So, the Baby got his g-tube placed a few months ago. As a surgery, it was pretty straightforward. He came home with the site covered in gauze so we couldn’t even see any of the…recovery process. It took a few weeks for him to get back to normal.

In short…it’s been awesome. He’s still eating and drinking mostly by mouth but if he doesn’t get enough calories during the day, then we can supplement after he goes to sleep. If he doesn’t feel like taking his meds, then we use the tube. It hasn’t popped out on us once and while I don’t love thinking about the tube too closely, I’m totally fine using it.

Why didn’t we do this a long time ago? It has removed so much stress that we had around getting him to eat or drink. Mealtime had become a battle-zone, one where we often lost.

The relief the g-tube has brought us has made me think again what else is out there that could make his life better. What other doctors or medicines or medical devices are out there that could help him sleep better, learn to walk faster, communicate clearer? This is the life of a special needs parent, especially in the age of the internet.

It would be easy to drive myself crazy spending all my free time researching what people are doing the world over for symptoms or diagnoses that would help The Baby. Certainly, there is always that temptation.

But it all comes back to trying to learn how to enjoy the Baby instead of just trying to find ways to ‘fix’ him. And, let me tell you, friends, this is a glorious season of enjoying him. He is so happy and active and aware. He plays his toys with his feet and crawls on the coffee table to reach my laptop and lets our new puppy lick his mouth. He screams when he’s happy and stops to listen when I sing and he inexplicably thinks it’s hilarious when I spell my name and my name only. He loves to swing and wait to go down the slide until I count to 3 or he shakes all of the bushes on our neighborhood walks like he’s seeing old friends again. He can read the same book over and over again and he gets excited when we near the page where the rooster crows. The regular kindergarten class at school cheers for him in PE and I have it on good authority that he gets lots of hellos as he walks down the hall at school.

Nursing and the g-tube have made the medical side of things so much less stressful that we’ve really gotten to enjoy him (as opposed to worrying and stressing all the time).

I am so damn thankful for this kid and all of the light that he brings to the world.