1 year for Finn!!!

I wasn't sure if I was going to share this on the blog but i decided that this was a big milestone for Finn and for us as a family and had a place here to be celebrated.

Monday that just passed was the 1 year anniversary since Finn's feeding tube came out! I felt pretty emotional all day and was a little bit crazy the few days before I think I just put so much pressure on the fact that I needed to get to 1 year, realise that it was a long time and that he was no where near going back to where he was that i could finally let it go and a weight has been lifted form me so I'm celebrating :)

So a little background for those of you how might not know. All my children as babies have suffered badly with painful reflux and this has affected their ability to eat. It seemed that with each child the symptoms got worse. Well Finn hit a new level with us. He was on 4 different types of medications at the same time and was still refusing to eat. At 2 months old we left our Christmas holiday early and took him straight to hospital where they straight away put a nasal gastric tube in so that he didn't become dehydrated. I hated that this was happening to my 2 month old baby and some people said to me surely you can just get him to drink? like it was easy, but it is impossible to force feed a baby milk. From this moment our lives changed in a big way. Finn was diagnosed with Total Food Aversion and had his feeding tube in from 2 months old to 9 months old. It was a crazy roller coaster ride for all of us. For the first 2 months I could only feed him via the kangaroo pump/bag which plugged into the wall (electricity) and this made it hard to go anywhere so i felt pretty trapped and isolated. As his stomach started to tolerate more milk and a faster flow we progressed to syringing the milk into the tube whilst out and still used the bag/pump whilst at home. Walking through Westfields was an interesting experience as people couldn't help but stare. Finn constantly pulled out his tube (he was so little that he didn't realise what he was doing) but that meant constant trips back to the hospital to traumatically get it put back in which was not fun at all, I lost count of how many time we had to get it put back in. We had a lot of doctors and specialist appointments in that time and many of them said that Finn was a little puzzle and that we just couldn't work him out...which is not really what you want to hear. Through all this he has remained the most relaxed happy boy who has always put on a brave face...a smile actually and I'm so proud of him.

So on Monday I was looking at Finn and praising God for the way he is right now, eating like a champ and on no medication and literally so far from where he was. If someone had told me back then that he would be like he is in a years time I would never have believed them. So I made him a star cake with one candle to blow out and we all went to one of his favourite parks to play (and of course take photos) and he was such the happiest boy. I was emotional but the happiest mummy at the same time and so amazed by his amazing spirit.

Here are some of my favourite photos of Finn during that time. He was so cute and so bald!
Hawaii was a challenge and the amount of clearance letters we had to get from doctors to allow us to take Finn on the plane was a big effort but all worth it for such an amazing holiday.
Here is a picture of Finn (almost to the day 1 year later from the last photo) at the park on Monday...yes i took props with me and a clean shirt for after all that chocolate cake he ate (see photo below...how ironic is that), I can't help myself, but how cute does he look :) I love now that when i look at him you would never know that he had such a crazy life. Praise God :)