A Year Later...Eating Orally!!

Over the weekend as I was at work, my mom called and said that Hubercito was sneezing a lot and when he would sneeze he would choke a little. And he threw up once. He had a runny nose and was very congested. I called his pediatrition but being Saturday they of course were not there. I was referred to a nearby clinic and the nurse suggested that I take him into the ER. They are in Coos Bay and by the time we would have driven the 2 hours to get there they would have been closed.
At the ER in Crescent City they did a chest x-ray to make sure that he hadn't aspirated. Luckily he hadn't. Because he had a lot of mucus and was congested they also did a RSV virus check. Which is a respiratory virus. It came back a little positive so we were told to keep him extra hydrated and in a room with a humidifier and that it should clear up in about a week on its own.

Monday afternoon we drove to my Aunts house in Drain. We had a sceduled Barium Swallow Study scheduled the next day in Eugene at the new Sacred Heart Hospital.
Hubercito was of course grumpy and very tired when we arrived for his swallow study. We had about a half hour wait so we got him asleep. Only problem with this was when they did call us back he didnt want to wake up! Normally any little movement or noise will awake him but of course when we need him awake he was out!
They sat him up in a lil chair and offered him yogurt and applesauce mixed with Barium as the X-ray machine was on his mouth so as he sat there we were able to watch what was happening inside his mouth. He was very groggy and unsure what was going on so he of course started whining and crying. I tried to get him to suck on a bottle but without much results. After awhile I went back to watch the screen and let Huber try to get him to eat, as he does these things more for Daddy then Mommy. By this time he was pissed off so Huber had to take him out of the chair and calm him down. Offering him bites and drinks as he was being held. He was more interested safe in the arms of Papi. I explained to the Drs that he does not normally sit by himself without crying and that when we did offer him tastes we were normally holding him. So not only with being in a new enviorment, with new people, new tastes and having to sit by himself he was not having it!
Miraculously right as the tech came back behind the protective glass and removed his vest saying he didnt think Hubercito was gonna show us anything we glanced over at the screen and saw him sucking away on the bottle swallowing gulp after gulp! After about 5 minutes and after they took the bottle away from him and tried the yogurt again he was pissed again and done but we had enough to determine if it was safe to feed him or not!
After reviewing the tape she said that she did not see anything wrong with his eating and didnt see any reason why we couldn't go ahead with bottle feeding and baby food feedings!! I was SO excited! She did say we needed to thicken up his formula a lil but other then that he was good to go.
He is definatly interested but having a lil trouble grasping the nipple as it is different from his pacifiers which is all he has had to suck on. He does get it every once in a while and sucks away like a lil pro! I even gave him tastes of Banana baby food and he liked that chomping away when he gets a spoonful.
Right now he eats continuously on his feeding pump for about 10 hrs thru the night and about 4-6 hrs throughout the day on the pump and is gaining weight steadily. It will be such a relief to be able to eventually feed him with the bottle throughout the day and on the pump at night. No more dragging all the equiptment around with us and having to find somewhere to feed him where we can sit for a couple hours when we are out of town. It will take time for this but I know we will get there! Our goal for him this year feeding wise is to be able to eat enough orally still gaining weight and therefore get his g-tube taken out. That would be a huge accomplishment for him!