Weekend Recap: Ben Recovers

This past weekend wasn't one of our best--more like one of our worst--but at least it's over!  The poor little guy did not bounce back as quickly as he did the first time and it was heartbreaking to see him in pain.  However, I am thankful that he did get a little bit better every day.  Our night in the hospital wasn't as horrible as I was anticipating.  Although I barely slept, Ben got in a few solid stretches of sleep.  He was not quite himself in the morning, but he was definitely more interested in playing and eating blueberries .

He was also a little more interested in the fish than he was the night before, but they still were not more interesting than the people walking by.  As per usual, he made about 15 friends in 15 minutes.  Amazing. 

After a nice long walk, we headed back to the room.  The poor little guy was just staring out the window, longing for his freedom, until we got the green light that we could go home.  We wasted no time in ditching the hospital gown and putting on his own jammies STAT.  As you can see, he was so excited to be discharged!

Although we were only in the hospital for a little over 24 hours, it felt like at least a week.  We were all happy campers as we signed the discharge paperwork.  Ben was so excited to be home that he wanted to play football as soon as we walked in the door.  We suggested a nap in his own bed instead.  A few hours and some crazy bed head later, Benj was better rested, but he still wasn't quite back to his old self.  Those are his "I'm not feeling too hot, Momma" eyes.  

By Saturday, he was doing a lot better.  He still needed some pain medication here and there, but overall improved.  I wish I could say the same about his eating.  If I thought his eating was rough before surgery, it has been much worse post-surgery.  I really just don't know what to do about his feeding, but I'm not going to vent about that now!  Thanks to my super mom, Andy and I were able to sneak in a much needed date night on Saturday.  Worrying about your sweetie pie nonstop can get exhausting.  

He was alllmost 100% back to Benji by Sunday.  I am sure it helped that his little girlfriend Maddie and her parents came to visit.  It helped me!  I just love watching them together, and they even kissed each other on the cheek before she left.  SO SWEET!  

While things did not go exactly as I had hoped or planned, I am thankful that Ben is doing well.  I cannot say it enough, but he is infinitely tougher than me.  I love him so much and I cannot wait for the day that all of his surgeries are a thing of the past!

Surgery Day

Since Caringbridge doesn't like the size of my pictures, I'm going to post them here.  The first few pictures are from the day before surgery.  Yesterday we had Ben's pre-op H&P appointment.  Although it was an easy appointment, there was a lot of waiting, which means we had a lot of time where we needed to entertain Ben!

There is only so much you can do in a small exam room with limited tools, and thus, we resorted to cleaning the chairs.  :)  I just love this video of Ben, hard at work.  The surgeon answered all our questions and we were on our way!

Being the smart guy that he is, Ben totally knew something was going on today.  He didn't sleep great at night and was up before 4:00.  Even though we didn't have to be to the hospital until 7:00, we were all ready to go well before we needed to leave.  That never happens.  Amazingly, despite the limited sleep, he was in a great mood the whole time.  Just a typical day of exploring new toys and making new friends.  Par for the course for this little one.  

While it was easy to keep him entertained in the waiting room, the pre-op holding area was less exciting. 

Naturally, he wanted everything that he wasn't supposed to have.  

Thank goodness for glove balloons and medicine syringes.

The only time he wasn't happy is when he actually had to take the medicine from the syringe.  It was versed, a medication to make him a little loopy and to make him forget everything, so I was a little nervous when he spit half of the medication out.  

But when he didn't cry as they wheeled him away, I knew that he at least got some of it!  Such a relief! Even though he had some happy medicine, I was so proud of him for being the bravest little boy ever.  I wish I could say the same for myself!  He sat so nicely.  He was just looking around, taking it all in.  So stinkin' cute. 

The surgery lasted about an hour and a half.  This was shorter than we were anticipating, and therefore we were suspicious that this may not be the last one.  Unfortunately, we were correct.  While I am bummed we will have to do this all again, I am so thankful that everything went well during surgery and that we have such a cautious doctor.  The surgeon was very pleased with how everything went and said that everyone in the OR/PACU loved him.  How could you not?!

While I prefer my healthy, active, busy little boy, I cannot complain about getting to hold a snuggly little boy all day.  

It's not that he was unhappy all day, but he definitely wasn't himself.  We could tell that he was in pain because every time he moved the wrong way, he would cry out in pain and shake and it was so horribly sad.  He did get visits from my parents and Andy's parents though, and all of them managed to get a few smiles.  

