How Jack feels about it

Notice anything different about these pictures? (Sorry it's not a straight-on shot of the smile... he's looking up at me) Yup... it's gone! The NG tube that Jack has had (on and off) for the first 2 months of his life is finally gone. Hallelujah! This picture depicts just how Jack feels about it. He's been all smiles the last few days, and I'm sure the absence of the tube has a lot to do with it.

Well, first with the back-story: Jack had his surgery on the 1st of this month. Everything went really well--thank you all for your thoughts and prayers! Besides the fact that the surgery started way later than it was supposed to (poor Jack was starving by the time he was allowed to eat again), things went pretty smoothly. In fact, the most traumatic part of the day had nothing to do with Jack at all. It had everything to do with me getting visually scarred when an older man "accidentally" and full-out MOONED ME in the waiting room! I swear, looking back, I almost think he did it on purpose! We were the only two people in the corner of the room. I was waiting for Guy to get back from filling out paperwork. He was sitting kiddie-corner from me when he got up and kinda mumbled something to me about needing to move his legs. He then bent over in front of me (presumably to pick up a magazine from the table) and I got a full-view of his business, best kept hidden. YIKES! I'm not going into any more detail. Though I did try to draw comfort from Guy when he finally returned; of course he didn't believe me. I'm not sure how I'll ever recover. Although, they do say that it's therapeutic to share your feelings when traumatic things happen to you. Hopefully this helps.

Anyway, Jack's ENT decided to keep the feeding tube in for a few more weeks to slowly get him used to the bottle again. So, we started doing 3/4 through the tube and 1/4 with the bottle. Then moved up to 1/2 and 1/2. Well, the other day while we were out of town (house-hunting... what a miserable day!), Jack decided that he was sick of the tube and pulled it out himself. Instead of just putting it back in like we've always done, we thought we'd try some feedings w/out the tube and he did really well. After his follow-up appointment, and with the doctor's permission, the tube is officially gone for good. Way to go, Jack, for taking initiative to get that thing outta there! We're so glad to see your happy personality coming out a little more now. :)

Our smiley boy! Oh I love this stage... it's so rewarding to see them looking up at you like this!

Random family pic, just cuz we have it

Here's a sampling of the many faces of cute Jack...

And some beautiful smiles for Grandmama too!