At lunch yesterday I met a grandmother and a beautiful baby girl. As most women typically do I got the "Are they twins? How old?" and tells me her baby was 14 months old. We watched the grandmother sign "more" and play games with her etc. Until she told me she was the grandmother I would have swore she was her mom.
After a few minutes came "Who was bigger? How much did they weigh?" and that's when the Preemie-ness appeared. She told me "What miracles I had." And then as she was feeding the baby girl a bottle she paused and explained, the little girl has severe food allergies. Has to have special formula ($75 a CAN) and special made purees. And as a result they were struggling to get her to drop the bottle. But that was the only way she would drink her special formula, so they had no choice.
You could absolutely see the relief on her face when I told her about Addison.... Like "Finally someone else gets it." As it turns out the baby girl was too a preemie, by about a month. Funny how that almost instantly bonds us preemie families. She told me that her granddaughter had some mild delays too and sung the praises if our county's Early Intervention Program.
Take a minute to think about this, especially if your are a parent as well. Have you ever had to think twice about what you were feeding you little one. Did every meal take careful planning because they might choke or have an allergic reaction? Have you ever had to be cautious yourself because of an allergy or something else? For most people it's mindless and second nature, for those of us effected it's not. I think sometimes people assume because Addison is eating, she can have whatever. That's not entirely true. Too much milk/juice etc, at once will make her gag or choke and she tolerates so much less then Blake does. Food that is too thick, thin, hard, soft, chewy, the list goes on, can cause the same thing. and guess what, the minute she gags or chokes you can almost bet she is done and won't try again. Would you? You would be scared too.
Seeing this baby made me thankful that Addison doesn't have any major food allergies (other then cake icing) that we know of (knock on wood). Because that would complicate things so much more in this process. It gave me a dose of perspective and made me realize once again, that we are not alone. It also made me thankful for this miracle that the other baby girl was too. Looking at her she looked like the perfect picture of health. Like Addison she wasn't letting this "hiccup" hold her down. Babies amaze me. Their fight and will to overcome. God bless them and the families that love and support/encourage them. It takes some extra special people to be blessed with such challenges.
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