Baby Huey ...

It's been almost a year since Max got his g-tube to feed him straight into his belly, rather than by mouth. In that time, he's gained weight, and had incredible stomach trouble (due to the feeding pump), and lost his ability to eat by mouth. But, he's been strong and healthy all year. No hospital stays...in nearly a year. That's a huge accomplishment.

One of the downsides of him gaining so much weight, is that he has stopped rolling over on his own. We've been trying in his physical therapy to get him back on track and start the roll on his own. He will go for it if we get him to his side, but just can't throw that extra weight around like he used to.

Today while I was drying my hair, I put him on his pallet on the floor so he didn't scoot out of his chair out of my listening range, and reach. When I came back, I saw this...



I asked him how he got like that, and he flashed a big smile. He knew what he had done. He rolled over by himself. Quite an accomplishment!

It was extra special to see that this morning, after the night we had last night. I as ready for bed at about 8:00. I had an incredible headache due to the strange weather we're having lately. The pressure holds right up against the mountains, and once it blows over the headaches go away. So I was a grump and had a monster headache, but still had "Max work" to do. Steve is in California for the day, so he had an early wake-up, and a long day today. Needless to say, we were just ready for bed. But Max was not. We tried to get him to sleep from 9:00 on. I think at 12:30am I finally got in his bed and held him. He fell asleep on me. A nearly 4 ft tall, 40 pound baby. It was a pretty exhausting night. Steve got up early to go to the airport, and I got in bed with Max.

I was woken again by a phone call from our insurance company. We had called earlier in the week because we had received a denial stating that Max didn't need physical therapy. So I argued with them for an hour, and got it settled out.

I guess you can see why a single little roll can be so exciting. This is why we argue with the insurance companies day in and out for services. It's why we spend hours a week manually rolling him across the floor. It's why when he's having a restless night I climb up in his bed and hold him like a baby so he can sleep. Because all together, we get an accomplishment. And when you have a special child with special needs, you see the little things as the biggest accomplishments...because you know all the BIG THINGS that had to happen for it to happen.

I'll leave you with one other picture today. Before Abbey left for Grammy and Grampy's she wanted to hold Max. Max sure likes to snuggle into his sister, but this time was especially sweet. It's pretty blurry, but I didn't want the flash to startle him out of that position.