on the charts at last! At 28 inches, he has officially grown out of his car seat. Time for more shopping...

He's also back on the tube, mostly because the flu kept him from eating his usual amount so we had to keep him hydrated via the feeding pump. The fact that he was off the tube until just this week, and still gained weight, is a great sign. It's very possible we'll be packing the tube away for good soon :) Today was our first visit to Weill-Cornell in 7 weeks, and it actually looked different. (It's amazing how cool renovations appear when you compare 2-month intervals instead of weekly ones.)

We are all excited about the arrival of spring, the increasing independence from the tube, and a much lighter doctor schedule. We have the time and flexibility to get out more, accomplish more, and look forward to new endeavors in coming months!

Spring progress!

Happy Easter! We spent the holiday recovering from a nasty bout of the flu, so it hasn't been very celebratory around here. Rest and relaxation are much appreciated though.

We have actual progress to report on this time: James is off the tube! It's still only provisional, but he's been off for over a week now and he's eating well. He's not meeting his goal (800 ml), but he's obtaining the daily minimum (600 ml) - and day by day he's slowly improving. We change the tube each week for sanitary purposes, and the last time we were all just too fed up with the tube to muster up reinsertion energy. A few days of break did him good though, and his eating skills took off. James has had such "testing" off-tube days before and not done so great, but this time he was ready to show us what he can do.

It is SO nice to not deal with the tube feeding process every day. With the tube out, he no longer needs to keep his hands gloved, so he can play more freely. He doesn't throw up, at all, ever. He's starting to sleep more soundly at night. He's also picking up on solids: yogurt, mashed banana, crackers, soft puffy chips that dissolve in his mouth. He still resists swallowing anything more solid than yogurt, but his Early Intervention therapy has begun so we'll be working on his swallowing with the help of a feeding specialist.

In honor of tube independence, I'm posting a few photos of little J without any medical paraphanelia blocking his face :)