TIME TO WORK!

He's been home 12 hours now.

He's currently sleeping and on his continuous enthral feeding.
 (that's the pump through his g-tube)

Babies are work; Bradley is LOTS OF WORK!

He's on three meds.
Two are once in 24 hours.

One is every 8 hours.
(3 times a day)

Then there are the bottles.

During the day he can have honey thick through a cross cut nipple bottle.

The recipe is 1oz formula to a tablespoon rice cereal.

He gets 2oz of that through his bottle, 4 times a day.

The bottle is REALLY thick.
It is for therapeutic reasons; to maintain his sucking abilities.

Sometimes he can do the whole two ounces, sometimes not.

Whatever he doesn't finish I give him the equivalent of,
but in breast milk or formula that was not thickened with rice,
through his g-tube.

(rice cereal cannot go down his tube; it's for liquids)

So I mix breast milk or formula to make it 24 cals.
Breast milk is 20 calories an ounce.

To make it 24 calories an ounce you mix 100mls. with a teaspoon formula powder.
Yeah, that's after I pump it, label it, freeze it, defrost it, measure it, then warm it.

To make formula 24 cals you mix 5oz water to three scoops of formula.

THAT'S JUST DURING THE DAY!

The night time is a little easier.

I  mix 250mls to 24 calories and put 1/2 of it into an

 IV type bag and then set my pump for his night feeding.

4 hours later I have to warm the remaining night time feed and dump it in the bag and reset the pump.

And all of these bottles that I use to mix and feed have to be washed;  sometimes sterilized.

And the syringes that I use to administer the meds, have to be washed too.

And I do ALL OF THIS whilst changing diapers, feeding big kids, getting big kids to school,
doing laundry, cleaning house, doing homework, sterilizing my house with bleach,

and making sure everyone isn't feeling ignored.

And don't forget about his follow-up appointments, Nevada early intervention, and therapy!

Like I said, Bradley is LOTS OF WORK.