Here lies
Gastrostomy Tube, "G-Tube"
May it rest in a Hazmat Bin forever
25 May 2013-9 April 2014
It will not be missed.
Oli got her G-tube taken out! Yahoo!
Her last photo taken with it at the doctor's office:
Poor fool has no idea what's about to happen. Just kidding. It was painless. The doc just deflated a little balloon that is on the tummy-side of the tube and pulled it out. It took all of 20 seconds.
I did an post-g-tube impromptu photo shoot. I know, too cute. Honestly, I just put her in the corner, in the box that holds our gardening shoes, threw a blanket at her and asked her to dazzle me. I tried to find some newborn puppies or a fruit outfit or something, but all I came up with was her slightly wet diaper. So we made it work.
She looks drastically different, I know. Right now she has a square of gauze and a clear sticker thingy to keep the gauze place. I'll have to post a photo of her little scar after it heals up.
Hooray for Oli!
I just can't get over the cleverness of this day. 3-21. As in three copies of chromosome 21. Oh the cleverness of you. So in honor of this day mean to raise awareness and acceptance, I will set aside my sardonic nature and share some things about Olive that have nothing to do with her diagnosis. Because in the end, it is who we are, and not what we are that defines us.
1. She loves to dance. And be thrown around (yes, we shake our babies). And to bounce. This girl feels the rhythm.
2. She is super determined. Once she realizes she can do something, she does it. Today I showed her that she could hold her bottle herself. Now she wont have it any other way!
3. She's got sass. Nuf said.
4. She adores Charlie. And she really likes Garrett and me. This is a rather new realization for us, and it's awesome to see her face light up when we enter the room. I LOVE IT.
5. She loves to eat. Thank you for giving me a child that enjoys food. I feel validated.
6. She has incredible focus. She will take a book and examine every corner, page, picture, texture, taste, you name it. She really experiences things. I love that about her.
7. She loves to be loved. Don't we all.
8. She loves water. She LOVES water.
9. She is all the African Baby I could have ever wanted. Dark skin excluded (though I'm still crossing my fingers that I've got some recessive genes somewhere that will manifest in our next baby)
10. She is happy to be her. I hope one day to be as confident in my own skin as my 1 yr-old is in hers.
11. She is serene. Well named Olive Serene.
And she looks like my grandmother in this photo. So lovely.
The end!
This is Charlie. Charlie is a good little boy, and always very curious.
During breakfast this morning mister Charlie decided he wanted to hone his photography skills. After minimal direction, these are his best (read: clearest) shots. I call it, Ode to breakfast. Enjoy.
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| Green Smoothie. Oli trying to feed herself? |
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| Spoon. |
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| And my personal favorite: Giving up. |
And from my view.
I'm still crossing my fingers and hoping for a pilot (free flights anyone?), but I could settle for photographer. I'm excited to continue seeing the world through Charlie's fresh lens.
So my daughter turned one. I
understand now the original purpose for birthdays. She survived a
year! Yay! She made it! And we did too! Whew! What a ride it's been.
I know this is way more information than most people want to know,
but for the 3 of you that are interested, here are the deets.
Our little Olive is a go-getter. She
has just been healing herself, overcoming obstacles, and rocking the
kasbah baby.
First with her heart.
Last year on my birthday, a month after
she had been born, we were told she had a significant hole in her
heart that would require open heart surgery. Happy Birthday. It was
awesome. There are two versions of her particular defect, she had the
one that would not heal on its own. Joke's on the doctors, 'cause Oli
healed that trash. A valve in her heart created a sort of windsock
that grew down into her defect, making it not worth an operation.
What an amazing girl. We are so grateful for that miracle. I know a
few parents that had the heartbreak of their children undergoing open
heart surgery, and I am so relieved that we did not have to
experience that pain. We'll take the win.
Second bit of awesomeness from Oli:
feeding!
Oli came home from the NICU with an NG
tube in her nose. Yuck. Poor kid. Turns out it just comes naturally
to our family to accidentally pull it out. Which means I became
really good at putting it in.
After a month of struggling with the NG tube and just HOPING she
would start bottle-feeding regularly, we put in a G-tube. Sadly, it
is not as gangster as it sounds.
She still kinda sucked at
bottle-feeding. We tried all summer, and she really started throwing
up most of her food. One fussy day we tried breastfeeding while we
were desperately putting a bottle together, and she took it! She
wouldn't even latch onto a bottle, but she gave me a good solid
latch! A month later she was exclusively breastfeeding. Booyah. And
now she's eating solids and is getting her G-tube out April 9
th.
She's awesome.
Third,
She's a genius baby!
She's
had a few tests recently. In short, she is keeping up with all of her
normally-chromosomed amigos. She is testing normally in cognitive
development! Yay for average! She doesn't have any specific words
yet, which knocks us back a month or two in speech, and due to her
low muscle tone (typical of those with Down Syndrome) she's behind in
her gross and fine motor skills, though not by much.
We
love having Oli around. And garsh, I adore her in every way.
And
Charlie pooped in the potty tonight for the first time ever. That's right. The
jackstad childrens are rocking it.
**photo cred for the gorgeous first and last photos goes to the talented Mallory at mallorylynnphoto.com**
