Therapy

Today we went to see the occupational therapist. (My uncle said, "Eli is just a baby- how will the therapist know what his occupation should be?" The corny sense of humor is in the Bergstrom genes, for sure.) It was a slightly annoying waiting period- we had to register in the hospital system and meet with an insurance guy and then spend quite some time waiting for the therapist, who was running really late. I was told to bring Eli "hungry" so that the therapist could watch him eat, and the appointment fell right in the middle of Eli's nap time. So, needless to say, I had a very fussy baby on my hands! It was frustrating, but I'm glad we waited through it. I just felt bad for the therapist having to talk over his whining the whole time. :)

Anyway, the therapist's name is Lisa, and she's great! She's an Aggie, class of '02 (a year ahead of me), and she was really friendly and helpful and gave me a lot of hope about Eli overcoming this oral aversion. She watched Eli refuse to eat and labeled him as "moderately to severely aversive"- I could have told her that! :) She ordered a test to make sure Eli isn't aspirating anything he's eating, which we'll have done in the next week or two, and she gave us a few "toys" to play with at home, along with a plan for how to work with him until we see her again. Basically, it took him 7 months to learn this aversion, and it will take almost as long to un-learn it! But eventually he'll be eating just like a normal kid! And all of this will be worth it. I'm really thankful for such a kind, sweet, understanding therapist to help us through it.

She recommended, if Eli does end up needing a feeding tube, that he not have an NG-tube but rather a G-tube (surgically inserted in the belly) so that his aversion doesn't increase. This just confirmed to me that I need to keep praying for and working on Eli's weight gain so a tube can be avoided altogether!

Please continue to pray that Eli eats well, in increasing amounts, and gains plenty of weight for the next visit! I would love to see him weigh 13 pounds!

On a side note, I discovered the thing that amuses Eli the most of all things so far: my cell phone camera. Go figure, right? :) We were in a car dealership for hours yesterday (we were able to trade in our old breaking-down car for a newer, more reliable one! Praise God!), and I was searching for anything to keep him entertained. Out came the phone, and, to my surprise, every time I clicked the button to snap a picture, he laughed so hard! It was really echo-y in the dealership, and everyone who walked by commented on how happy he was. It was adorable. I now have about 60 blurry, unidentifiable pictures on my phone. :) I loved hearing him laugh so hard.

Thank you so much for all your prayers and encouragement. All the comments here and on Facebook, all the e-mails, all the phone calls, all the acts of service toward us- all of it has been so instrumental in helping me through this somewhat trying time. Thank you for investing in our lives and for caring about us and for understanding my heart. I can't tell you how grateful I am. A simple comment on a blog is enough to bring tears to my eyes, not to mention the calls and e-mails and everything else. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Love to you all!