A Busy Night

Last night seemed to continue with the busy and the crazy. Ben's nurse was amazing. His name was Andrew and he honestly couldn't do enough for us. After asking all day for a correct pump kit he found the parts to make one between 3 store rooms. He found me a Medela micro steam bag to sterilize Ben's bottle. Again I had asked all day for one and no one seemed to be able to do it.

He also, like my husband and myself, questioned the reasoning for the NG tube if he wasn't going to be using it. We made our own game plan really. Perhaps that's why we like him. He said to try the feed and because he knew Ben had been through so much, he would check back on him early into the feed and if it didn't work we would gavage the rest. This would give Ben his much needed calories but still allow him to sleep. Andrew was busy ( I don't think the man stopped all night!) so he sent in another nurse to check on us. When he knew Ben was working way to hard for what little bit he got he started the gavage and let Ashley and I finish it.

Once Ben settled...he slept. Andrew made the suggestion that overnight and into the morning we would gavage feed to allow Ben a nice uninterrupted sleep. Ben could rest as long as he liked, conserve calories and still have a full feed. It was, for the first time in days, I felt relaxed. Ben had a full feed. He wasn't over tired...and he was resting and I knew even if I overslept that this nurse would be in to make sure he got his food. I really liked this nurse.

When things didn't go as planned at the 2am feed, Andrew improvised. The gavage wasn't working properly, the NG tube was too short for gravity to do it's thing. Andrew tried an extension and it didn't work so he got a pump. He made what we had work for the time being so that Ben could rest. He even stayed and helped me settle him once the pump feed was started.



The remainder of the night Andrew let me sleep and fed Ben whenever via the NG tube. I got some sleep (not much but WAY more than I have been!) and actually hope to try and wrap my head around what is going to be happening over the next few weeks.

Ben's nurse today is Sara and she seems every bit as motivated as Andrew was to allow Ben to sleep and gavage feed when he doesn't wake on his own in the given 3~4 hour window for feeds.

Lets hope that means today will be a good day.