While Nana songs, snuggles, and books are way up there on the list of Ben's favorite things, I don't think anyone was able to get a bigger smile than...

Hope, the therapy dog!  Ben went from snuggling sleepily in my arms to sitting up straight and alert as soon as the dog walked it.  It was soooo cute.  She kept licking his little hands and he was in heaven.   This seemed to work better than the pain meds!

After another bottle, Ben eventually fell asleep in his bed, as opposed to someone's arms, for the first time this afternoon.  Andy and I are currently camped out in the dark in the corner of the room, hoping that he sleeps well tonight!  We are also hoping and praying that tomorrow is better.  It is so hard to see him knocked down, as it really takes a lot to slow him down even a tiny bit.  So unbelievably proud of my tough little baby boy.  

Weekend Recap: Friends, Family, & Football

We had a great last weekend before Ben's surgery!  I am trying not to stress too much, but it was definitely nice to have a lot of distractions!  I have to give a quick shout out to my super sweet co-workers.  I had just finished seeing my last patient on Friday afternoon and I walked in to the break room only to be greeted by flowers, my favorite treats (fruit, veggies, hummus, etc), and my beautiful co-workers!  I was totally confused when I saw a card with my name on it, but after they filled me in that it was nurse practitioner appreciation week, I was beyond touched by their kindness!  Even though I complain about how much I work, I am truly blessed to work with such thoughtful people.   After stuffing my face with snacks, it was time to go home to my boys for our "Joy to the 'Wold" party!  As much as Andy loves Christmas, it's his birthday after all, it takes a little convincing to get him to want to get a jump start on the holiday fun.   However, after I stumbled upon a Christmas Vacation drinking game on one of my favorite blogs, he was much more willing to start decking the halls.  We actually played this in July, but vowed to play it again at a more seasonally appropriate time.  Our friends Bert and Anne were quick to jump on board and even ordered festive t-shirts with us.

We decided to go with a Mexican theme, so Andy whipped up some delicious (as always) chicken tacos.  I had a hard time resisting each and every festive thing I saw at Target, but I was magnetically drawn to the red and green chips or the Santa koozies.  (and the green and red straws...and the festive cupcakes...and the holiday candy...and so on and so on...)  We wanted to be official, so all of the rules were written out and Andy recited them before we started.  Everyone was a winner, but I think Andy took the cake for having nearly the entire movie memorized.  I win with the Home Alone recitation game though.  (And we did watch that after round one. ;))

While our little elf unfortunately had to go to bed before the movie started, he made sure he was up with the sun for Christmas tree pancakes.  Believe it or not, he was interested in everything but the pancakes, but I am at least thankful that the sprees candy cane helped distract him enough to get his yogurt down and a picture of him with his festive headband.

On Saturday we were supposed to hang out with Ben's bff Maddie and some of my college bf's, but since Maddie was a little under the weather, Ben and daddy bonded while I went to Sarah's for some quality girl time.  While we missed the rest of our crew, we still managed to have a blast catching up until we all could not keep our eyes opened any longer (i.e. before 10:00...)  We ended up meeting for brunch on Sunday morning.  Maddie was doing a little better and I wasn't as nervous about Ben getting sick at a restaurant as opposed to her house where he would be putting all of her toys in his mouth, I'm sure.  Not only did I fail to get a picture where both of them were looking, I apparently couldn't even get one of them to look my way.  I'd say they both sat in their highchairs for the majority of the meal, but it wasn't quite as relaxing as the wine and pizza we had the night before.  :)  LOVE hanging out with them though!

On Sunday afternoon, we headed to Andy's parents' house for some football and so that some of Andy's relatives could finally meet Ben!  Since the game was fairly painful yet again, Ben found other ways to keep himself occupied.  Super-sized checkers, anyone?

All in all, it was a great weekend.  I barely had time to worry about Ben's upcoming surgery, though now I'll probably be thinking about it as I try and fall asleep.  Praying so hard that everything goes as smoothly as the last one!

