Windy Road

It is Day 4 of Sloane going tubeless! I was mentally keeping track of how many ounces Sloane had been drinking each day, but in regular Tarra form I took to documenting. In the midst of the color coded appointments & events, there are small numbers in the left hand corners. You can see a 13, 13, 18, and 14. Not too bad at all although there hasnt been another sip of milk swallowed since Wednesday. I know what you are all saying...Tarra, let go of the milk! And my answer is...I am trying too, but old habits are hard to break.

Over the past 4 days, I have learned something. I have NO IDEA how to have a child who does not have a medical concern. For example, Sloane's reflux med and daily vitamin are pushed thru her mickey button via a syringe. I was going to continue doing that until on Wednesday when our ped asked me why would do that. My answer was concerning looking back on it now. I asked her how else should I gave them to her. To which our ped says thru her mouth.

Of course! This is what moms of babies who do not have feeding tubes do.  The thought never crossed my mind. Sometimes the simplest rearing things are not in my realm of mothering. I am sure it is hard for people to understand. But basically, Sloane's mouth should have had a sign on it that said EXIT ONLY for the first 5 months of life. I did not give Sloane a morsel, a taste, a dollop, a drop or a lick of food via mouth until Christmas Day when she was 5 months old. Bananas! That was the first flavor Sloane had via mouth since day 4 of life. We took pictures, documented the happenings in Sloane's baby book and jotted down the first food event in her daily calendar. The look on Sloane's face was priceless. She was in love. A foodie was born. The sad part about it was that Sloane was only allowed a few spoonfuls each day, not for nutritional purposes, but for sensory issues. I was paranoid that she would have sensory issues with foods because she wasnt taking any in. So for months it was a spoonful here and a spoonful there. Sloane's mouth didn't get frequent use of solids until months later. That's when we put an ENTER HERE sign on her top lip. LOL Now, her mouth is like an expressway at rush hour.

So giving Sloane medication via her mouth wasn't the elementary answer for me. I am a mom who doesnt connect her dots with a straight line. My motherhood lines resemble more of a windy road.