Fourth of July

We spent the Fourth of July on Camano Island.  Erik's family came up from Oregon and the eating, drinking, chatting and laughing couldn't have been better.  Benson went in for his surgery the Monday right after the 4th, so in all of these pictures he has his NG tube.  His face has no tube or tape now! :)  Hoping all of you enjoyed the holiday with your loved ones.

Benson had his surgery two weeks ago today. He has spent everyday recovering.  For at least the first week he was in a lot of pain.  He would cry and fuss whenever Erik or I would touch his stomach.  Neither one of us realized how intense this recovery process would be.  We can finally say he is starting to act like himself again - happy 99% of the time.  We feel so fortunate that he is a happy baby because that makes him so enjoyable to be around and made it easy to tell when he needed extra comfort measures. I ended up taking him into SCH last Tuesday because I was so worried about him.  He ended up going on a 5 day antibiotic because there was a chance he was dealing with a low grade infection.  Good news he is acting like himself more and more each day.  We love our boy so much!  We love you for your prayers and good thoughts.  Thank you!

 grandparents

Benson loves his family and the camera!

Home

Benson was discharged from the hospital this evening.  His surgery was a success.  His comfort level is improving but he still needs more recovery time.  Thankfully we are able to do this at home.  The new tube is working great and we are ecstatic about his face.  Today Benson turned 10 months old. He is an incredible gift and we fall more and more in love with him each day.  Enjoy his beautiful face...

Quick Surgery Update

This is Erik typing this entry, as Bre is currently holding our amazing boy. Great, but not surprising, Benson did well with the surgery. We will likely be able to take him home on Wednesday after the team is sure Benson is stable and they teach us all we need to know about his new g-tube. Benson is in quite a bit of pain right now, so all of your prayers and positive thoughts would be very much appreciated. We will update you all more later, but wanted to let everyone know that it went well.

Here is a photo of Benson yesterday, getting prepped for the surgery in warrior mode!

Surgery Scheduled - Monday July 9th

Bitter sweet... Benson loves his hands and we recognize this as a complete blessing. With his new found love he pulls out his NG (nasogastric) feeding tube far too often. Erik and I have to put back the tube ourselves and even though I've finally stopped crying when I do it these days, it's not fair to Benson. You have probably noticed B wearing mittens or socks on his hands in most of his pictures. We do that to prevent him from pulling out his tube but he's smarter and stronger now, so a G-tube (gastric tube) is our solution. We will access his new tube right on his stomach. The surgeon told us it will look similar to a button. From there we can hook up his food. Some of you might wonder why he even needs a feeding tube. Benson needs about 700 ml a day and currently he's taking about 30 ml by bottle. We are working with him, slowly trying to increase that volume but ultimately he needs more time to coordinate his suck, swallow and breathe. This is not an area we want to rush. Benson has the ability to grow new lung tissue until he's about age 5. Therefore we want to do everything possible to help keep him healthy and growing strong.  We ask you to pray for a smooth and successful surgery.  We promise to give you an update, via this blog, once he's settled back in his recovery room later that afternoon.

Here are a couple short videos of Benson being the sweet boy we know him to be. Theses were taken within the last month.