Holy Cow!!!

You won't believe what happened today. I gave Harlie some baby food - by mouth - and she... gulp... SWALLOWED IT!!! It's a miracle!!! Seriously, I couldn't believe it myself.

I put a spoonful in - and it didn't come back out. Then she signed "drink" and I gave her the squirt bottle (it's a soft plastic bottle with a straw out the top), and when she opened her mouth there was NO food hidden in there! At first, I really couldn't believe my eyes. So I looked at Brandy and and she said she saw it, too. We were stunned! So, I gave her another bite. And again, she swallowed it! I gave her a total of five bites before she said she was done. Well, really I gave her three and had to bribe her with going outside to get her to take the last two bites. But, it worked and she swallowed every bite - with no coughing!

And I know that at least once, she took a sip from the bottle and swallowed some water. I just can't believe it. What happened? How????

Well, after I put her on the floor and took off her bib, she started coughing and then hacked up all the food I just gave her. Great. Does this mean that she can finally swallow but her belly can't handle it? Ugh. But, Brandy had just fed her before I did her feeding trial - I just wasn't paying attention to the time. Well, I've never really had to think about it before as she's never really swallowed anything to amount to much. But I guess her feeding, plus the five bites was too much for her belly. So sensitive, that girl!

So, I wanted to shout from the rooftops that my dear sweet Harlie finally swallowed food - purposefully!!! And consistently!!! But so much of me is too afraid to let myself be too happy for fear that it was just some crazy fluke and that it won't happen again.

Well, all that excitement happened at around 3:15. So, at dinnertime, I thought I'd give it another try. And she swallowed again!!! I want to burst out into tears just thinking about it!!! She ate three bites. Three bites went down and stayed down. I waited to feed her her normal feeding until after we ate dinner so I could see if it made a difference. Who knows with her. But, that's eight bites total for today. Eight glorious bites. More than EVER!!!

Now we just have to wait and see what happens tomorrow. And it just so happens that we have a feeding therapy appointment at the Feeding Clinic with a new therapist (new to us, I mean). We're going to see her until our therapist has an opening (sometime this summer). Harlie hasn't had an official feeding therapy appointment since February. Maybe the break was good for her.

Please keep your fingers crossed that this wasn't just a fluke and that this is the start of something BIG!!!