Feeding and Sewing - Reality

It's hard to be real. I mean, there are messes when we do real. But, this week has been one very deeply rooted in real.

Last Friday Charlie Brown got food poisoning. We decided to go to a burger place while we were out doing things and allowed him to get a chocolate shake as a treat. On the way home everything he had eaten that day came back up ... on the side of a dirt road ... in the middle of nowhere. Sigh.

At first we figured he had a stomach virus. Then, while working on Saturday, one of my husband's coworkers mentioned his son was sick and had thrown up the previous afternoon like our son had. My husband jokingly asked if he had, by any chance, eaten at the same restaurant (we live an hour from it, he lives in the same town as the burger place). Wouldn't you know it, he had. To top it off, his son had a chocolate milkshake as well. Both of them were the only ones in their family to have a chocolate shake. Mystery solved. Food poisoning.

They called Teledoc to get Phenergan and we went the homeopathic route. Saturday, after they had both gotten sick a few times we both got meds on board and both boys had happier tummies.

However, things aren't that easy in our home. When you have a child with feeding issues already, you don't just bounce back and start eating again once the nausea and vomiting leave. He lost all sense of hunger and hasn't gained it back. Thankfully we have tube feeds and off we went. We started just like if a child had no tube and introduced basic simple items, then got more normal as he held them down. He did great. No nausea at all. Just no hunger either. Yesterday I did a slow tube feed over the entire day for his calorie intake. Not bad. Until supper. He suddenly felt over full. He went to lay down and this is when things get realer than real.

If you don't have a tubie, you don't know the joys horror of how to help. You do a tube feed in reverse. Yep, you pull the food from the tummy instead of putting the food in. I hate that part. UGH! He hates that part. Double UGH! It doesn't hurt, but you can just imagine what it looks like and smells like. Yep. I pulled 10oz off of him. I don't know why he had that much in his belly, but he had stopped digesting quite a while before if 300ml was still in his belly. (there was more, but I stopped there) He felt so much better. He got up, his face pinked up, and he asked for food. I laughed and told him I had just taken dinner out of his belly, was he sure he wanted to eat. Yes, he felt great, he was STARVING. OK, first time we felt hunger so let's roll with it since I knew he only felt icky because of too much food in his belly.

He ate.

He brushed his teeth.

He got his pajamas on.

He hugged us all goodnight.

He went to bed.

He threw up everything he had for dinner plus the food that was left behind from my adventures.

ARGH!

This morning I decided to go low and slow. I gave him 150 calories over a longer period of time. Worked great.

Then it was time for a second feeding. I gave him 2 1/2 syringes full (each is 60ml) and he got sick. Seriously? Before Friday he could have 350ml in a very short period of time without blinking an eye. So we laid him down, asked if he wanted us to pull it from his belly instead of throwing up. He wanted to wait. He felt horrible but it finally passed with just a few very nasty burps.

And THAT, folks, is the reality of a tummy bug with a kid who has feeding issues. I don't know when his sense of hunger will return. I don't know when he will be able to tolerate more volume of food. It's all a mystery.

And that leads me to sewing. This reality of life isn't nearly as UGH worthy.

I picked up a robe pattern for my sons. Yes, in the summer. Yes, where 100 degrees in the summer is a nice day. Yes, in a part of the country that does NOT have a "dry heat". They are all about their robes. They love robes.

Photo Credit

Cute, simple, and yes made of warm fuzzy fleece (I will give you a minute to wipe the sweat from your brow as you think of fleece during the summer).

But this is the reality of my sewing area as I looked at all the pattern pieces, measured the boys with my tape measure to find the size they needed, held up pattern pieces to them to verify the size, and more.

And, yes, that is BB-8 fleece for the robes. The boys love BB-8 and this was on clearance at my Walmart for $2.00/yd. 

The mess will leave, eventually, just like the tummy troubles. But, right now, I feel neck deep in mess. Reality. Hard to show but totally worth it.

Cute Reusable Bag Pattern - Free

I had some small pieces of fabric left over from other projects and I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with them. However, when I saw this free market bag pattern from Stitch Upon A Time, I knew I had found the perfect project for my scraps.

Photo Credit - Stitch Upon A Time

Come on, how cute is that? I downloaded the PDF pattern and printed it. By the way, let me stop here. PDF patterns ... have you heard of them? They seem to be all the rage with those who sew. Cheaper than patterns, many times free, lots of options, just a great idea all around. This was my first PDF to make, though I have a few on my computer waiting to be used.

Back to the story. It said it could be made in 30 - 60 minutes. They weren't lying. If you add in the time it took me to tape the pattern together, it was just at 30 minutes total. The best part is, now that I have the pattern together, I can skip that on all future bags. Yes, there will be more made.

The best part is, I finally, finally, FINALLY got to use my new serger. I will admit to being a bit intimidated by it. But, I figured a bag was about as basic as you could get and, if I messed it up, big deal. I didn't mess it up. Don't let that scare you off if you don't have a serger. You can totally do this with a regular sewing machine. You will notice red and yellow thread. My serger came with thread already loaded and I didn't feel like rethreading the machine. Since it doesn't show, I just used the 4 colors that came with it. As my younger son said, "that's a good idea Mom, free thread".

How cute is this? I made one of my jeans to skirts out of this fabric and has almost exactly how much I needed left. The tiny piece I had left over is now in my scrap bin and will be used for something cute once I get enough collected. 

I could't be boring and just have that floral print. Inside is a coordinating color. You could EASILY make this reversible with just a bit of forethought on how you put your handles together. That's the only part that shows any seams. 

This bag is a lot sturdier than I thought it would be, especially since this is just a cotton fabric. I will be making more of these with non-scrap fabric. My Walmart is having a big sale on fabric right now and I just happened to see a cute pink bolt that was thicker and would make a wonderful bag (or three).