My mom was still in town the second night home and thank goodness she was. We put Zach to bed, watched some tv while I got Nicholas his feed and nursed Emily. Just before 11, I moved the babies to the pack and play in the bedroom, packed up the IV pole with the feeding pump attached and my mom and I said goodnight. As soon as I got into the room and started Nicholas's overnight feed, both babies started to cry. I tried calming them down but they appeared to be hearing each other and winding each other up. I wasn't sure how to hold both babies and I couldn't get either to stop crying. Getting a little panicked, I called out for help from my mom. She came in and took Emily to the other room. That seemed to do the trick and I was able to pick up Nicholas and bounce him enough to calm him down. I was laying him down in the pack and play (we have a twin pack and play with two bassinets on top) when I heard a distinctive POP. I had no idea what it was but Nicholas started screaming.
I looked down and realized that Nicholas's feed was now spilling out onto my bedroom floor. Through the Mic-key button that I had just pulled out of his stomach. I began to panic and tried to desperately remember the instructions that the nurses had told me in the hospital.
When (not if, when) his button comes out, you need to find something to fill the hole (and a red rubber catheter was placed in our hands) and get Nicholas to the ER. The hole can close within an hour so as soon as you notice it, get to the ER.
I started screaming to my mom to find the red thing, I needed the red thing. My mom, still holding a no longer sleeping Emily and not sure what exactly I was freaking out about, started searching through the bags we had brought home from the hospital. I called Mike and he couldn't understand what I was screaming at him at first. He finally got me to calm down enough to tell me where to find the rubber catheter. I had to put the catheter through the hole where his button was, taped it down, placed him in the car seat, told my mom where to find a bottle for Emily if she woke up before we came back, and was driving to the hospital we had just left the day before.
I was sure the hospital would judge me for being totally unable to care for my son for even one day. The doctor and nurses were actually incredibly nice and told me I was not the first mother to pull out the button and would certainly not be the last. Mike's co-worker who has a son with a j-tube (similar to a g-tube but in the intestines rather than the stomach) told me that you weren't a tubie parent until you've accidentally pulled out the button.
Turns out there was a leak in the balloon holding the button in, so we had to wait for another button from the hospital. Once they replaced it, they had to inject contrast through the button and make sure that the button had gone through both the abdominal wall and the stomach since scar tissue to attach the stomach to the abdominal wall hadn't developed yet.
It seems that life with Nicholas will always be interesting and sometimes may be a little scary.
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