Cherry Popping

Yep, I had my very first emergency tube change out today. Good times! :-/ This is a scenario that I have been mentally preparing for every day for the last year since the day they explained what would happen if the boys pulled out their tubes somehow. It was really quick and easy, but on the inside it was all I could do to keep myself from crying and shaking and I didn't want the boys to see that at all. I knew that Cam's tube was leaking because it was hanging waaaaay out for the last two days and I had to keep adding water, but today it was dangling practically all the way out and I knew I wouldn't make it to the GI doc on Monday. We have made it 13mos without ever having a tube pulled out or leaking water from the balloon, which is an impressive record based on the other reports from my friends who have kids with feeding tubes, especially since I have two kids with tubes.

Cam was calm and distracted by a toy and and my wonderful husband's antics, and he really could have cared less that I was pulling a two inch piece of plastic out of his gut. The grossest thing about it was the pop and hiss of gas when I pulled out the old tube and looking into the black hole of his insides. The second gross thing was how hard it was to get the new tube back in; I really had to push and almost wiggle the sucker in there. But Cam was fine, barely noticed a thing like as if I was changing his diaper. A major difference from every other time the doctor has changed the tube. This kind of procedure is not something I have ever wanted to do, but becoming a mother makes you do things you would never imagine yourself doing without batting an eye.

Now my question for all you tube feeding parents is, should I go ahead and change out Evan's tube now or wait for the GI appointment in April to swap out his tube at the doctor's office?

I like to think of my self as a pretty good person to have around for an emergency, I don't hesitate much and can stay pretty calm in most cases. Now that this first experience is behind me (and it took me a couple of hours to get rid of the shakes afterward) I feel like I could totally handle anything at all. Nothing like a big old hole through your kids' belly to make you super brave. I'm pretty proud of myself, but I do have about 10 new gray hairs on my head.

For those of you who don't know or don't remember what a G tube looks like here's a pic of the old one I pulled out of Cam with the leak in it. In this pic I have the balloon filled with water which is how it should be inside his belly. To pull it out you have to remove the water with a syringe and the balloon will deflate so that it's just a little plastic tube.



And here's Cameron showing off his new "bellybutton" as we call it.


In other news here are some of the fun things the boys are saying right now:

Evan -
Ah ah ah... (and he waits for you to say "choooo!")
Ah-choo - sometimes he wants to say the choo part
Dooraw - draw
Kay-on - crayon
St-hur - stir
soo - soup
hop
jum - jump (and he can actually catch some air when he jumps too!)
peese - please


Cameron -
bi-kal - bicycle, this applies to all bicycles and motorcycles
crown - crayon
Quinkle Star - Twinkle twinkle little star
pan - pants
stur - stir
finger
ky-et - quiet (usually followed by a finger to the lips and Shhhh....)
seep - sleep
ABC! - He's been saying the alphabet but gets stuck after the letter C. It's his favorite thing to say over and over and over, but will say the rest of the letters with some prompting.

Also both boys can count to 5 with prompting by holding up your fingers, though tonight out of the blue Cameron counted to 10 without any help. Evan can do it up to 5 without help too. Both boys can recognize the numbers 1 through 5 because we have seen these numbers in our outings and they will come and get me and point to the number and tell me what it is without my asking. I'm totally loving this stage!!