14 Months (11/13/13)

Dear Ben,

Happy 14 months, Ben!  You are waaay too smart for these monthly stickers!  The only reason we finally got a semi-smile out of you is because you are holding dog treats and calling for "Ra" to come in to your room.  :)

GENERAL: I haven't measured you lately, but we have a doctor appointment on Tuesday, so I'm sure they'll measure you then.  On our scale at home, you are 18#13oz, so you gained almost a pound this month!  You continue to be the sweetest, happiest, and most loving little boy I know.  You make friends everywhere we go including the grocery store, church, restaurants, story time at the library, and even at the cell phone store.

EATING:  Benj, feeding you is still not my favorite thing to do with you. :)  It has been rough so we went to see a GI/feeding doctor.  Unfortunately, that was not helpful, but we have an appointment in the feeding clinic in February, so hopefully that will be better.  It is a lot of work to get you to eat!  You love your fruit, just like momma, but when it comes to foods with protein and fat you are not interested!  Your favorite foods right now are blueberries, strawberries, grapes, and pretzels, probably because you can feed yourself all of these things.  We have to work really hard to get you to eat your other foods.  For breakfast, you usually have fruit and yogurt.  We mix a high protein/fat baby food jar with a container of mac & cheese (stage 2) or something similar for both lunch and dinner.  We have to sing, dance, stack toys, find new toys, and do anything else possible to distract you enough to get you to eat.  You will only open your mouth if you are quite distracted.  You are now starting to bat our hands away even when you are distracted---you're too smart for us.  You will sip water throughout the day, but other than that you do not like to drink much during the day.  You'll take 6-7oz of formula in the night and then and maybe another 4-5oz in the morning when you wake up before breakfast.  You will usually have 3-4oz before bed too.  You really do not like whole milk at this point.  Maybe we need to offer it more often?  We're trying not to let you snack too much throughout the day, but you do typically have 2 snack a day, which is usually fruit and crackers.   We'll keep plugging away!  We tried really hard this past month, so your weight gain is reassuring.  The doctor told us to have a goal of 30oz a day between fluids and pureed baby foods.

You might not like to eat in the kitchen, but you certainly like to play there. 

SLEEPING:  Your sleep has been pretty good.  There was even 1 day where you slept through the night after Nana put you to sleep.  It was great, except I woke up a few times worried that you hadn't woken up!  Typically you wake up around 1:30 or so.  We will give you a bottle and then you go right back to sleep.  We are going to wait until after you're recovered from your surgery before we try and get you off of this nighttime bottle.  I imagine you'd drink more during the day if you did not drink at night, but I'm (we're) so desperate for you to get fluids that I don't really mind that it is in the middle of the night.  You drink the bottle really quickly and then go to sleep until 6:30ish.  You've actually been falling back to sleep on your own for another hour or so after you wake up in the morning.  You'll turn on the little fish light/music machine on your crib and you'll watch it until you fall asleep.  It is so cute how you lay your little body parallel with the short side of the crib so you can see the fish and then you fall right to sleep.  We love watching you on the baby monitor.  :)  You are usually doing 2 naps a day, but this depends on the day.  You've been going down amazingly well for both bedtime and nap time!  You're even sitting still longer to listen to books before bed!  You get your nuk when you sleep, and you're great at putting it away and then waving "bye bye" to it, after you wake up.

Still sleeping with your hand on your face :)

FINE/GROSS MOTOR:  You continue to be a busy guy!  One of your favorite things to do right now is to climb.  You got a new chair that you can push around very easily, so you will move it wherever you want it to go and then you'll just climb right up.  You like to put it next to the couch so you can climb on to the couch and then run across it.  Actually, you'll run pretty much anywhere and everywhere.  You remain curious and you're always trying to figure everything out.  You are starting to get really good at putting the correct shapes in the shape sorter and you're kind of starting to get the hang of puzzles.  You love stacking things and knocking things over too.  And last, but certainly not least, you absolutely LOVE feeding Rosco treats.  We (try to) use this as motivation to get you to eat.  It doesn't always work, but it at least distracts you enough where we can get a few bites in.  We will put the treats into a little container, and one by one you will pull out a treat and give it to Rosco.  Not only do you like giving her treats, but you also like giving her anything else that belongs to her.  We're working on petting her "gentle," as you often get so excited when you see her that you just run right at her and squeal with delight.  She is a little afraid of you at times, but you two are still good buds.

