Kaitlyn's Feeding Schedule

I just thought you might like to see a few days in the life of Feeding Kaitlyn:

Recap of the last few days of feeding:

Friday, Every feed Kaitlyn vomited – with the Nanny, 1 with me.

Saturday: 8:30 I decided to let Kaitlyn sleep in, so I tube fed her 4 ounces of Blenderized Diet instead of dealing with an oral feed and vomit. She loves to sleep so we normally have to wake her up at 8:00 for her 8:30 feed.

Make Puree foods. Avocados, green beans, take purees from the night before out of ice cube trays and arrange in the 30 or so different zip-lock bags we have in our freezer. Clean up all the stuff.

11:00 feed. I was due to go our local twins’ summer picnic and I was alone. So I fed her orally about 2 ounces of yogurt and 1 ounce of milk (It’s supposed to be 4 ounces of purees and 2.5 ounces of milk). She kept the oral food down (thankfully) and then an hour later I fed her 2 more ounces of Blenderized Diet (via tube) and 2 ounces of water (via tube)

3:00 feed. Brian gave her this feed orally. She had a huge vomit

5:00 we went to the store as a family (Costo, Target). I’ve been putting off going to the store forever (never enough time between feeds) This feed is typically a bit smaller, so we decided to forgoe another oral feed and gave her 4 ounces of BD (no vomit)

7:00 Oral feed. Got in 3 ounces of purees and about 1.5 of milk (she started giving me vomit signs so I stopped short)

8:30 Put her to bed, gave her the rest of the oral feed via syringe.

9:00 2 ounces of water via tube

Sit down and “relax” for the “evening”
10: 00 – 11:30 6 ounces of BD via tube (which means getting up 4 times to feed her)

After 11:30, flush her gutbe with water, disconnect tube, clean tube, clean syringes, clean everything else from the day of tubes, syringes, purees, blenders, ice cube trays , etc.

Sunday:

Kaitlyn woke up at 6:30, (this never happens) she must have heard dad leaving for work. She eventually went back to sleep until 10:00! Wow (I gave her 2 ounces of water and 2 ounces of BD while she was sleeping)

11:00 lunch feed: got in about 1 ounce of milk and 3 ounces of purees, then she had a huge pghlemy vomit Gave her 2 ounces of BD

Make purres I’m out off, sort through freezer to find what I need and figure out what I’m out of. Take yesterdays out of ice cube trays, label, make new purées, freeze, etc.

Made Blended Diet: fruit, veggies, milk, yogurt, avocados, (darn, I’m out of avocadoes, go to the store and get some), flax seed, probiotics, olive oil, fish oil, chicken, brown rice/Quina. Clean blender once again.

12:00 gave her 2 oz of water via tube

Nap – gave her reflux medicine during her nap and 2 ounces of water

3:00 oral feed. Vomited huge even though I couldn’t finish all of the feed

5:00 oral feed, this is a smaller feed, huge vomit with just a few bites to go

6:00 Gave her 2 ounces of water via tube

7:00 oral feed. I gave her probably half of what she is supposed to eat and yeah, no vomit.

9:00pm 2 ounces water via tube

Clean BD off the ceiling that I regularly spray when filling syringes.

10:00 start giving 6 ounces BD (get off the counch 4 times)

10:00 Liz drinks a very large glass of wine (or a bottle!) I’m writing this at 11pm, still have 2 ounces to give (of the 6 ounces).

12:00 really need to giver her a “night-cap” of 2 more OZ BD as she is so behind on calories. K really hasn’t gained any weight in 2 months.

Some friends wanted me to bring Kaitlyn out tonight to meet with them….I think they called around 4:45….how in the world am I supposed to leave the house with her feeding schedule? Feeling a bit down and sorry for myself. Ugh.

Well, that’s 2 days of feeding my daughter. And they call mother hood easy? (oh and in-between everything, I’m on the computer dealing with work, and this was a holiday weekend). I really, really don’t know how long I can keep this up. I really, really think I’d be going off the deep end completely if I didn’t have my nanny to help. Does that make me a bad mother? I feel that way sometimes.

Happy Labor Day!