The Many Faces of Ben

I can't believe that Ben is already a month old! We went in for his 4 week checkup last Friday and he now weighs 10 pounds 4 ounces, and is just under 22.5 inches long! 2 pounds and 2 inches in 4 weeks. Definitely not having a problem growing! Ben is starting to become more vocal and is getting better at tracking people with his eyes. Matt and I both have gotten one genuine smile out of him and can't wait for more! He eats every 2-3 hours during the day, and sleeps about 3-4 hours between feedings at night. He is exclusively eating formula now. I love spending every minute of every day with him!

Ben somehow inherited the Fischer furrow. I feel like I have to take pictures of his cute outfits because he is always wrapped in a blanket, or we don't leave the house at all, whenever we see people.

Ben LOVES the carseat. As long as he isn't hungry, he is great in the car and falls asleep quickly.

Ben is a binkie baby! That big binkie covers most of his face but he is almost always soothed by it.

I loved watching him curl himself up to get comfy in his swing!

He likes to spread out too! He slept like this in the stroller for a few hours while I helped Matt with electrical at his dad's house.

Matt needed a sports buddy. He set Ben up like this to watch the RSL game and Ben was perfectly happy with the set up.

Harrison was so excited to hold Ben. He kept laughing whenever Ben would move or open his eyes.

Ben's first work meeting also was his first diaper blowout! He was quite calm after the blowout.

At the park with the kids. So long and skinny.

Ben's eyes are all clear from the broken blood vessels! He is awake for usually an hour after he eats during the day, so I see those big eyes all the time!

Another happy and calm moment after a blowout.

His great aunt Denise gave him this cute baseball outfit, which he wore to Matt's softball game!

My mom and Jeff came for a visit. I love this picture because I just want to squish his face all the time! The look on his face is priceless!

He finds the funniest ways to sleep.

Ben hates the bath. I don't know if it isn't comfortable or scary or what, but he hates it. I took this picture after I pulled him out and he was happy again.

Ben is growing out of his newborn clothes! For roughly the past two weeks, he has been wearing some of his 3 month stuff! The tops are a little loose and the bottoms are pretty loose, but the newborn size is definitely too small!

Ben likes sleeping in the stroller and will fall asleep in the stroller if we walk in the road. The uneven, bumpy ground is calming for him. He's not in love with the stroller while he's awake.

Another carseat picture. People always gawk when they see these tiny little feet sticking out of his carseat when we're out running errands.

Naughty boy gets caught sucking on his fingers every once in a while

I just want to squish his face!

Couldn't resist!

Blakelee liked looking at Ben while he was sleeping. She would point at him and laugh. It was so cute! They are going to be good friends.

Matt and I celebrated our sixth anniversary on August 15. Ben spent the morning with Jenny and slept the whole time! The kids were glad when we came back over and he was awake.

We tried the shower with Ben and he loved it! He goes limp and calm and will sit happily in the swing for a few minutes while I finish showering.

We tried out the Ergo Baby carrier when we visited Nate and Jenni's camp last weekend. Ben slept good in the carrier, but Matt said he was like a little heater! Perfect for cold football games!

Caught one of the elusive sleep smiles on camera!

Such a happy boy!

Sorry for the picture overload! We love this boy of ours!

Back to the Land of the Living... Maybe

I apologize to people who still read this... all two of you. I use this blog as a journal so I can sometimes get a little wordy. Sorry. I'll put some pictures in my next post.

The past month has been a whirlwind. After going to the ER for my headache and working through all of our feeding issues, we were starting to get into a routine. Ben is sleeping about 3 hours between feedings at night. Sometimes more, sometimes less, but 3 is a good average. During the day he likes to eat more often, usually every 2 hours. Again, sometimes he'll go longer or shorter. We usually get out for a couple errands every day. When August hit, we started to have meetings to go to and he always did great. He even was so happy for work meetings that he had a blowout at every single one! We were able to go to park day a couple times and get to school for some prep work. The days were ticking by until school started.

Then, Tuesday, August 18, decided to change everything. I blame the day. The next day (August 19) was Cassie's 21st birthday. On my 21st birthday, I spent the day in the ER with kidney stones. Well, someone is watching out for Cass and decided to give her birthday kidney stones to me. I woke up feeling fine, Ben and I got ready and were relaxing and then I started to have some back pain. I didn't think much of it but it didn't go away. In fact it just got worse. And worse. To the point that after a few hours I couldn't even pick up Ben without feeling a lot of pain. Matt was at work, so I decided to call Jenny and have her help me with Ben. I hadn't really decided what I wanted her to help me with- I guess just to calm him down since he was crying and I couldn't pick him up. She came over and immediately got Ben calm and then suggested we go to the hospital. She guessed that I had kidney stones. I agreed and while she was getting Ben ready I just laid on the floor in a ball. I was shaking and felt nauseous, and ended up throwing up before we left.

