Remeber way back when....?

Can we all remember way back in April when I kept saying I'd love to have Ruby off of ECMO for Mother's day. Then she came the day before? Then I would jokingly say I wanted to be home for my birthday. Ruby's team even discussed the possibility of this in rounds a couple times. In the back of mind or in my wildest dreams I would think it would great to be off the NG tube by Christmas. It seemed like an impossible goal. The feeding thing has really been hard. It's not as scary as being on ECMO, but it's frustrating.

We had a GREAT weekend! Ruby pulled out her tube after breakfast yesterday morning (Saturday). Chris made the decision to leave it out, I was on my long run. When I got home we decided to go ahead and do another 24 hours of just PO feeds. With it being the weekend, both of us were home and we could lend each other support. It's harder than you think to not feed your baby. In typical Ruby fashion she showed us! She was a little cranky on Saturday afternoon. We went to lunch at an Indian Buffet with our neighbors. This should have been our first clue that Ruby was not messing around. Our neighbor told us that their 11 month old loves Idli. Idli is a steamed rice dumpling. I figured why not, and let Ruby try some. She ate 4-5 bites of Idli. I also gave her several "tastes" of my Mango Lassi. We then tried to give her a bottle and she promptly fell asleep. We were happy she even ate a small of the idli. The rest of Saturday went the same way. She ate very little buy mouth and was cranky. We did go to the park with TWO sets of twins. Ruby was happy enough swinging. She FINALLY got to meet Mason and Ethan! Mason and Ethan's parents have been through a lot with us. The day we found out about the CDH I texted their Mom while I was waiting to have my amnio.

To make a long story short. Chris and I decided this morning to not put the tube in until she absolutely needed it. Which was a really good call. Ruby drank 130 ml or 4.5 ounces from the bottle this morning. That's the most EVER. She even sucked down her Nexium. The rest of the day was just as good! We didn't have to put the tube in until this evening when we put her to bed. For the first time in her entire life Ruby went more than 24 hours WITH NO TUBE helping her eat or breathe! This is huge! We are so proud of our little girl. We know we still have long road to get her off the NG tube, but we are closer than we thought. Ruby once again showed us that she is ROCK STAR.

Ruby also got to go for a run with Henry this morning. My friend Natalie and I used to run together before we had to push little ones in strollers. We hadn't had a chance to run together since I got back from Philly. It was so nice to catch up and get my workout in at the same time. Ruby also got some one on one time with Henry. It's never to early to start planning a wedding.

Actually both Ruby and Henry were finished with running and had no problem telling us about it. The last mile Natalie managed to push the stroller, run, and sing them both a song. "The Wheels on the Stroller" kept everyone calm until we made it back to the car.

This weekend wasn't completely centered around eating. We also got to take a couple really well deserved naps.

Learning how to eat rocks was another really fun activity. Or least teaching Mom and Dad how fast you can get them into your mouth was a fun activity.