We have to be very careful with Kinley’s feeding tube, especially during a feeding. If it came out of place, her formula could end up getting pushed into her lungs instead of her stomach. Notches on her tube clearly mark how deep it’s been placed. Before each feeding, the nurse will use her stethoscope to listen to Kinley’s stomach as she puffs a little air down her tube and then pull it back out with a syringe.
Mom had a feeling last night that she couldn’t trust her daughter’s hands. She stood at Kinley’s bassinet for all 30 minutes of her 11:30 pm feeding, watching and playing defense — fending off grasping hands. When the nurse came back in to flush her feeding tube, she chuckled at mom’s intuition.
At her 2:30 am feeding, the nurse took extra measures to wrap up Kinley’s arms and swaddle her especially tight. She slept through her feeding without incident.
But then, at 5:00 am and shortly before her next feeding, mom and I awoke to some grunting and mild cries. We found our little Houdini had managed to contort herself into an impossible position — her hat over her eyes and second blanket over her face — and pull her feeding tube about eight centimeters out, all without freeing her hands from her swaddle.
Determination is not something Kinley lacks.