Baker Scares Dad Again…

Baker will probably be coming home with an NG tube (feeding tube) because of the issues he is having with his feeding. So we have to demonstrate to the nursing staff that we can insert the tube properly and check it for residuals. His mom got to do it for the first time yesterday and it was Baker's dad's turn last night. I figured, how hard could this be I've seen the nurses do it before, I'm not usually squeamish about medical stuff – we've been through so much before….

Well it was one of the hardest things I've had to do for him to date… He was fighting me to the end, and after a couple tries I finally got it (with a little assistance from his nurse…) Now you have to push some air through the tube to check placement, and I couldn't hear it. His nurse heard it and Teresa heard it but I couldn't… So that was very traumatic, because of course the last thing I would ever want to do is intentionally hurt my own son…

So he was very hungry by the time I got to bottle feed him because of the time it took for me to practice inserting his NG tube, and we are finding this is the most dangerous time to feed him. When he gets super hungry, all he wants to do is suck and swallow and forgets the important part of breathing. So I was feeding him, and stopping him for a breath every 5 or 6 swallows. Now with a perfect storm of circumstances his nurse wasn't watching us feed him(she was called out on an emergency and had to go), which was different from every other time. We have to have a nurse watching his stats while we feed him because of the issues he's having with eating. Feeding him takes practice because we have to make sure he's breathing, not going too fast, that he's awake, and that he's taking breaks to get a good breath in every 4 or 5 swallows. We had a transport nurse watching, but not really actively talking me through the feeding like all the other times. Baker's O2 saturation levels dropped dangerously low and he started to change color. The nurse that was watching jumped to action grabbed an O2 hose and started working on Baker to bring him back. He suctioned him out and got him back to normal. Now when I read these words, it's not doing the situation justice. Those few seconds were devastating to me. I froze, even though I just went through informal CPR training I froze.

Baker was up and down on his O2 saturation and Heart rate after these episodes so his mom jumped in and decided to get some skin to skin time in (kangaroo care). This did the trick. There is something to be said about the healing powers of a mom's touch. He is so funny, I tried to reposition him on Mom's chest and he flipped out on me and grunted… J

Teresa and I are now going to do scenarios every day until he get's home, so that we are prepared to resuscitate or scare him back to breathing if he does this again…