Silver Lining

We've been having a terrible time with keeping Gabriel healthy this fall/winter. It seems like as soon as he gets over one thing, a week later we're starting another round of respiratory and/or GI issues. The worst one was right around the beginning of November. Gabriel caught a cold and seemed to recover, but then a random cough set in. By the end of the week, we ended up taking him to the ER for labored breathing. He wasn't admitted, but with the ER's administration of albuterol and his pediatrician following up with another steroid and antibiotics, he finally kicked that infection. I have been so worried this year about RSV since we seem to be cycling through respiratory infections. Luckily, he was approved for a second year of Synagis (this doesn't happen often), so even if he does catch RSV, it probably won't land him in the hospital.
Anyway, so the respiratory thing he caught two weeks ago morphed into a GI upset where he was throwing up and had diarrhea. The only thing he was keeping down was chicken broth and pedialyte for a couple days. So, on the day where he was starting to keep down mild solids and small, slow feeds again, my husband decided to try offering the spoon. We knew he HAD to be hungry, because he hadn't been getting a lot of nutrition over the past few days. And it was magic. He took about 1-3 Tbsp. BY MOUTH at EACH of FOUR spoon tries that day. The next day or two, he wasn't that into spoon food again, but we knew it was in there somewhere. I discussed starting hunger trials with his SLP and we will put together the protocols after the Christmas break. However, I think Gabriel heard us talking, because the next day THIS happened (click to see video).
He has been doing this for four days now and it is kind of awesome. The best part is on Sunday, he took Communion on the first try with no avoidance behaviors whatsoever. Glory to God!