After we fed Lillian her dinner we both agreed it was a good time to try for the first time. She had a full belly and was perfectly content sitting on my lap while I sang to her and pretended to nibble on her fingers. Phil prepared the medicine just as the instructions listed and I distracted her as he gave her the first growth hormone injection. She wiggled around a bit and looked around as if she was trying to figure what was going on... and then it was over. We both let out a huge sigh of relief.
I can't help but feel like this is the day we gave her life. I know that God brought her into this world four months ago with a plan that is too big to understand, but I feel like what we started for her today is giving her a second chance at life. We're giving her the chance to not fall behind and whether or not it makes a big difference or a little difference, at least we are doing everything we can for her.
So now this is our new normal. We'll do this every day for as long as it takes to help her develop and grow physically and cognitively. We're so proud of her progress this far and so thankful we can help her muscles develop more so she can move and play and smile and enjoy life the way she deserves to.
Earlier this week Lillian had a swallow study to test her ability to take her bottle and to check for aspiration. The results didn't come out as we were hoping, but we know that with time her body will strengthen and she will make improvement. The doctor suggested we rub a little food on her lips and let her explore different tastes without actually feeding her the food (and the extra calories). Today she had a little taste of blueberry pomegranate applesauce :). Seeing her explore the taste and texture of this foreign substance on her lips was priceless! As difficult as it is to wrap my mind around WANTING her to eat food, it's so important to instill healthy eating habits in her. We had all intentions of feeding her veggies first, but the applesauce was already in the refrigerator and it's organic with no sugar added... so it felt OK. I might puree some veggies sometime this weekend and let Phil experience the fun of watching her explore this new sensation.
(Lillian tasting blueberry pomegranate apple sauce!)
We're still waiting to actually start feeding her solids until she's 6 months old, so I'll probably just let her experiment with this "lip gloss" method a couple times a week.
Hopefully tomorrow I'll have enough time to finish Lillian's blue and white tutu for the big Super Bowl game Sunday! We'll post pictures Monday morning after the Colts beat the Saints as a celebratory blog post :D. GO COLTS!
