Huge, Gigantic, Magnificent News

The NG tube is gone! It has been 10 days since it was removed and he is doing great! We are struggling to re-establish the complicated dance between keeping him hydrated with water and keeping him gaining weight with milk, but that will come. Here's my beautiful boy in his entirety.

Medication time at the nursing home...

That is how mealtimes have felt around here since Isabel and I have been on antibiotics for our chest infections. Let me give you the run down:
Breakfast
Me

• Multivitamin
  
• Vitamin C x2
  
• Vitamin D x2
  
• Fenugreek x4
  
• Blessed Thistle x3
  
• Antibiotic
  

Isabel

• Multivitamin
  
• Vitamin C
  
• Vitamin D
  
• 4ml Amoxil
  

Orin

• 100ml water with shot of .33ml of NaCl
  

Lunch
Me

• Antibiotic
  
• Fenugreek x4
  
• Blessed Thistle x3
  

Isabel

• 4ml Amoxil
  

Orin

• 100ml water with shot of .33ml of NaCl
  
• 1.4ml HCTZ
  
• 1.4ml Amiloride
  

Supper
Me

• Antibiotic
  
• Fenugreek x4
  
• Blessed Thistle x3
  

Isabel

• 4ml Amoxil
  

Orin

• 100ml water with shot of .33ml of NaCl
  

Heck, I am even feeding one of the people on this list mush...the similarities are eerie.

An update...

Lately, it has just been a matter of putting one foot in front of the other. We have been up to our ears in stuff, but it is nice to feel like we are doing things.
Isabel has started both swimming lessons and preschool and *loves* both.
She has a ball at swimming and while she isn't the best at staying focused when not receiving direct instruction (the first day, she got up and headed toward the water slide, telling the instructor "I be right back." when she was called back to the group), she is doing so incredibly well. Little fish in the making.
Preschool is also going well. She comes home with elaborate stories every morning (she attends Tuesday and Thursday mornings). I knew this would be a great place for her - she needs more stimulation and challenge that I can offer right now with Orin being a little high maintenance and she gets it here.
This week, she will be starting tap class. She is ridiculously excited about this and, to be honest, so am I. I am sure she will enjoy herself and be cute as a button doing it.
Orin is your typical, gregarious, energetic 7-month old. He has cracked four teeth total, is sitting unassisted and is into EVERYTHING that he can see. He also attracts a great deal of attention when we are out. I tease him about his "adoring public." Seriously though, people are always stopping to talk to and coo over him. We went to the mall on Monday and, at one point, had three separate groups/individuals stopped at the same time to chat with him. I had to keep from laughing out loud over it. The most hilarious encounter from this trip was the gentleman who asked about Orin's NG tube and then went on to tell me that he was going to pray that the Lord would heal Orin and "take this condition from him so he can live a happy and normal life." He touched Orin's foot at this point and it felt kind of like those crazy "healers" that you see in southern churches. Strange to say the least.
Most interesting new thing with Orin has been the venture into solid food. I wanted to do baby led weaning exclusively this time around, but the doctors really wanted us to get started on solids so as to ramp up his thirst mechanism and eliminate the need for the NG tube. As a result, we are doing a mix of BLW and purées. He doesn't seem to enjoy consuming any of it at this point, but for little guys with NDI, it can be a process, so we are just slogging away at it.
I guess that is the update. Carry on with your regularly scheduled programming :)

"Is Mummy n Orin!"

There is oodles of wildlife around our home. We see deer, foxes and various frogs and toads regularly. In particular, there is a doe and fawn pair who frequent our yard on a weekly basis. Isabel had decided a while ago that the mother fawn was me ("Look mom! Is you!"). Recently, she's christened the fawn Orin.
This evening when the pair were in the backyard, she ogled and cooed at them ("SO cute, mummy!"), but when the doe wandered back into the thin woods behind our yard, she became rather concerned for the fawn. She was telling him very seriously, "Orin, you got to go with your mummy. She goin', so you got to go to, Orin." Eventually, he wandered out too, to which she gave a relieved, "he go with his mummy. They go have a nap."
I am pretty sure she couldn't be any cuter.