Having fun with Uncle Joe & Daddy

COMMUNICATION/COGNITION:  I cannot believe I've forgotten to mention this in the past, but my favorite thing that you do these days is give kisses!  You've been kinda sorta doing this for a month or two now, but you're getting better and better.  You also make sure that you give kisses to everyone in the room.  And then you do it all again.  It is the cutest thing ever and I need to get it on video, since I don't imagine this is something you will be doing forever. :)  You are still babbling a lot and you certainly are able to communicate your needs.  I love all of the little noises you make.  Again, I need to get these on video.  You definitely use your "ma ma," "da da," "na na," and "ra ra" correctly.  We're totally biased, but we think you are the smartest little guy.  We know there is a lot going on in that red-headed noggin of yours!

Running on the couch & pushing all of the pillows off

That's all for now, my little love!  Only 3 more days until your surgery--eek!  Luckily you're much braver than your mom!

Weekend Recap: Trains & Chores

I better get this written before it's time to write Ben's 14 month update!  In one word, I'd say this past weekend was productive.  We had NO PLANS for the first time in a long time (and for a long time) and it felt good.  No matter how hard I try, I (we) crash early pretty much every Friday night.  I actually ran to the store on Friday night and stopped at the Red Box on the way out.  It took me a few seconds for me to realize that I was crazy to think I would actually be able to stay up to watch a movie.  I was correct; I barely made it to 10:00.  Thankfully, Ben slept through the night, so we were all able to get some much needed rest.  We did our Saturday morning routine of gym/music class before heading home to start tackling my massive to-do list.  After raking about 500 (now snow covered) piles of leaves, it was time for a break.  We decided to hit up Train Fest!  I did not previously know there was such a thing, but apparently there are a lot of train fans out there.  Ben loves trains, so we thought he would like to check out tons of them.  We were right.  There was so much going on that his little eyes didn't know where to look and his little fingers didn't know where to point.

The only problem was that he preferred touching to looking, so he was not a huge fan of the ropes that were attempting to keep him away.  Luckily, there was a kids area with some hands-on train displays.  He looked so dapper all decked out in his train sweater.  Unfortunately, I did not get a good picture of him in his cardboard train conductor hat...probably because it was only on him for a millisecond.  I could only stop Ben from putting his hands in his mouth while playing with the trains that a million other kids has touched so many times before I was ready to go.  We hit up an early, as in 4:00pm early, dinner at which Ben made me want to do cartwheels in the restaurant he was such a big boy.  Not only did he sit nicely in his highchair essentially the whole time we were there, he was also eating sweet potato fries like it was his job.  Food + Benji = Happy Momma

Saturday night was perfectly low-key.  I put away the rest of the Halloween decor, and I may have snuck out a few Christmas items that I casually intermingled with the Thanksgiving stuff.  I love Thanksgiving too, but nothing beats Christmas lights, music, and of course, the Christmas countdown calendar my siblings and I used when we were kids.  I am trying to hold off as long as possible, but it's hard when Thanksgiving is on the later side this year.  Ben is getting equally excited for the holidays, and has even been on the look out for a certain someone who supposedly comes down the chimney...

I won't bore you with the laundry list of errands that I/we did on Sunday, but rest assured that it was productive.  Aside from the hour we were at church, we were in our pajamas the entire day.  Well, Andy and I were, Ben had to wear his Aaron Rogers jersey for the game, of course.  As you can see by Ben's faces, it was an emotional game.  The Packers lost, but Ben and daddy had fun bonding nonetheless.  

Grandpa and Auntie Anna stopped over to see Benji for a bit after the game.  Grandpa just so happened to have a train set sitting around his house just waiting to be played with, so you-know-who was the happy recipient of that gift. While he doesn't quite get how it works just yet, he loves it!  When he gets tired of pushing the trains around, he stacks up all the pieces.  He tries over and over and over until he makes a nice tower.  After he gets bored with that, his new favorite thing is using his chair to climb on to the couch and then he throws all of the pillows from the couch on to the ground and runs back and forth until we get too nervous he is going to fall.  He just laughs and admires his handiwork.  He can keep us entertained for hours!  Love him so much!!

And last, but definitely not least, on Sunday night, Andy made possibly the most delicious soup in the whole world.   (This is coming from perhaps the most picky eater in the whole world.)  It was chicken noodle, but it also had rice, carrots, corn, garlic, and onions.  As usual, he had the other spices exactly perfect and it was completely flavorful and healthy--no salt added!  He could seriously open a restaurant with all of the delicious and nutritious meals he comes up with.    He also always manages to get the presentation just right as well.  And then he cleans everything up too.  What a guy!  I am one blessed girl.  Nothing beats a weekend with my boys!

