Noah's Nuby Success

Well of course just when I think Noah can't do something he goes and proves me wrong. I just love that spunk. I sweated him trying a sippee cup for months and today he tried his Nuby cup at therapy like it was no big deal. He even showed off for his therapist and ate squished bananas. She did try to get him to drink from just a regular cup, but I think Noah was nervous about it, or maybe fussy because he's had some delayed pooping issues lately so he's been a little squirmy. I think if offered a few more times he'd get brave with that too. I am so relieved about the Nuby cup experience. Granted he still doesn't really want to hold it himself, and tends to get frustrated unless it's being held for him, but I think he'll realize eventually that his hands do come in very handy with getting what you want. Everything is just in "Noah time."

I'm also excited to report that we might not have to take a break from occupational therapy. His therapist, Julie, thinks she can work out still doing therapy while working on aproval from Medicaid. Which is excellent news, then we don't have to take a break and Noah can continue learning from her great examples. And it's so very nice to have her reassurance each week, her tips on what I can do to better help him. It was a nice surprise to the day.

Next week Noah will be meeting with a representative that will give us ideas on what equipment might best suit Noah's needs. We're hoping to get him fitted with a seat that would act like the tumbler seat does, while also serving as a seat that will fit into a stroller. So it will be equipment that we can adapt to serve multiple functions. I'm really looking forward to that. I'm sure Noah would love to sit up at a 90 degree angle and see the world. His current stroller will only allow him to sit at 45 degrees and the harness has him so stuck in there I'm not sure the poor little guy can even move his head side to side very well. It's incredible the amount of things they have to help special needs kids be just like everyone else.

Today I stopped by Safeway on the way home after therapy to get more prunes to help Noah's little potty situation. Which means bring on the diaper blowouts again. The check-out lady was wearing latex gloves while checking out customers. I mentioned to her that it was great she was germ conscious because not everyone is, and I said people like me that have a greater challenge of keeping a baby from becoming ill to avoid seizures that I really appreciated that. She asked me about Noah's brain injury and said that her sister had a baby that was born with only half a brain and was told the baby would only live one week and that baby went on to learn to walk and talk and is now two years old. She said the baby has some problems but that she is learning to function better everyday. I love chance meetings with inspiring messages of hope.
Noah is still not a sleeper. I don't know if it's his sprouting teeth, if he hates the way his flannel sheets feel, if he's too hot or too cold. He's up just about every 2 hours like an alarm clock. He always wants to eat, although sometimes not full bottles, sometimes he's easy to get back to sleep, other times he waits until I'm tucked back in bed before I hear him crying on the baby monitor again, and then we could spend an hour or more doing the I'll sleep in your arms but not in the crib routine. Maybe by his first birthday he'll learn to be a better sleeper. I know that I would love to sleep 8 hours straight again someday.

I purchased Noah a grocery cart seat with harness that I found online. I got it today and it might work, but I think it still might have some safety concerns, like the back head rest doesn't attach to the back of the cart, so I think it would allow for a baby to come forward and it their head on the bar if they didn't have balance. I'm not really sure until I try it out if it's going to be a good purchase for Noah. It has the right idea with having a 5 point harness for a grocery cart insert, but it still might need some fine tuning, and I might be able to sew it to make it work, I'm just not sure yet. I don't imagine with sick season here that Noah will be going with me too often to the store anyway. We'll just have to hibernate together and come out in the spring. Just like a mamma bear and her cub.

Love,
Stacy, Chris & Noah