You’ve likely noticed I rarely speak in detail about fostering on the blog. And you probably can piece together why. For obvious reasons, we don’t share details of children in care. I know, on social media, it’s acceptable to post pictures and certain details, while covering faces with emojis or whatnot. My blog is more public than my social media, and can be seen by anyone, so I aim to be considerably more tight lipped on here. I’m sure you get it.
Brady and I specifically told the ministry that we carried hearts for medical babies, and they really liked that! We were approved officially on a Friday afternoon, and Monday morning, as soon as business hours began, we got a placement! The person I spoke to from the ministry said they were aware we were seeking medical babies, but that they were going to start us off a bit simpler with a non-medical baby.
Fast forward a week, and we had a VERY medical baby on our hands!
And we still do!
And we have absolutely NO regrets!!! We are positively besides ourselves, just miserably in love with our morsel!! Ack!!! That attachments hurts sooooo good!!!
So while I can’t tell you all about baby’s direct details, I can tell you all we’ve been learning, and why our life is so much busier now!
A VERY new concept in our home has been tube feeding! I have established a great relationship with people at Saskabilities, where the feeding pump, pole, backpack, and feed bags come from, as well as Nordon Drugs, where syringes, ng tubes, and all kinds of adhesives and preps come from. I have learned how to insert and secure an ng tube, which goes in through the nose and all the way down into the tummy. Believe it or not, this isn’t comfortable for the morsel, and I have become very accustomed to how to manage the struggle, as the tube is removed and reinserted at least a few times a week. Fun is not had by all, but I am an expert at this by now.
The lesser side of things with ng tube feeding is learning to use the pump and actually set up feeds. A fresh feed bag is used each day, inserted through the machine, and attached to the IV pole. Or, if we’re leaving the house, we have a portability backpack that really helps keep things more convenient. Powdered formula has a bit more room for error, so we have gone to buying liquid concentrate and mixing with distilled water to make feeds. Once the milk is mixed, its poured into the feed bag, and the pump is primed, so the baby isn’t fed a full tube of air before the feed.
Once the machine alerts that the feed is finished, it is detached from aforementioned baby, the bag is rinsed out, and the pump is flushed out with fresh water.
The baby end of the tube is likely still full of milk. Before anything else, you need to flush that line with water so the milk doesn’t get old and spoiled before baby’s next feeding. The amount of water, and frankly, the amount of milk, is established with the babys dietician earlier, and is maintained by regular weigh-ins and phone calls, where you decide if the amount is appropriate or needs to be tweaked.
Considering all of this with feeding, it also means every single med, prescription or otherwise, goes in the ng tube, not the mouth. So something as simple as a dose of Tylenol for teething pain means sucking the tylenol up through the special syringe with the ng tip (which have to be procured through medical supply stores) inserting it into the ng, and then following it up with water.
Thats it for feeding!! So far, anyway…
Another new venture for our family has been helmets! Helmetting. Helmet therapy. Call it what you will. I’m sure you’ve seen babies wearing helmets here and there. Its not super common, but also not unheard of.
With helmets, we’ve maintained another important relationship with Saskabilities, in the ortho department. There is one helmet guy in the province. ONE. John. And he is positively wonderful. We have learned the ropes along the way as gracefully as possible. He has taught us how to clean the helmet, with the soap we know suits the baby, and to dry it well and powder it with corn starch before reapplying it to the melon it was custom made for!
As heads shift, so do helmets, and that can lead to some rubbing and sore skin. Some of it can be managed with simple barrier cream, but big changes can lead to open sores. I had the opportunity to speak to our lovely helmet guy while he was away on holidays, and he directed me how to heat the exterior of the helmet and flex it until it it holds in a new position. I was promised that I couldn’t mess something up that our helmet guy could not fix, which was super reassuring and deemed to be true. Helmet therapy gradually gets the baby up to being worn 23 hours a day. Yes. That much. Yes. While they sleep. Always. And yes, surprisingly, they do get used to it. I’ve learned tons about plageocephaly and the levels of severity. It has been a huge learning curve, and a very successful one!! Helmet therapy is EFFECTIVE!!
Fun bonus tip!! You can stick the ng tube into the velcro in the helmet to keep it out of reach. Or, if the tube is on the non-velcro side, you can tape it to the side of the helmet. Multi-use equipment!
I’ve learned how to do inhalers for babies, with aerochambers. Nebulizers for babies. Sometimes the baby hates the nebulizer enough that they need an inhaler after 😳
I’ve witnessed and managed the recovery of all kinds of tests – blood, urine, barium, echos, ultrasounds, scopes, esophograms, TB tests, sweat tests, and countless chest xrays.
I’ve learned an incredible amount about blood oxygen levels and respiratory health. Lung stuff is a HUGE field I’ve never delved into, but like paraplegia and spinal cord injury, you don’t learn that stuff until you need to, or someone you love needs to.
We have had days where the morsel has been attached to an ng tube, oxygen prongs, three leads, a blood oxygen monitor, and an IV. We’ve had days where only the ng sits tight and things are normal. That is what thriving looks like in our case.
I praise the Lord for all we went through before our foster process began, as it prepared us for the world of medical needs, as well as a plethora of appointments, doctors, and changes to manage. I could tour you around our hospitals quite confidently nowadays. The way our life is right now feels very busy, but also very much like what we were meant to do.
Three of my children can confidently, safely accomplish ng feedings, start to finish. Two of our Dahlsjos even learned how over the summer! Everyone pitches in.
A baby with medical needs, delays,, and dysregulation takes extra effort, patience, and time. Lots and lots and LOTS of extra love, which we are SO happy to provide! We are overwhelmed with gratefulness for the people in our lives who are also happy and willing to pour into the life of our little foster babe. To those who have helped keep our family afloat while I’ve been away, learning all of these things, practicing, testing, troubleshooting, recovering, etc., we absolutely could not be afloat without you 💜
We praise the Lord for all we have. Our hearts are full.
And the hours in the day 😅 Those are full, too.