Well, I asked and I found!
I have discovered Lively Eaters. A feeding clinic in South Australia.
They offer exactly what I have been desperate to find for the past few years. An intensive feeding program!
As I have said before, I know that I am half the problem with Tova not progressing further with her eating. I know I need to change my attitude and routine. This feeding program will hopefully be the thing that changes us all and helps Tova to move on and start self feeding.
I can only imagine what life will be like with two children taking care of them self at the dinner table. How crazy to imagine sitting down to a meal where I don't have to feed me and Tova. Just feeding me sounds pretty good to me!
Omg, and not having to give her a drink every couple of hours and watching her taking sips from a cup by herself sounds pretty good too!
Not that I am complaining. I LOVE that Tova eats and I don't care how she eats as long as it isn't tube feeding. I am for ever grateful for the 100% success we had in Graz. Our goal was to get the tube out and we did that!
Next goal is self feeding.
So, I am waiting for lively eaters to get back to me. I read about them in a post on the Tube Fed Kids forum.
It looks like a trip to South Australia is on the cards and hopefully very soon.
Not only will it help in most aspects of our lives (having Tova self feed) but it will also help Tova and the fluid in her ears.
Tova had a hearing test yesterday. For some reason she completely freaked out. She normally doens't care about having a hearing test. I don't know what was going on but she was completely hysterical and wouldn't let go of me, I didn't know she was that strong. It was just horrible. I wanted to run out of there and never go back. But I know it is important to see how her ears are now that the grommets have grown out AGAIN. Actually one nice thing about it was all the full on hugs Tova was giving me. Wow, she was holding on like her life depended on it. My poor baby. I felt so mean. It took me until this morning to get over it actually. I was quite stressed when I got home.
And to make things worse the arse in the hospital cafe (Zouki) was completely rude to me when I went to buy a coffee. If he is having a bad day he should take it out on someone else behind the scenes. Working in a cafe in a hospital means most people that he serves are completely stressed, scared and or depressed, they don't need a jerk to treat them bad just because they ask for soy milk in their coffee. JERK!
I remember what Tova was in NICU and I ate some food from that Zouki cafe. I got food poisoning, gave it to Tova and I wasn't allowed to go to see Tova for about a week! She was put in quarantine and got VERY SICK. Yuval and or I (can't remember who) told Zouki, who offered us a free meal to say sorry. OMG, as if I could ever eat there again. It took me a few years just to be able to buy coffee from there. I should say that quite often there is a very happy and VERY friendly guy working there, but not yesterday. wow, fart head Zouki guy!
So yes, she has fluid on her ears again and because of that has some hearing loss. She can hear perfectly with working grommets, so we know that she doens't have a permanent hearing loss.
Now it is just a question of what to do now. Yuval and I have decided not to do grommets again as they can damage her ears that are already very fragile. We will go on a hunt for 'alternative' therapy now. And go to the Australian Hearing thingy and talk about temporary solutions until the fluid clears, which it hopefully will in a matter of time!
Oh so frustrating. Poor Tova. Stupid Premature, stupid body for being such an epic failure when pregnant!