A Different Boat

Deciding to have a second child seems to be a difficult decision for everyone. I hear one after another of my friends who have one child question if they really want another. Their reasoning generally seems reasonable, "I have my hands full already," "I feel fulfilled loving just this one child," "Childcare is really expensive," etc. etc. But then I see person after person announcing second pregnancies or sending out family pictures with their 2, 3, 4 children. In reality, I know very few people who are an only child. So what happens to make the decision to expand your family? There are so many emotional struggles in making such a choice. For us, the choice was both exciting and utterly terrifying, but ultimately I knew I didn't want Wes to be an only child. The standard ambivalence felt by most parents is compounded when you have a special needs child. After you already unexpectedly ended up in Holland (see previous post ), you don't really wan...

We have turned a corner when it comes to Wes eating thanks to a stomach bug (and of course months and months of feeding therapy). In early December, Wes, Colby, and myself all got the lovely vomitting all day (tmi, I know) stomach bug that was going around. After a week and a half of recovering and getting Wes back to normal g-tube feedings, we tried feeding him purées again. Something clicked for him in that time off and he decided not only that food tastes good, but that he is ferociously hungry. He's like an entirely different kid when it comes to eating. He was taking 5-10 small tastes of purees off a specialized spoon, at a very slow pace, without any variety in flavors, and with a lot of persistance to get him to open his mouth. Now he is taking 3-6 ounces of whatever flavor puree we offer him each feeding with a normal spoon and at a normal pace. He's opening his mouth to signal he wants another bite, he's leaning towards the spoon, and he gets mad if you don...