Joey Can Eat!

Many of my prayer warrior mommas have been praying that Joey is able to eat on his own.  I have been saying this prayer for a few days now.  This past Friday, speech therapy came to visit Joey and fed him his first bottle! We all held our breaths to see what he would do, and he soared!  It was a bit awkward, because obviously the kid had never tried a bottle until almost 4 months into his life.  However, he kept it down and I think he enjoyed it. I could tell he was just a tad bit confused because he wasn't sure why there was actually liquid coming out of this nipple.

Yesterday we took him down to do an official swallow test to see where the liquid went once he swallowed his drink.  He was given green apple flavored milk with Barium. While under the x-ray machine, we were able to follow where the drink went. It went to his stomach. Praise Jesus! I just had the feeling that I had passed the "Kay Cordell" gene of eating off to this kid. We just love food way too much in this family!  We are going to start very slowly with introducing him to the bottle, because it does take a lot of energy to eat.  He may still need to get a g-tube, which I am okay with, but he will still be able to eat orally in conjunction with the tube.  At least he will be able to enjoy food and maybe in the future work up to just eating orally.  The ride down to the swallow test was really fun to do with Joey.  His nurse put him a smaller bassinet that rolled with his oxygen tank and he was very alert for the ride. His eyes were looking around and taking everything in as we rolled from one part of the hospital to the other. I think he enjoyed the elevator ride too. It was almost like we were going on a walk in his stroller, except he was in a bassinet.  It made me just get a tad bit excited to think that one day we may actually get to leave the hospital (with all our medical equipment attached) and go for a walk in his stroller one day. As much as he enjoyed his short elevator ride, I think he's going to like strolls in the park.

 Where am I going in this thing?? 😂

I also was reminded of an incident a few weeks ago. When we were on the cardiology floor, we saw an older kid through Joey's window into another room. Daniel said it brought him great joy to see this kid swiping away at his toy attached to his mobile and pulling off his nasal cannula.  I remember wondering if Joey would ever step down from his respiratory support and get his nasal cannula? Fast forward to today and see the pictures below.  The kid has come so far. I am so used to accepting things for what they are, which is a good quality to have, but at the same time, you can miss out on a lot of good things that God gives to us if we are always stuck in that mindset. Joey has taught me all the things that God can do, and it's okay to believe in miracles.

Prayer Requests-I believe he has to get down to a half a liter of flow with his oxygen before we go home. He is currently at 1-1.5.  He has been stuck here for a while, although he has come such a long way!  Please also pray that he continues to grasp the concept of feeding from a bottle and that he does it well!