Just a quick note to let everyone know that I'm still blogging, but under a new page called "Life without a Tube"
Hi everyone!! Yes, we are back in South Africa! We almost missed our flight from Frankfurt due to heavy delays in Graz from the snow. But after a serious tantrum from daddy they allowed us on the plane :o) Only bad news is that we received our luggage 4 days later with ALL our clothes, medicine and Gidion's food!!
Gidion is really struggling to adapt to the heat. He also caught a cold, and refused to eat! He now only weighs 5.85kg, oi... Mommy already have had several heart attacks. Thank the Lord he started to eat small bits of custard yesterday, with serious distraction and silly songs from mommy. Gidion had a GREAT birthday party. We had a bug party for him and 14 friends came to join him. Too bad everyone wanted to see him eat :o) Oh well, at least I discovered he LOVES Fizzers and Cheese Curls and Sour Sugar straws. As soon as daddy has downloaded the pictures, we'll put them on the blog. A big thank you to everyone who helped me to learn how to eat!!!! I LOVE not having a tube anymore. Hugs and kisses xx
Can it really be our last blog from Graz? How can time fly so fast, but feel so slow while you’re living through it? Yes everyone, Gidion’s treatment is finished and we are coming home!!!! We can’t WAIT for South Africa and the sun. The snow was amazing, but the novelty wore off pretty quick and now it is just COLD!!! Bbbrrrr, I have never in my life been so cold. For once I can really appreciate South Africa’s winters. If I have to layer one more clothing item and take it off, and layer and take it off, I will go nuts. Poor Gidion hates it as well. Every time we get close to him with his layers to go outside, he starts to moan and cry.
We went to Vienna this past weekend, which was rather disappointing. At one stage the temperature was -12ºC! Poor Gidion couldn’t handle the cold, even through his layers. The cold would literally burn his face, which meant that he screamed every time we went outside. His fingers and face would be blood red from the cold. This meant that we could not do any sightseeing in Vienna. All that we could do was to climb on a bus and to sightsee through the windows on route. We also came home on an earlier train. I can just imagine how spectacular Vienna must be in summer. Gidion is still doing well. At one stage he gave his mom a real fright, and refused to eat. Then I discovered that he was tired of my “melkkos” and wanted other food J So at the moment we are on vanilla and chocolate custard, pumpkin soup, hot chocolate, tea and cheese wedges (that mommy and daddy has to squish for me to like). I can’t wait to give him mealiepap with fine biltong, and Woolies soups – I’m sure he’ll loooove it! For everyone who is reading, please send a quick prayer. Due to this hectic weather and snow, there is chaos at the European airports. Poor Tonya (from Flight Centre) has had all her days trying to sort everything out for us. At one stage Lufthansa didn’t want Gidion to fly back home since he did not have medical clearance *sigh* Thanx for sorting that out too Tonya! Anyway, most flights are either delayed or cancelled, and WE WANT TO COME HOME!!!! At least it is starting to get a bit warmer, so hopefully we won’t have trouble flying back tomorrow. To end our last blog from Graz, we would just like to say that all the glory to our Lord, Jesus. This whole journey has just been the next miracle in Gidion’s life. Thank you is two such small words, but you know our hearts Lord, and we thank you for Your blessings and love that we can see in Gidion’s life, and that You made this dream possible for him and for us. We will continue with updates on how Gidion is doing back at home, but for now good-bye and thank you everyone’s support and help. xx Gidion has gained a whole 100g!!!! Jeez, must have been the real expensive gourmet mushroom soup and deer sauce J.
One of the boys on the program turned 2 today, and since another mom was a children’s entertainer, she folded balloons for each child. Gidion got a monkey on a tree. Too bad he didn’t want to keep it on his head, it looked soooooo cute! Off course he ate a WHOLE BOWL full of custard, and even some mashed potato and sauce. The therapists were all talking about Gidion and telling each other to look at him eat. It was actually so funny – he was watching all the commotion of the kids around him and just opening his mouth wide to take his bites of custard every few seconds. All the food belonged to him since no one else was interested in the food. We went to a nearby Pizzeria for Rub’s birthday. After destroying their coasters (wow mom, where can we find these in South Africa – they bite even better than the Pigeon bite rings!!), Gidion wanted mom’s pasta sauce. Their pasta is not like ours, soaking in sauce. So I actually had to order a side dish of this sauce with no pasta for Gidion to eat – yum yum! Back at home he even had some space to eat a bit of melkkos! One of these days he’s going to grow as big as daddy!! It is still snowing… although it is really amazing and a great experience, I must say we can’t wait for sunny South Africa and no layering of clothes! We look like 3 Oros men, all bundled up in layers of clothes looking 100kg heavier (or so I keep telling myself that it is the clothes!!) J Mom and dad have DEFINITELY set a perfect example for Gidion and did not have an eating problem here in Austria. Oh man, their pastries are out of this world…. sigh…
As you can see on the photo, therapy is not always easy, especially the occupational therapy and physiotherapy. Each time the child’s limit is pushed a bit to ensure that proper development takes place and to take them out of their comfort zones under controlled conditions. In these 3 weeks we can see the difference in Gidion’s posture, and he is now more happy spending time on his tummy (which in the past only produced hysterical tears). Gidion has lost some weight today, almost back to 6kg. Apparently that is normal, mmmm… Anyway, our star is doing great!!!! He decided that if there was one thing that made it worthwhile to come to Graz and to start learning how to eat, it was to eat their custard!!! The staff actually made more custard especially for him during food picnic – he had a ball! He was actually groaning after eating so much – his tummy must have been felt like bursting! We decided to try one of Graz’s restaurants close to us for supper. Daddy had some mushroom soup for a starter, and my oh my… did Gidion enjoy THAT!!! We have learned by now NEVER to leave the hotel without his spoon, he wants to eat everything we do. Good boy!! J After the starter dad had some Red Deer with a sauce and mom pork medallions with thyme sauce. He liked the sauce so much that we actually took a spoon and brought some of the sauce home with us (much to the surprise of the waiter). Week 3… wow, how time has flown. We can now say with confidence that GIDION IS EATING AND GRAZ WAS A HUGE SUCCESS!!!!