Weekend Recap: More Halloween + Christmas Fun

Happy Monday!  Thanks to the Packers/Bears game on Monday night football, it feels like a Sunday but the best part is--- it's almost Tuesday!  Since I have plenty of time, I'm going to recap our Halloween festivities in addition to our weekend fun.  We finally carved pumpkins.  Although I was pumped to get seeds, Benj wasn't sure what to think.  We tried to get him to touch the various textures, but he was not that into it.  He had fun nonetheless.  I absolutely love each and every face he made when checking out all of the pumpkin guts.  Man I love this boy sooo much!

I am not quite sure why google thinks these pictures go together like this, but I thought it was kind of funny.  :)

I'm giving Benji all the credit for my new found love for Halloween.  I always dressed up and celebrated, but he takes my Halloween excitement to a whole new level.  That being said, I had big plans of doing a themed family costume, but before I knew it it was the night before Halloween and I was frantically running around Target trying to get the finishing touches for my work costume.  Ben rocked his monkey costume, but Andy and I were repeats--lame!  We'll get 'em next year!  After a miserable 2 hour doctor appointment (at which Ben was a complete angel, despite the not so angelic doc), Ben took a power nap before hitting up his library playgroup's Halloween party.  I would have traded all of the Halloween candy in the world to be able to go, but thanks to the never ending doctor appointment, that wasn't in the cards.  My mom has some video that I haven't been able to check out yet, but even Andy reported that it was the cutest thing ever.

While I now believe that Halloween should be a legal holiday so that I can hang out with my boys, unfortunately I had to work.  I rushed home after work to get ready for our mini-party and for the trick-or-treaters!  Since it was rainy and dark, I'm extra happy that we trick-or-treated last weekend.  Ben and Andy did go to 2 of the neighbors' houses and came home with 2 giant-size candy bars.  Clearly we weren't the favorite house on the block!  We ended up just having some friends over and eating festive foods and drinking festive drinks.  Although I had a Pinterest board full of ideas, believe it or not I did not have time to be too cutesy.  However, between the jack o' lantern pizza my mom picked up for us and every orange product I could find in addition to a creepy pandora station, we were in perfectly good shape for a Halloween party.  We probably had about 10 groups of kids come by, so it was a good thing I bought candy that I don't like.  Unfortunately, Ben got a hold of the leftovers and managed to nibble a little hole in nearly ever piece.

Saturday might as well have been a holiday because after music class and a quick stop at work (boo), Andy and I went OUT!  His friends from college, who he hasn't seen in almost 3 years, were in town for the Packers' game.  I didn't want to ask my mom to watch Ben since she already watches him during the week, but (no) thanks to the above mentioned doctor appointment, I think she was concerned about my mental health and essentially insisted that we go out.  (Side note: she is seriously the best mom in the word and I'm not sure that I would function as a mom without her.)  We ended up going to not one, not two, but THREE different restaurant/bars downtown.   Andy was in heaven reliving his glory days and I was in heaven after learning Benji ate tomatoes and fries at Culver's in addition to his other food.  (Eat that, GI doc.)

Despite our wild and crazy night (we were home by 10:30,) we were up with the sun on Sunday morning for the Jingle Bell Run at the zoo!  We've done this run several times and it is actually the first run that Andy and I did together when we first started dating.  It was also the first ever 5k for my coworker and friend Anne.  It was Ben's first 5k too! The weather was perfect and the fall leaves were gorgeous, so all in all a perfect morning!  My little snow bunny was double bundled in festive pajamas and he actually napped for the majority of the run as I pushed him in the jogging stroller.

Just as I suspected, despite minimal training, Andy went out there and dominated.  Anne and I also rocked it as well!  She did a fabulous job--especially for her first 5k!  I think and hope she will do another one!  To top it all off, all of the jinglebell-ing got me SUPER excited for the upcoming holiday season!  Andy and I always have to compromise on when the Christmas music can start, so it was nice to get a little sampler.  We're supposedly waiting until November 15th this year.  He caved last year.  :)

Benj and I ended our weekend with a visit to Great-Grandma's house while Andy met up with his friends again.  In other words, it was the perfect ending to our fantastic weekend.  I'm already looking forward to the next one!