A Reason to Celebrate!

What could make this gorgeous day even better!?  Olivia passed her last and final swallow study!!!  I can hardly believe it.  We kind of figured she would pass since we'd been working with the feeding therapist on tand everything seemed to be going well but this girl likes to do things her own way.  So I was preparing for the worst.  Well maybe not the worst, but I was trying not to expect the best.  Now, we just need to keep ur fingers crossed that everything goes well weight wise and the tube doesn't need to go back in.
7 months ago I locked myself in the bathroom at the hospital and just bawled and bawled because Olivia had not only failed her swallow on thins but had failed on nectar thick as well, which she had previously been okayed on.  That was the visit where we switched cardiologists because he had wanted to stop all oral feeds.  Then it ended up not mattering that he wanted to quit oral feeds because we had to anyway.  Still glad we switched though.  I was devastated (sounds silly but it hurts not being able to feed your baby.)
But, thanks to a few wonderful people, we were able to keep her from digressing too much.  The speech therapist we've worked with the most, Melanie, pushed to make sure Liv still got a taste of the bottle.  She was only allowed to do 5 ml's at a time so it didn't help with her tummy's growth but it at least kept the oral aversions and what not at bay.  It's all thanks to Melanie that Liv hasn't had the issues some other kids have.  Then there's Harmony, the feeding therapist.  Liv has done so well with her oral skills and increasing volume since we started with her.
Today, I am so incredibly grateful.  We watch these hospital tv shows where generally, everything is figured out within one viewing hour and everyone lives happily ever after.  I guess I just assumed that Dr's knew everything and could fix anything.  Living this life now where Liv may or may not have had NEC, and Liv kept failing her swallows because of something as simple as decreased sensation due to reflux (which wasn't diagnosed until November) and Liv couldn't have my milk because of a supposed milk allergy, I'm realizing that Dr's aren't as spot on as I always assumed.  Don't get me wrong.  I love all our doctors and are extremely grateful for them but in a perfect world Olivia would've lost the tube at three weeks old.  Since we don't live in that perfect world, I will just be grateful that we're finally making big steps forward and Olivia is the happy girl she is.
In other big steps forward good news, Liv finally figured out how to sit herself up on the 10th.  If she's anything like Ella was, she'll be crawling in a week or so.
Now, we just need to hope that her cardiology appointment on Friday goes as well as today.  I'm kinda freaking out.  I have no reason to.  Liv is active, happy, and sleeps less than Ella ever did so there are no symptoms of anything being wrong but I think I will always be panicky when it comes to card appointments.