Loving life at home

Amazing cutie!

It's been almost 4 weeks since our little sweet man came home to us and it has definitely been a wondrous ride.  In the month since we have been home from the NICU, I am amazed at the progress Benton has made each and every day.  He is now over 10 1/2 lbs and 22 1/2 inches long...a long way from his 1 lb and 11 inches long.

Benton stares into your soul and stealing your heart

Loving his outfit from nurse Marianne

Each day is a new adventure with our little one and each day he learns something new and amazing.  Since coming home he has truly found his hands and loves to stick his fingers, thumb and whole hand in his mouth every chance he gets.  He rocks out his daily tummy time and has great arm and neck strength.  Benton has also been getting interested in toys such as his caterpillar rattle and links.  It's so much fun to watch him discover that he can bat and grab these toys as they hang from above his tummy time mat.  Finally he is learning how to roll over from his tummy to his back... he can't do it every time but every once in awhile he surprises himself with his strength. :)

Showing off hands together, holding onto his giraffe wubbanub and staring at his mobile

Tummy time!

Tummy time part deux!

Having a child you have the opportunity to watch a human being grow before your very eyes is such an amazing thing.  Each day I am blessed with watching Benton discover the world and see it through the innocence of a child.  His facial expressions are priceless.  His expressions run from concerned to surprised to excited to scared to pure joy.  While Benton mainly communicates to us via his facial expressions he has started to make a few noises every once in awhile when he is excited.  Hearing those first bits of speech is such a wondrous thing.  I can't wait until he is cooing and laughing in the coming months.

Hanging with Mommy

Love Love Love

Our lives at home have fallen into a regular routine now - one that is filled with doctors appointments, physical therapy, feeds, dates with his tummy time mat and daily walks.  Benton has at least 2-3 doctors appointments a week and weekly physical therapy.  Each of these sojourns outside the house is a production in and of itself.  We have to get him hooked up to his portable oxygen tank, bring the apnea monitor, make sure we have NG tube feeding supplies and bottles and the requisite changes of clothing etc.  While it can be burdensome getting him into and out of the car or stroller once he is set in his stroller it feels like easy street.  Each day we are getting better at planning out everything he needs and it is beginning to no longer feel overwhelming getting out of the house for something as simple as a walk. 

Walking the World Cup with Dad.  Go USA!

Our appointments with Benton's doctors have been great so far.  He is doing well and is considered stable.  We have had to increase his oxygen requirement to 3/4 liter while he sleeps since he is a shallow breather, but other than that his oxygen requirements have been stable.  Since he had come home Benton had started to have more and more issues with his feeds by mouth as a result of him starting to get bad reflux.  Luckily the doctors have started him on prevacid (a reflux medication) and it seems to be working.  He has gone from taking 90% of feeds in the hospital to 5-10% of feeds at home when the reflux was bad and now he is back up to 60-70% of his feeds by mouth.  Yay!

Hanging with his stuffed animals while hanging his feeds

Finally we got the chance to celebrate our first Fathers Day as a family.  I made Benton an awesome Benton loves Daddy onesie and surprised Joe with Benton wearing it that morning.  I also had Benton sign the Fathers Day card with his foot!  It was such a special day having Benton home with us and I know we look forward to many many more holidays together as a family.

Happy Father's Day!

We continue to hope and pray for Benton to remain healthy and happy here at home.  We want his reflux to go away so we can finally take out the feeding tube and for his oxygen requirements to go down over time.  Overall, we just feel so blessed that our little nugget has made it this far and we have the chance to snuggle him each and every day and give him the outpouring of love he so rightly deserves.

Cute bibs