6.29.2007

Adventures of the sleep deprived

At least I can laugh and write about this now.... our current feeding schedule for the girls at home is the following: Avery takes a bottle at 9am, 1pm, 5pm, and 9pm and then is hooked up to her continuous tube feeding from 11pm to 6 or 6:30am to make sure she gets her total daily volume. Lily takes bottles at 9am, 1pm, 4:30pm, 8pm, and 11:30pm and then gets her tube feedings from 1:30am to 6:30am. So, my typical schedule is to get Avery hooked up to her feeding tube then get Lily ready and give her the last bottle. I will then wash my pump parts, mix the formula for the next day, dose out their medications, and pump which gets me in bed around 1:30am when I turn on Lily's feeding pump. We have to add milk to the bags at the four hour mark because breastmilk can not sit out at room temp for longer than four hours.



This particular night we started Avery's tube feeding early, forgoing the 4th bottle, because she had a rough day in terms of feeding so this meant that new milk would need to be added at 2:30. So....I slept from 1:30 to 2:30, woke up, albeit a bit dizzy and went to the fridge got the bottles to pour in the bags (I decided to go ahead and add to Lily's bag since it would be four hours when we shut the pumps off). I came back, poured the milk into Lily's bag and then grabbed Avery's bottle and dumped it on top of (not into) the bag...I forgot to open the bag so milk when spewing everywhere! I cursed a bit, in a hushed tone so as not to wake the babes or Richard...turned on the bathroom light so I could see how bad the mess was and saw that it had luckily only gone on the side of the sheet. I was not going to wake the kiddos up to change the sheet if they weren't lying in it so I went back to the kitchen mixed up some more milk, grabbed a roll of paper towels...OPENED the feeding bag and pushed start.



When I heard the pump start moving I looked over and realized that Lily's pump was oddly quiet...the light on the pump wasn't on...I had forgotten to turn it on an hour ago. Ok, no worries, it's only been three hours since her bottle so she couldn't be starving. Push start..then back to bed.



At 4:30 I hear Lily making some noises - we are acutely in tune to noises coming from the crib because if the feeding tube slips out (due to a spit up, a sneeze, a cough, or a hand rubbing the nose) the milk can be entering their lungs instead of their stomach, not a good scenario. So, I hear Lily squirming and making noise, I get up and look down to see that the sheet is quite dark under her head...I had turned her pump on but had forgotten to hook her up to it so there she is lying in what amounted to two ounces of breastmilk! More hushed cursing then I shake Richard awake to hold the babies while I proceed to change the sheet. He groggily looks at me like I'm a crazy woman from outerspace who has invaded his bedroom then snuggles up to the girls and falls back asleep, Avery curled in his arm, Lily on his belly. It is then that I realize that Lily has now not eaten in five hours and the two hours left on her pump won't give her much very quickly.



I walk to the kitchen, mix up a bottle, take her from Richard and the poor girl downs it in her sleep. So at 5:00am I crawl back into bed only to be awakened at 6:00am because now Abby is hungry and needs to go outside. Richard sleepwalks to the laundry room, feeds the dog and comes back to bed at 6:15. The alarm goes off at 6:30 reminding us to turn Avery's pump off and then another alarm at 7:00 because we have a morning appointment with the speech school for Zoe. What a night!!!

1 comment:

nancy said...

Oh Keira,

Someday A-L-Z will look back at this online baby book you are creating for them and appreciate all the love! It is good that you are putting in the terrific details. Hope you and the girls get some good sleep tonight.

Love,

Nancy

All time favorite video of Zoe!

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Bible verses that comfort me

"Yes, we are fully confident, and we would rather be away from these earthly bodies, for then we will be at home with the Lord."
~ 2 Corinthians 5:8

"Let the children come to me. Don't stop them! For the Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children....Then he took the children in his arms and placed his hands on their heads and blessed them"
~ Mark10:14 & 10:16

"...those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint"~ Isaiah40:31