Our miracle child and star has gained 10g over the weekend, which means that he is able to sustain himself. We also had such a good day today, AGAIN. Gidion gobbled up our runny egg yolks when we went for breakfast this morning. Then, when we got to the food picnic, he ate so much custard like a little piggy that I had to use my fingers to scrape off the last of the custard from the plate. And he still wanted more! Even the Prof sent me up to the hospital’s ward to get him some more custard. Everyone was laughing and enjoying him so much today, he was back t his old self. Back at home he ate THREE tablespoons of “melkkos” with tea, and had a nice nap after that. He is now communicating with us when he is hungry by whining, and then by squealing with delight when I prepare some food. It is SOOOOO adorable, I want to eat him up myself J Daddy thought it would be a good idea to give everyone at home a glimpse of what a typical day at Graz looks like: 04h30-05h00: Gidion wakes up (nooooooo!!!! Mommy still wants to sleeeeeeep!!) 06h00-08h00: All of us get ready and dressed to go to hospital (mom still has to learn how to plan and prepare food now!). It only starts to get light at around 07h00 08h00-08h40: The tram journey takes about 40min (we have to switch lines) 08h40-09h00: We have to walk to the Kinderklinik since no transport is allowed in the university grounds (good to walk off that extra calories we take in to show Gidion how “boertjies” do it!!) 09h00-12h00: Gidion has his therapies, most of the time there are 2-3 scheduled for the morning, each lasting more or less and hour (this is hectic for a small baby like Gidion) 12h00-13h00: Food picnic!!!! 13h00-15h30: Gidion usually is passed out by this time in our arms. We usually arrive back at the hotel at 15h30, after we did some grocery shopping. Some of the afternoons also had therapies scheduled, but only once or twice a week. It gets dark again at 16h00, so the days are very short. Gidion goes to bed again at about 18h30 and wakes up about 3-4 times during the night to drink some tea. This photo is one taken this morning from our hotel room. We had an amazing time in Salzburg! The weekend away did all three of us so good. The train trip was one of the most scenic trips we have ever seen, driving between the mountains all white with snow. Daddy said (more times than once!) that he HAS to go skiing! Mmm, not something I’m willing to try now. How can one stand at the top of a mountain and willingly let yourself go on skis at the speed of light? I can just see myself going onto the wrong slope meant for experts and then they have to come and dig me out J
Salzburg is a beautiful city! And very cold!!! We enjoyed the snow so much, even poor Gidion tried to be brave but at one stage he just could not stand the cold anymore. The Christmas market was out of this world. One of my (and to my surprise, Gidion’s as well!!) favorites was their hot chocolate drinks. They use boiling milk and add slabs of real chocolate to melt. Yum yum, divine… We really tried to see as much as possible during the two days considering that the train is a 4 hour trip and that ALL the shops are closed on Sundays. One of our memories we would keep forever, was that for the first time in our angelchild’s life, he started to cry with a attitude one afternoon when mommy took way to slow to his liking with the food!! We also discovered that he now squeals and laugh when he sees me prepare his food. What a wonderful sound... I think the best in this world. We also had a great surprise when we arrived in Graz. SNOW!!!!!!!!! Everything was covered in white… What a sight. Off course now it is bitterly cold, but this is an experience we will never ever forget. For the first time ever we walked in the snow falling and could actually see that patterns they form that everyone always talk about! CHOCOLATE ALERT!!!!
We had SUCH a good day at food picnic today, must be the best one so far. Gidion started to nibble on some Snips and when I offered him some mashed potatoes and meat sauce, he actually liked it and ate it. Soft food, here we come!!! But the best was yet to come. Out of the corner of my eye I saw some chocolate stuff lying on a plate, which I later found out was chocolate custard. I thought to give it a try, although I wasn’t very positive since Gidion prefers savory food. But to our surprise he gobbled it up!!!! He really liked it! Mmmm, dad’s chocolate genes are coming to the foreground, maybe Gidion will turn out to be a chocolate junkie too J Not that I’m complaining, it’s LOADED with calories. You will NOT believe me when I tell you that looooong after all the kids left, our angelchild was still contently licking off the chocolate custard from the spoon, thoroughly enjoying himself. Everyone was cleaning up around him and just left him in his corner to eat as much as he liked. Needless to say, after that yummy meal and a full tummy, he passed out in daddy’s arms and slept all the way back to the hotel. Gidion has lost a bit of weight again today, but we are not worried. He has started to pass stools (which is great in itself), and that contributed to the weight loss. At least he hasn’t fallen back to 6kg. Here at Graz Gidion has speech therapy, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, music therapy and swim therapy. We took a photo of one the sessions at the occupational therapist. There are no therapies or treatment this weekend, so we decided to use Austria’s amazing transport system to visit Salzburg, Mozart’s birth place. We will probably not be able to blog over the weekend, but will post photo’s on Monday. Thank you Lord for an amazing day and for Your hand and blessing in Gidion’s life, especially today. |