We got to the hospital and they had me do a urine test and get into a gown. I saw a couple nurses and a PA before they decided to put in an IV. I got poked twice before the IV was in and they could draw blood for testing, and luckily they were pretty quick at getting some pain meds in the IV. I think they could tell something was going on and I was in real pain. I also had a fever so they had to give me something for that. Around this time, Matt came and Jenny took Ben for a while. No one would let me have anything to drink just in case I needed surgery, and my mouth and throat were way dry. They finally got my blood work back, and said I had a pretty bad kidney infection. They said I had blood in my urine but wanted to do a CT scan to see if it was kidney stones. The scan confirmed a 4mm stone just at the top of my bladder and a 1mm stone in my kidney. The head doctor at the ER came in, along with two urologists, who all said they were concerned about the larger stone getting infected (the fever ended up being the reason I got such good care) and wanted to take it out. They said it could pass on its own, but were worried about the infection. We opted to get it out! The surgeon said he could get me into the operating room within a couple hours.

Jenny brought Ben back and Matt watched him while we waited to go to the OR. They got me prepped for surgery and put me under. They were going to go in and pull out the stone and then get me ready to go home. They ended up finding two stones in the same place and pulled them both out and put a stent in place to help drain everything out. Everything else went as planned and we headed home that night. The next day, my doctor called and said that I had a blood infection, which helped explain why I was so tired and sore everywhere. I had a terrible night the second night- my back was killing me, I had a headache, and a 102 degree fever. I called the doctor again and he said that all that was normal but called in another medicine.

I am slowly feeling better. Still weak, still sore, still bothered when I use the bathroom, but mostly okay. A couple days after surgery, I went in to the office to have the stent removed. That was a lot easier than I expected. The doctor told me that he thinks my kidney infection was from the urinary tract infection I got after I had Ben. He said that I was lucky that I came in to the ER when I did, and even luckier that the head doctor called the urology department. He said that I could have been very sick. So yes, I am very happy that I didn't get more sick than I did. However, I am frustrated that I was finally getting back to normal and then I got really sick. I missed back to school night and the first day of school. There's no way I could have gone in feeling how I did (Matt wouldn't let me), but I still was sad and watching the clock thinking about what they were doing.

What a crazy couple days. Please everyone cross your fingers that I can start getting healthy and get back to normal! No more hospital visits!

Our First Week Home

Matt, Ben and I were discharged on Sunday, July 19. We were very ready to be going home. On our way home, we stopped at Sinclair. It was the first time we had to think about being normal people and having a baby! Matt ran in for drinks and Ben and I stayed in the car. We spent the afternoon with family and friends checking in on us and loving baby Ben!

I was feeling great after we got home! On Monday night I started to get a headache. I figured it was related to exhaustion, dehydration, starvation, and stress. We had more visitors and a neighbor brought over dinner. Ben was a little fussy and wanted to eat all the time! We had a rough night- I was up every other hour (or less) feeding and Ben was screaming! He was not happy!

By Tuesday afternoon, my headache was terrible. I called my doctor and she prescribed some heavier pain meds, which we picked up on our way to Ben's appointment with the pediatrician. At the doctor's office, they checked Ben over and everything looked good. He weighed 7 pounds 11 ounces, which was 9 ounces less than when he was born. Dr. Brown wasn't worried as long as he didn't lose any more weight. He recommended that we go to the lactation specialist to find out what was going on. After the appointment, my headache still hadn't gone away so I called my doctor again, who told me that I could go to the ER if I needed to, but she didn't think it was an epidural headache and figured the pain meds would take care of it. I had an awful night. My headache wouldn't go away, Ben was starving and screaming, and I was trying to feed him every 45 minutes. Matt had to go to young men's so I was alone for a few hours and got a little emotional. I didn't know what was wrong or what to do! After Matt got home, we talked a lot about what to do. We realized that Ben was starving and that he wasn't getting enough from me. We decided to try giving him some formula to get through the night. He slept so well that night! That was when we realized that I wasn't producing enough milk to feed Ben. It made a huge difference for him (and us) to have a good night's sleep.

On Wednesday, my mom and Jeff came up for the day. I had an appointment with a lactation specialist so my mom came with Ben and I to that, and Matt and Jeff went to work on his dad's house. The lactation specialist weighed Ben and he was back up to 8 pounds 2 ounces after one night of good feedings. She gave me some great advice about nursing and helped us put together a plan. She was concerned about my headache and swollen feet. She thought that my milk hadn't come in because my body was working hard to heal so many other things, and encouraged me to go to the ER about my headache. We spent a ridiculous three hours in the ER and left without any pain relief. They didn't think my headache was bad enough for any treatment other than an IV of fluids. Luckily, we had figured out how to help Ben, so I was able to deal with my headache.

On Thursday and Friday, Ben and I stayed home and rested all day. Matt went to work on his dad's house and we spent the day relaxing. Sleeping really helped! I was almost totally better by Saturday. We even went to Sam's Club and visited Matt at his dad's house. It is definitely easier to take care of a newborn when you feel good yourself!

After the crazy week, I realized that it didn't matter how I felt, all that mattered was my sweet new baby boy! I apologize in advance, but here are a bunch of phone pictures of my baby! It made me so happy when we were able to keep him happy!

Isn't he the cutest?