First night of tube feeds

It went better than expected. Annabelle tolerated her feeds without any issues all night, I am truly amazed by this little girl.

She struggled to fall asleep and didn't rest well the entire night. After hours of screaming, I asked for Motrin.. Of course by the time it arrived she was already back asleep with dried tears across her face. I was disappointed, I didn't want to have to wake her but i knew she needed the Motrin if we expected her to get any rest or relief from what was hurting her. This is the first moment I learned to appreciate the tube: "it's ok mom, you don't have to wake her, well just push it thru her tube!" A-ha, yes! Love it!

Another discovery that was made is how many diapers Annabelle can go thru when she is actually hydrated. Some days we may only use 4 diapers in an entire day, she peed thru 4 diapers just last night! I don't know the last time I ever saw my daughter this hydrated before, I honestly can't remember if I ever have, even from her best days!

I first attempted to fall asleep around midnight, within minutes her pump was beeping. The nurses response time in this place is mind blowing! She ran in to shut the obnoxious thing up with her little magic tricks. I tried to go back to sleep after briefly talking to her. Beeping started again. Oh hell, forget it! I got up and cleaned a couple things and scrolled the Internet as much as I can. I laid back down a while after 2a. 

We are sharing a room with another little girl on a ng tube. She woke up screaming hysterically, I have no idea what was wrong as the doctors started swarming our room. They ordered an X-ray in the room and tried to calm the sweet little girl. Her tube had been pulled in her sleep, moved from her stomach and somehow into her lungs and all her feeds were pumping directly into her lungs. Needless to say it was chaos and scary for everyone.. And I haven't even met them :( 

Annabelle woke up towards the end of the event, she was feisty and angry to wake with the tube still in her nose. It's making her nose really runny which makes the paper tape useless, she rubbed her little face and what do you know? She accidentally pulled her tube! I quickly grabbed it to stop her and fed it back in but it was as unpleasant as its initial placement. Her guard was sky high and she wouldn't let me close enough to reapply tape to hold it securely in place. This will be the 5th time I've had to replace this tape, I need other suggestions for a product because this clearly isn't working.

Annabelle fell back asleep a little after 5am. I laid in the crib with her until she kicked me out, sharing a baby crib with a bed hog isn't the most comfortable rest. She's been asleep since and is still snoozing. I picked my phone back up and found mindless things to do until the nurse came in to stop her feeds at 6a. I knew it would be pointless to try to sleep in the 45m window I had.. The nurse asked me to end the feeding, stop the pump and flush her ng tube. I am trying not to learn too much with their pumps as the one we will get when we go home is completely different. I just want to know everything I can about the tube itself, scheduling, feeds, flow, formula v fluids, orally v pump etc

She met her required rate of 6ml x hr at 3am. She handled them beautifully without any vomiting or problems. I even made her a cup that she drank orally around 4a and she took 6oz! 

Today I plan to learn as much as I can, in my downtime (no I don't plan to sleep!) I will exhaust my energy making sure this new adventure for my baby girl is presented in the most adorable fashion as ever! Is that important? Hell no. Will it make me feel better and Annabelle shine brighter? Absolutely. I am on a mission to figure out how to make this tape across her face safely adorable. I want to decorate and accessorize her iv pole and equipment. And we are going to need an awesome backpack to embrace our style ;) ak is going to kill me.. At this point he has to expect something like this from me, do you remember what I did when Mady broke her collar bone?! 

If we're going to be broken, we're going to do it with style!