Feedings a Christmas Present...

Vicky was one of my life savers in the NICU. She took care of me and kept me sane. She found out information for me and I knew if I had a question she would find out the answer even if to let me know that there was no answer. She also saved things for me to do. And if I was there she let me do everything. She’d say, “Just tell me what you need, otherwise you know where it is.” She made sure that I gave him his baths and that I knew everything that was going on. She also gave him kisses even though she wasn’t suppose to. But, we won’t tell anyone. She is also the only one I let call Johnathan, John. No one else could do that and get away with it.

Back to my little man. They got to the point where they thought they could maybe start to feed him again. First they had to let him digest his stomach secretions, and make sure that it went through ok. They did have him on a gravity suction. Which is the NG tube that went to his stomach was just set to pull his stomach secretions up on it’s own no suction. Around this time he also started getting a cold. They got out the suction and started sucking out his nose and let me tell ya, I never thought that much stuff could ever come out of a nose that little. You could just hear it. It sounded terrible. I didn’t look though I left that up to Stacy. There are a few things in life that I can’t handle and body fluids especially snot of any kind is one of them.

The next day they decided to do an upper GI. This is where they put solution in his NG and watch his digestion every hour by taking x-rays. Maybe they could find out where he was leaking and why. It took a couple of days for the test to come back. When it came back it was normal everything was working fine that they could see.

So, on Christmas Day, he got his feeds back. They were only trophic feeds and they were pedialyte but, it was something. Trophic feeds is just 1cc an hour continuous to make sure that he can digest and everything works ok. But, it settled my mind as a mother knowing that he had something in his stomach.

We spent the day with Johnathan and all the kids that went with me got pictures holding him. I still haven't developed those pictures yet. I think that I am still trying to hold on to something that isn't finished yet concerning JT. He got a lot of presents from his sisters and a bunch of pictures they colored for him. They had a blast up there.

The next couple of days they got his feedings up to 3cc’s an hour. But, then he started leaking stool out of his old incision again. It seemed the moment I got excited I totally got knocked back down again. They had also started bolus feedings which is they would put the whole 3cc’s in and see if he could digest it comfortably. I personally think they started to soon, but, hey Johnathan was unique in the fact he never did anything they said he would do. It was very frustrating. So, since he was leaking, you guessed it, they took his feedings away. They were only supposed to wait a couple of days and try again. But, he got a really bad cold.

Eye Surgery and a Funny Story

Well, tomorrow came and I was up at the hospital bright and early. I watched him go. He was back in now time and when he came back his eyes were really red and puffy which they told me is normal. He came off the vent at 5:30 that morning. I don’t remember why I couldn’t get up there that morning but, I didn’t get to see him until the evening. He was dressed and looking good and he was happy to see me. I just couldn’t stop looking at him. I loved being able to see his face. All of it. He still had the NG tube in. Which is the tube that goes through his nose into his stomache so that he could feed. He was getting approximately 17cc’s an hour up until his bowel surgery which was to be the next Wednesday.

Ok, a funny story. When they started him on feeds, they started him on pedialyte at 1cc an hour. This is called trophic feeds. Just to check out if he could tolerate something in his stomach I didn’t understand the process at the time. I figured that he would drink a bottle. I didn’t understand it would be hooked up like an IV and it would be sent down his NG. Until that time the NG was used to suck stuff out of his stomach not put it in. I was sitting there with Stacy and the whole time we are trying to figure out when they were going to come to feed him. I mean we were there for a few hours. And never did we see a bottle. Vicky was his nurse. She was on nights at the time. She spent the whole time we were there in the isolation unit working with another baby. We just couldn’t figure out why she didn’t come feed him. I think we finally stopped another nurse or the intern and asked them and they explained it all to us. We felt a little bit like dufusses when we finally knew how he was fed. I mean seriously, I was getting mad that my baby was being neglecting and not getting his feed. We laughed about that one.