Breakthrough!

Hallelujah, praise the Lord...she eats!
Finally!  In what has been an ongoing "spoon struggle"...Macy (now 9 months old) has finally opened her mouth, retracted (rather than protruded) her tongue and ENJOYED food!  Real, non-liquid formed FOOD! 
Mommies, daddies and many therapists later, the trick wasn't necessarily fancy spoons/special textured brushes or cutting edge advanced techniques afterall.  Turns out what this girl needed (at least today) was a little "Grandpa Intervention".
My dad wanted to tag along for Macy's private OT appointment today (as he is going to watch Macy in a couple weeks while Joe and I take a quick trip to Vegas, so he wanted to become re-familiar with some of Macy's day-to-day goings-on).  He also had lunch with us today and took a stab at feeding Macy.  His idea was to, in true Garry fashion" get a little messy!  Forgo the fancy spoons, no need for bowls, just plop the food right down on the tray, roll up her sleeves and let her "go to town".  And "GO TO TOWN" she did.  It took her (and ME) a few minutes to be okay with the messiness, but after figuring out that this was fun she was shoveling it in by the fistfull.  Grandpa even made it fun by dipping his finger in the action and "airplaining" it into her mouth.    Yippee, way to go MACY!  I guess I'll need to be a little more laid back in regards to wanting things tidy...looks like we'll be stripping her down for mealtime for a while...
Check out this cute video below of Macy enjoying herself and the FOOD!   :-)

In the video below...after playing for a while, we try the spoon...and she did very well...actually opening her mouth and allowing the spoon to get past her tongue and enter her little mouth.  impressive!

Now, while I still want her to be able to spoon feed while following the general fundamental rules/proper table manners, I have come to the point of accepting the fact that "she just needs to eat!  She has seen growth chart declines the last three doc visits...this girl needs to put on weight!
I will continue with this new "messy" strategy for as long as it takes.
But. we will still continue to keep our appt. with the Feeding clinic at Children's Hospital which is scheduled for Friday.  I am very interested in getting their feedback and recommendations, as Macy still has issues with feeding in general.
Plus, McKenzie is looking forward to Friday as she gets to attend "Kids Camp".  This is a special place right there at the hospital for kiddos to go while their siblings receive treatments, visit docs, etc...What an awesome concept!  Plus, it's free, even better!

I'd like to give Grandpa Lee full credit for this, but I've got to also believe that:
A) our practice and exploration with different tools/techniques has contributed slightly as well as
B) the custom foam cutouts that Lucy (EI OT) made allows Macy to sit more securely in her high chair allowing her to focus/concentrate solely on "oral motor/eating"
and
C) she is 9 months old and perhaps her little brain finally decided to communicate the following message to her mouth to "EEEAAATT!"  Sometime's there's got to be a "cognitive click".  :-)

Here's a little phone pic of Melissa (private Speech Pathologist) and Macy getting acquainted with the Q  :-)

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Speaking of breakthroughs.  I am getting very close to marking down in Macy's baby book her first time SITTING!  She did it for Grandma Lee the other night and again the next day for a few seconds...all by herself...no propping.  I want to see her do it for a full 10 seconds a couple times back to back before I count it as "official".  I'm "tough" like that  :-)
Soon very SOON!  Stay tuned.
That is if she doesn't STAND first.  She is getting very close on the "standing front" too!