And the Boy Pees! Days 27& 28

Happy Four Week Birthday Benton!!

Over the past two days our family has been on pins and needles waiting and hoping for Benton to start peeing again.  I never thought my mind would be consumed with thoughts of my little boy peeing and that all my prayers would be focused on such a tiny organ as the kidney, but that's what happens when your baby is as premature as ours.  Every organ is essential and each thing the doctors do can affect the other parts of his body so as the doctors keep telling us "It's a balancing act".

Benton gripping my hand and showing us he is a fighter!

Well as of Thursday evening Benton had still not peed and the doctors were getting more concerned because his potassium levels were rising and getting close to unsafe levels.  Heightened potassium levels can cause heart issues and ultimately could lead to heart failure so the doctors want to be proactive before those levels get too high.  So, the doctors gave Benton a nebulizer which will cause the potassium in his blood to retreat into the tissues.  This is only a temporary measure, but they were hoping that it would buy them some time before Benton started peeing on his own again and then his potassium levels would drop naturally.  We were definitely scared to know that if Benton didn't start peeing very soon the doctors may not be able to do much more.  That evening there was a lot of prayer for our little man to open up his flood gates and start peeing.

Luckily our prayers were answered!  By 4am that evening we called the NICU and found out that Benton had peed about 3ml.  It wasn't much, but we hoped that this was just the start of things to come.  We were right, our little man started peeing at each "cares" yesterday and by the time we visited that evening he had peed over 32ml which was amazing.  The doctors actually said he was doing so well that they were willing to start feeding him milk.  Now our little guy gets 1ml of his mommy's milk every 8 hours.  It's not a lot of milk but the fact that he is getting fed for the first time in 3 weeks is an unbelievable accomplishment. 

To top off that amazing day we visited Benton that evening and were able to do kangaroo care for a second time.  I held our little man for over an hour as Joe read him 5 bedtime stories.  Benton did amazing and kept his sats up again and even was able to keep his temperature up with the help of his mommy's warmth and a couple of warm blankets.  Hopefully this is the start of many wonderful days holding our boy and getting to read him bedtime stories like a normal family.

Up close and personal with our cutie.

Please keep Benton in your prayers and hope that every day he gets stronger and healthier.  As he begins his new journey feeding for the first time we prayer for his intestines to tolerate the new addition of milk to his body.  We are afraid that he could get NEC again and are praying for an easy start to his second time feeding.