yackety-yak and oh my pasta stars!

Today has been suckity suck suck sucky. It has just been one of those days when nothing goes right, all goes wrong, and you lose your will to put forth any effort for a productive day. I won't get into ALL the sordid details, but one of the highlights was that my son threw up on me again, after already throwing up on me last night. He isn't sick, he just can't handle any textured foods. Last night he gagged and threw up on his stage 2 baby food that had absolutely NO texture to it whatsoever and had to be thrown immediately into the bath. Fun, fun, fun. His gag reflex is serious! I have to ask the pediatrician about it next week because I don't know what to do anymore. He turned nine months old today (yay! I can't believe it!) and so we tried to start him on stage 3 foods. It was a no-go. He managed to get through breakfast without throwing up, just a lot of gagging. So, at lunchtime, we gave him chicken and pasta stars. At first, he was doing pretty well. Some gagging, not a lot. Then he sneezed and a pasta star came out of his mouth and stuck to his nostril. As I went to wipe it off his face, he sniffed and sucked that star right up his nose.

Gone forever.

I looked up his nostril and there was noooo sign of it. I couldn't believe it. He didn't act like he even noticed that a piece of pasta was now living in his nasal cavity.

So, we continued feeding. One bite, the next bite, the next bite had a tiny piece of chicken in it... gagging... gagging...and there it is... projectile vomit. I've lost count now of how many times he has projectile vomited during feeding. It is really worrying me! So, into the bath he went again. Afterwards I started crying for about the third or fourth time today, worried that my son has an oral dysfunction, or autism, or large tonsils, or will need occupational therapy, or ... you get the picture.

When it was time for his nap, he fought it for about an hour until he began crying. I brought him another bottle to help calm him down. I rocked him, he drank, his eyelids fluttered with exhaustion, and then something wonderful happened...he fell asleep in my arms for the first time in months. He is usually awake when we put him down, too busy to fall asleep immediately, even when he is really tired! But this time was different. He was so peaceful, so relaxed, so happy to be rocking with me...he fell asleep in my arms. And you know what happened? The whole day just washed away. I cried again for the fourth or fifth time today, but it was a grateful cry instead of the usual I-need-a-vacation cry. Soooo grateful to be Max's Mommy.

But still, thank God we get to start over tomorrow.






Max after his nap, messy hair and all that sweet baby goodness!