9 mo old And Still Not Eating

I last Updated a Whole Month ago. While my title may seem a little like a "Debbie Downer", the fact that I haven't updated in so long, is actually a good sign. Evie Grace, as I have take to calling her now, is 9 mo old. She last weighed in at a hefty 17 lbs and 14 oz. She is rolling, now on her belly more and more, and actually starting to put a lot of weight on her legs! We are getting "there". Not quite sure where "there" is, but I am sure happy to be "there" rather than "here".

When we last spoke, we started her on a new med, neruotonin, and we found that, that med alone, does no good. However, paired with the equally intense drug, amitriptaline, works wonders. She has been on both, now, for over a week. Before, only on the neurotonin, she would not take a bottle, she refused baby foods, crackers, Gerber toddler foods, and wouldn't even play with them. With the new med, amitriptaline, she is playing, tasting and has even swallowed a tinie-tiny amount of rice, milk, and perhaps bread and crackers. (Sometimes it is hard to tell where the small entity goes!) I will say, she does seem to be having some difficulty sleeping though, which is no fun for Mommy or Daddy!!

Occupational Therapy is going rather well too. We started seeing an OT as soon as we returned from NOLA. She has begun helping Evie Grace to learn to use her muscles better to help her learn to eat better. We have even started a new regimen where we no longer even offer a "bottle". We simply offer her a sippy cup. I don't even warm it up. By doing this I have gotten her to drink form it. Not much, but every little bit counts.

It is so hard to think of the fact that I have a baby that has a Food Aversion. When someone first gets pregnant and reads all the books, they become so insecure about everything they eat. No caffeine, no lunch meats, etc. Everything they do becomes about that baby. Even down to deciding whether or not to use pain management during labor. You don't really think about going home with the baby. No where in the baby books does it describe to you what kind of baby you may end up with. I would not Change Evie Grace for the World. What I am saying, is that it is hard. Breastfeed? Bottle feed? My child can't do either. If I breastfeed, my child will get too many fats and could have heart/liver/brain damage. However, now, my child can't even look at a bottle, much less drink from one. Tubes, Bags, pumps. Its all normal for us now. I look at pictures of babies. I hold my niece and tickle her belly. I hold kids in my Lifegroup. And I always find that I am shocked when I don't see/feel their G-Buttons. Weird, I know. I feel like this paragraph is rambling and I don't quite know how to tie it all in. Let me say this one last thing: We are all blessed to have such beautiful children in our lives. Count yourself blessed whether you have a sick baby, or a healthy baby. They are here for a reason. And even if God hasn't let me in on why Evie Grace has all the problems that she does, he still has his plan for her.