jackson turns 6 months on wednesday. i can hardly believe our son is half of a year old. the time has flown by, and from what i am told by other parents, it will continue to do so.
paul and i can’t tell if this 6 month milestone is what is causing the turn-around that we see taking place with jackson’s eating… but we can’t help but wonder about his little digestive system maturing with age, and think to ourselves that maybe, just maybe we’re seeing a little light at the end of our tunnel.
this weekend brought the same turmoil that last weekend did. we had once again changed out jackson’s ng tube and doing so induced vomiting. at the time, we were 10 days away from reevaluating our tube situation with the gi doctor, but jackson apparently didn’t want to wait 10 more days. upon consulting with jackson’s feeding therapist and gi doc, paul and i pulled the ng tube out and have been successfully feeding jackson orally since saturday. while the volume of what jackson is taking in is not quite as good as we would like, we feel so encouraged by jackson’s amazing progress.
interestingly enough, the gi doc told me over the weekend that he has occasionally seen babies who, after a given amount of time with an ng tube, decide their body no longer needs it. when this happens, the body tries to expel the tube which manifests itself in the form of vomiting. so according to this theory, jackson was telling us that he no longer needs the tube… we just had to translate his baby language.
jackson is averaging about 5 ounces of formula through the propel water bottle. in addition to that, he is shoveling in as many baby jars of fruit as possible. he LOVES his solids!!! by the end of yesterday, jackson had totaled 25 ounces and paul and i went to bed very happy.
also, with the tube being out, jackson is sleeping through the night again. this is HUGE for us because for the last month or so that the tube has been in, jackson woke up every single time he lost his pacifier. we think that with the tube causing him to produce more saliva in his mouth, he needed the pacifier to help him swallow that many more times throughout each night. with the tube out, jackson no longer has that need and can sleep through the night again.
paul and i have experienced our own milestone in the last 2 days because they have been what we would call “good days” for jackson… and we had two in a row! we actually took jackson on a walk up to our favorite sandwich shop and enjoyed an afternoon outside with our son while he took a nap in his stroller…. something that jackson NEVER does because he’s always been uncomfortable in one way or another and unsatisfied. not only did jackson allow paul and i to enjoy some time together while he rested, but we also went to meet baby zach! our dear “family” friends, phil and sarah, had their second child, zachary philip, last weekend when we were in pennsylvania for the wedding. talk about a milestone!!! phil and sarah are parents again and doing such a wonderful job raising miss lil and now baby zach. being able to take jackson over for a visit without having him throw a fit out of hunger was huge for us.
finally i marked (literally) jackson’s 6 month milestone on my other wrist this weekend. i had been talking to paul about tattooing jackson’s name and birthdate on my wrist for a while now, and this weekend seemed as good a time as any to actually do it.
i think i can speak for both paul and i when i say that the last 6 months have been the MOST stressful that we have endured yet. to think that we may be turning a corner here, as jackson turns 6 months old, is a thought that i never could’ve imagined entering my brain. stay tuned…. things seem to change on a dime for us, but hopefully our changes will continue in a positive direction.

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