Three months and still mountain climbing.

I absolutely love referring to our adventures in feeding Anaius as mountain climbing. Someone asked me a couple weeks ago why label it with something so hard... and I got to thinking about that. I don't think mountain climbing is that hard? Can I do it today? Heck no. But I think it takes a team effort, you cultivate skills to manage the climb, and then you work diligently toward your goal... You do not sit at the bottom of Mount Everest and decide you're just going to have a casual Sunday stroll up it. I've looked at this journey like mountain climbing because I have had to assemble a team. I've had to learn to skills and facilitate an environment that my son can learn new skills too. Diligently striving forward.

We break up our routine into multiple sections - feeding, pumping, torticollis, and alertness/weight gain. Sounds complex but it's really not. It's just the four categories we seem to measure his progress in right now. Anaius doesn't cry. If he's hungry, he will just give up and go back to sleep. A baby who doesn't cry? Sounds amazing right? Well, kind of. Yes, we love his peaceful nature but watching his cues is very different from our other four kiddos.

So, for feeding - we have to provoke him, often, to remind him that food is a good thing. Silly little man would be content to be worn on me all day and sleep to death. OYE! He is such a peaceful spirit.

But there are so many funny things about him. He has all this gorgeous hair right? Well, instead of losing hair in the back of his head, he's got BABY DREADS!! 

Anaius has decided to take his physical therapy into his own hands. He has right sided torticollis and that means his head almost always looks toward the right. We consistently work with him to encourage him to look left..... Well, our little man has found a love for his LEFT thumb!!! WOOT! He has made huge improvement in the last month simply because of this one fact. It's amazing. I'm so happy for him! 

If you've ever had a baby struggle to gain weight, I'm sure you can understand how very awesome it is that Anaius has grown so much that he's far outgrown his 3 month clothing (and maintains a really cute double chin!)

I'm just so incredibly blessed to have this little man as my child. This experience has taught me more patience, advocacy, compassion for others, and more love for all my children than I knew I had in me.

This little soul is such a wonderful one. 

Our goals this month are to continue physical therapy, begin-again speech/feeding therapy. Continue with cranial sacral therapy and enjoy just being a family. As Anaius has begun to giggle with the kids, they are enjoying connecting with him and all look forward to playing! I expect to continue the every-two-hour-with-out-fail pumping schedule until he can master nursing on both sides. Until then, he won't want for milk at all in this home.

I am committed, one day at a time, to stay in tune with what we all need. It's a really fabulous mountain we're climbing! 

Onward, upward.