Boy oh Boy

October was a big month for Lucy.  Our main focus has been eating and our plan to decrease her tube feed each week until the trial worked great!  The day before Halloween we were going to pull the tube, but Lucy beat us to it.  On Wednesday (10/28) during our speech session, Lucy decided to show off how much she could eat and then right at the end threw it all up, including her tube.
I looked at Laura (our speech therapist) and asked, "can we do it early".  We were all on board and pulled the tube.  We received our minimum intake from the doctor at 540 mL (18 ounces) of liquid and 750 calories.  We knew her intake would not quite be there but would look for small increases each day.  In order to make eating as easy as possible, we used mostly pureed soups and fruit/veggies with  chips as reward.  We are now almost two weeks in and doing great.  We got the go ahead from cardiology to continue as long as her weight does not decrease significantly.  Lucy is currently eating about 3 tablespoons of food at each meal and drinking almost 550 mL of formula and water.

On 10/28/15, we officially became tube free.  It took us 20 months, some days harder than other, but all the work put in was so worth it.  We are so excited to see this face every day.

I am loving not having to worry about tube placement, taping or anything related to NG tubes!

Lucy got baptized on October 18th.  She looked adorable in her dress, but was very unsure of Reverend Meyer, but no tears, so a win!

We also took our first road trip up to Winona to see a soccer game and visit the campus.  My worries revolved mostly around the car ride because Lucy has not always been great in her car seat.  Lucy proved us wrong.  She slept over three hours on the way up there and then over two on the way home.  In between, she was in constant motion.  She did not want to sit still for a moment. Thank gosh my parents came with to give Mike and I some help.  I think she would have broke us had we been alone!

Lucy got her first trick or treat experience as well.  She dressed up as a ladybug and hit six houses in my parents neighborhood.  I don't think she really gets it yet, but when she got a taste of the M&M's she was hooked.  Now she gets 4 M&M's cut in half for dessert after dinner.

The last of Lucy's big news, she will take on a new role next May.........BIG SISTER!  I give credit to any photographer that works with kids.  The first picture was my third attempt and by chance turned out good.  I eventually had to tape the blocks together and by the end (the second picture below) there were tears.  The last picture was second place.  Anyway, we are due May 9th.  Everything looks good as of now.  We will have a level 2 ultrasound and an echo to check the heart around 20 weeks.  We are praying for a healthy baby boy.  Oh yeah, we're having a boy.