Growing and Growing: Days 75-82

Awake cutie

The past week has been such a blessing as we have watched Benton grow stronger each day.  Over the past 7 days Benton has made strides in his feedings and is now up to 6.5 ml/hr continuous from 1.5 ml/hr.  This is huge because it means he is more than half way to full feeds!  Once he reaches full feeds his PICC line will come out.  The PICC line is a permanent IV catheter that delivers all of his IV fluids and medicines.  Benton has had his PICC line for over 2 months so you can only imagine how small the original catheter must have been since he only weighed 1 pound.  Having your PICC line removed is a huge deal because it is one more milestone he has reached on his journey toward home.

Recently I have gotten to hold Benton in kangaroo care which is always the highlight of my week.  Feeling his warm little body rest against mine is the best feeling in the world.  Today when I held Benton he pushed against me and turned his head so that he could look into my eyes.  Getting to interact with my little man is amazing.  These moments make me realize just how wonderful parenthood already is and I can only believe it will be even better when I get to have my little one home with me every day.



Benton is still struggling with his ventilator as the doctors try new tactics to help him wean off his oxygen requirement.  Last Friday the doctors attempted to switch his ventilator to the assist control volume guarantee setting which allows the doctor to set a specific title volume (i.e. how much Benton's lungs expand with each breath) and then Benton can use more or less pressure depending on how much he needs.  This setting is better for weaning babies off the ventilator, but when the doctors switched Benton to this mode he started de-sating and required 100% oxygen again.  When I arrived to visit him at lunch that day he was back up to 100% oxygen and sating 50-60 and at one point dipped down to a saturation of 20.  Watching these numbers I felt that same dark pit in the bottom of my stomach and wondered to myself could this be the end after we have come so far.  But Benton prevailed and once the doctors switched him back off that mode and increased his pressures up to 36 he went back to sating in the 90s again.  Thank god!  After this hiccup, Benton has slowly required less pressure going from 36 to 34 to 32 to 31 and today to 30.  The doctors are no longer going to try the volume guarantee setting on the ventilator and are going to have to rely on weaning him the old fashioned way.

With the ventilator pressures slowly decreasing, Benton has been able to wean his oxygen requirement from 100% to 70%.  Yesterday he even hit 48% oxygen for this first time in over 2 months! While this was just for an hour it definitely shows that his lungs are starting the slow healing process and he is improving bit by bit.

Benton's tape beard

As Benton continues to grow we find out new and interesting things about the NICU.  Apparently it is the parents job to trim and cut the baby's nails and it's not something the nurses can assist with since it's not medically necessary.  I had never really given a second thought about manicures for babies - I don't know if it was just from naivete or just the fact that I figured a baby's nails wouldn't grow that long until they were at least a few months old - but we didn't even own a set of baby nail clippers.  Well, we are now the official owners of a infant manicure set and Benton got his first manicure last night!  Joe was super brave and trimmed Benton's nails and Benton didn't seem to mind :)

Benton's first manicure

I know in our last post I mentioned that Benton hadn't pooped despite starting continuous feeds.  Well on Friday the day had finally come for him to get a suppository because he couldn't seem to shake his constipation.  Luckily the suppository worked and Benton was able to poop for the first time in 9 days and he hasn't stopped since.  I'm sure that Benton feels quite a bit of relief and in just that one poo he lost 2 cm in girth!

My little boxer!  These mittens help to stop Benton from grabbing his tube.

The other day I was looking through old pictures of Benton and it is truly amazing to see how much he has grown over the past 11 weeks.  Today he weighs 2 kilograms (4.4 lbs) and is almost 15 inches long.  Granted some of that weight is his edema, but even the doctors believe he is at least 3 lbs 10 oz!  I sometimes can't believe that he has grown so much - almost tripling his weight since birth.  We couldn't be more prouder of our little man and we feel so truly blessed to be his parents.

As this week progresses we are hoping for Benton to continue improving each and every day.  We pray that he can get up to full feeds and get his PICC line taken out, that his lungs get stronger and he requires less oxygen and that his eyes continue to improve.  Thank you to everyone for all of the thoughts and prayers you are sending our beautiful boy.  I can't help but believe that each prayer makes him stronger and having prayers from all over the world being sent his way is the best cure!

Happy 11 Week Birthday!