Rocking the CPAP: Days 152 - 159

Cutie in his hand-me-downs from his cousin Caleb!

Over the past week we have been just enjoying our time with our little wonderbug and he has been amazing us at every turn.  Today he is just under 6lbs 13oz and on CPAP of 5!

Hanging in his mommaroo with his friend Jack the Georgetown bulldog!

Benton has been blossoming this past week and has finally been weaned off both his steroids and his morphine.  With these weans the doctors decided that he was ready to go down to CPAP of 6 on Thursday.  When he first had the CPAP weaned to 6 he required more oxygen going up from 35% oxygen to almost 55%, but then the respiratory therapist realized there was a small leak in his CPAP and he wasn't getting all of the oxygen.  Once they switched out his ventilator and nasal cannula he was able to wean back down to 38%.  This weekend Benton was rocking out his CPAP of 6 - satting 100 on 30% oxygen.  It was unbelievably amazing to see how great he was doing.  We held him and rocked him all weekend taking turns between reading to him and having his stuffed animals talk to him.  


In addition, Benton has been doing amazing on his feeds and has been able to compress his feeds over 1 1/2 hours every 3 hours and now down to 1 hour every 3 hours.  This means Benton is steps away from getting down to 30 minute feeds.  30 minute feeds are the final goal because that is how long a baby normally takes to drink a bottle or breastfeed.  The nurses and the doctors have all commented that Benton is a terrific eater and he hasn't even blinked with all the changes to his feeds.  As the days pass Benton has been working more and more with speech therapy and doing pacifier dips with milk and trying out swallowing small amounts of milk via syringe.  Today, I was able to meet with speech therapy and hold him while he did syringe feeding (5 ml) and he totally rocked it out.  The speech therapist said that Benton is very interested in feeding by mouth and she believes he will do well once he is cleared to take more milk orally once he is on high flow.

Sleepy time

On Monday, Benton had been making so much progress on CPAP of 6 that the doctors decided to try him on a CPAP of 5.  This change coupled with his morphine being turned off led to Benton wheezing, retracting and generally breathing too fast.  While we had been hopeful that Benton would take to CPAP of 5 just like he had taken to CPAP of 6, it was too fast too soon.  Within 8 hours Benton had to go back to CPAP of 6.  While this was slightly disappointing we knew that Benton can't be rushed and that every step he is taking is a miracle and we have to be grateful for how wonderful Benton is doing every day.  However, by today (Wednesday) the doctors felt that Benton was ready to be challenged again and they turned down his CPAP to 5.  So far today Benton has been doing well on the CPAP of 5 and is breathing more steadily and not wheezing.  We are incredibly hopeful that this time the CPAP of 5 sticks!  If it does the next step for Benton is high flow and he can start feeding by mouth in earnest.

Hanging with his friend Jack

Dad with his Benton beard - no shaving since Benton was born!

Every day we count our blessings that Benton is still here with us and amazing us every day.  We appreciate everyone's continued thoughts and prayers for our little fighter.  I don't think we could have made it this far through our journey without everyone's love and support.  We cannot thank you all enough!  Please continue praying for our little one (even if he isn't so little anymore :).  We are hoping he can continue rocking out the CPAP of 5 and eventually get to high flow and start feeding by mouth so he can come home!

Benton's Cherry Blossom Themed 22 Week Birthday Sign!

Cutie with his mommy!