Feeding Therapy Underway

On Monday morning I took Braden for his first feeding therapy session. He did great! He is so remarkable in what he can do that it still seems strange to me that he has any problem. Nonetheless, on the way there, I just could not wrap my brain around what all you can even do to teach a nine month old how to relax the muscles inside his mouth. I guess I went in very naive to what we might have even gotten ourselves into.
Once in the room with our sweet therapist, Sara, we got to work right away. This first visit was not really about teaching Braden at all. It was more about teaching me so that I can reinforce at home. She had a whole list of exercises and stretches that we can do to get him going. I watched mostly but, at one point she had me actually do one of the stretches. It was more than eye opening for me. She had me place my index finger inside his mouth and my thumb on the outside and pinch and pull out toward the opening of his mouth. I have never felt inside of a baby's mouth like this but, I guess it feels kind of like mine. Braden's is a ball of muscle. He has no give at all. I was shocked. I mean, seriously, it is like the corner of his mouth is still attached in the back by his molars. There is nothing but tight muscle. I think Sara saw the shock on my face and nodded in agreement with me that this is the main issue that we have to work on. By the way, please say a pray of thanksgiving for Sara and pray a blessing over her as well as she works with us and many, many others who have much harder issues that ours. She truly cares about so many kids. Ok, back to my story. We only worked for a little while, as Braden could not tolerate much more of our hands on teaching the first time.
On my drive home, I have to admit, I cried most of the way. I just felt so overwhelmed. I felt thankful that we have gone and gotten help, I felt overwhelmed with the task at hand, I felt sad that Cason is going to have to adjust to me and Braden being gone a couple times a week, I felt inadequate to do all this at home, I felt sad that something is wrong with my baby, I felt so many things all at once and was unsure how to work through each one of them. My biggest concern was what I was going to do with Cason twice a week for a couple of hours. He goes to YCW on Thursdays which sounded like a perfect time to take Braden except they didn't have anything available on Thursdays. Awesome. Well, God in His infinite wisdom, had gone before me and taken care of everything. I called this morning to schedule our second time each week and the lady who does scheduling said, "Well someone just canceled this morning for Thursdays, would you want that appointment?" I was so excited. That is just one less time I have to be away from Cason and it takes care of his childcare while I need to be focusing on Braden. God is so good.
We started doing our at home exercises today and Braden just cracks me up. He does not like having to sit still, so I just kind of follow him around our living room while he plays, touching all over his face and in his mouth. I am praying that he will get used to all this quickly so that we can move onto him learning to relax those muscles. Who knew? God knew and for that, I am so thankful.