Feeding Liam: Night Feed

Feeding Liam through the night in the past has been a exhausting thanks to feeding tubes. Most kids get weined off formula at a year old and start sleeping through the night therefore their parents get to sleep all night long. 

That's not the case with Liam Michael. He's 2 years 8 months and 11days old and am allowed the luxury of sleeping all night. 

Liam for the most part sleeps all night unless he's sick or suffering from night terrors , constipation or pain. Liam was a year kid when I realized I had been lying to myself that while first year about how once he turned a year Id finally get some sleep. I can laugh about it now. I was in denial back then. It was a coping mechanism to get through that really tough first year. I find myself doing the same thing about his feeding tube coming out. Some days it seems like it'll come out within the year because he's eating so well. Then you have days like today and yesterday where he doesn't want to eat. 

Sorry got off track there. In these past years of tube feeding I have picked up tricks that help me with his tube feeds. I thought I'd share how I feed Liam at night. The weather here in California is hot and formula can go bad faster when it's hotter. This poses a problem for pump fed kiddos. Feeding formula that has turned to your kid can make them very sick, something we want to avoid. Theoretically you should be able to put 4 hours for of formula into the feeding bag and it'll run through before going bad. Still it worries me because I feel that the pump doesn't match up with my math. 

I've had Liam's pump malfunction and not flow at the rate I set it at or the rate defaults in the middle of the night and the rate changes in the past so I don't fully trust it. (I have gotten the pump serviced when I see this). To ease my witting mind I came up with this little trick:

As you see in the picture stating from top left to right then bottom:

I have Liam's formula made up ready to go for the night. Formula is only good for 24 hours so don't make more than you need or you'll have to throw it out. There have been days in so exhausted that I forget what time if had made the formula batch the previous day and had to pour it down the drain. To avoid this I don't make more than I'll need in a 12-18 hour period and I store it in this Rubbermaid liquid bottle in the fridge. In the picture you see 45oz of formula. I love this jar. I haven't found anything else that has worked as well for Liam's formula. 

I full up Liam's pump bag and with it hang an ice pack. This helps keep it cold and from spoiling. I put the ice bag in a large ziplock bag and punch a hole in an upper corner to hang it from the IV pole. 

When I order Liam's meds that have to be refrigerated they send it in this bubble wrap covered in foil type thing with ice packs shoved inside. This is what gave me the idea. It takes 3 days for the delivery for store to my house and the meds are still cold like I've just taken thenm out of the fridge. And this is in he middle of summer when our weather is in the 100's and it sits in a hot delivery truck. I figure if it works for that then it's perfect for a 10 hour feed. I cut it so it opens like a book, punch a hole in the upper middle. Then I hang it and wrap it around the feeding bag and ice pack. I used to tape it every night but it was taking way too much tape to keep that up. I've cut two slit in the middle of the ends and used a posey to keep it close. A posey is what they use in the hospital to keep the pulse ox probes on the kiddos. You can use regular Velcro or string or whatever. As long as it stays closed your fine. 

I've had a lot of problems with Liam's extensions during night feeds. The med port like to pop open and Liam like to disconnect his feed with his toes in his sleep. This makes a huge mess that I end up having to clean in the middle of the night as well as bathe him. It makes out bedroom smell horrible. To avoid this I use tape. I take paper medical tape we get and tape both the med port closed and tape the feeding bag end to the extension. That way monkey toes can't undo it. AND because Liam had started chewing on the feed ports little rubber cap I also tape that down to take away the choking factor.

It was really scary when I went to get him outta bed one morning and stepped on the little balled cap. My mind wouldn't stop imagining the worst case scenerio. It would be extremely ironic if the very thing that has kept him from starving to death all this time ended up harming him (can't myself to say the worst case scenerio out loud or typed but I'm sure you it). 

I've also stated taking steps in decorating his set to. I drew that minion with a feedingtube. We live minions in this house and I thought it would be super cute. Still trying to come up with ideas for the pole and pump itself. Look forward to the post with pics ;) 

The ice pack trick has really come in handy. Since I've done that I've actually ha a few nights where I've gotten 3 straight hours of sleep. I get up and refull his bag once and the rest of the time it's meds, diapers or soothing him after a night terror. Let me tell you after a little over 2 years of being up every hour on the hour, those 3 hours are a blessing. 

Tonight when I told Liam it was bedtime he said "oook" and grabbed more cars than he could carry (he kept dropping them and getting mad). It was late for him, 9:30pm because he had fallen asleep around 3:30-4p for a nap and didn't wake up till around 6pm. There was no way he would have let me out him in his crib at 8pm. I had to let him burn energy first. 

Here's our sweet boy in his crib with his cars. This boy loves cars and trains. Thankfully hot wheels are only .89-1.00 each he loves them and wants more every time were out in a store and he sees them. It also doesn't break the pocket book! Lol. 

FYI did you know that not getting enough sleep caused irreversible brain damage? It's true. I heard it on the John Tesh radio broadcast and on the news. Scientific test show that not getting enough sleep causes brain damage that is permanent and side effects include memory loss. Pretty scary for me since I never get good sleep.