Lots of Visitors!

Auntie Katie entertaining Bennett in his Bumbo seat!

We had a great weekend relaxing and hanging out with baby and recovering from our busy week in the hospital.

Our friends Kate and Cory came to see the little guy on Saturday. It was great to see them and they brought many little treats for Bennett and us. We are definately excited to see their little one that is arriving in July.

On Sunday his Uncle Marty and Auntie Katie came to hang out! His Auntie Katie can always make him smile, surprize, surprize!

This week we will be getting things ready to head home... there is a lot that goes into taking a little man home that has a Trach. Our nurses that will be working in our home will be coming to meet him this week. We are excited to be heading home... I havent been home in 3 weeks and I am definately looking forward to sleeping at home with our family!

Brushing Teeth!

Bennett sure loves the fancy hospital tooth (or gum) brush!

Some more big smiles for the Mobile and Mom's dorky voice.

Play time

So if you play the movie above please ignore all the wierdo sounds I was making in an attempt to get him to smile... apparently it was kinda working. He sure seems to be handling this better than any of us and is just all smiles.

We are just hanging out and getting used to living at the hospital... but we will be ready to go home when they let us. It looks like we are still aiming for the second week of April. We will know more after our care conference with all his Drs this Friday.

Joel is on his way up to stay the night and Bennett is excited because he sure misses his daddy during the week.

Getting used to life on the medical floor

We have been settling in all weekend and learning how to take care of Bennett. Our official classes start next week and Granmda Ruth will be up taking them with us. Since he has been getting his feeds through that tube in his nose he has been really missing his bottle and has been obsessed with his bink... So we have been working on keeping his bink in his mouth without moms assistance because I dont want to hang over his crib all night. So using his big fat fingers he seems to keep it in ok.

We had a quiet weekend with Dad up visiting and Aunt Jeanie and Uncle Kippy visiting on Saturday. We even watched Twilight finally.

Moving on up...

Bennett moved to the medical floor... this means that we get to start learning how to care for him and all his new attachments... so it all depends on how well we catch on and then we will be heading home. It is looking like the second week of April.

We will have some in home nursing care for a while so that we can get some sleep at night and Bennett will have constant supervision. I am sure he will charm those nurses just like he does the ones here and win them over instantly.

Here is a pic of our new digs... still loving his new mobile.

Our little chubba boy

So noone can say we arent feeding this kid... He is definately feeling better and back to smiling and flirting with the nurses. This video cracks me up because although that tube is giving him a constanst source of food he just looks starving... so dramatic.

We got him a little plastic mobile, it actually just hangs over his bed and doesnt do much at all but it has some neat pictures on it and he seems to be completely entertained by it.

He may get moved to the medical floor and out of the ICU in the next couple days.

still sticking out his tongue... and loving it

Quite the Hospitality!

Bennett is doing great today. He is off the morphine from the surgery and seems to be a trouper and doing really well without it. He is just chilling out in the ICU and will be here until at least next Thursday. He is just working on getting used to breathing on his own through the Tracheotomy and just keeping him relaxed so that he doesn't mess with his neck too much so that it can heal up.

We continue to have great nurses here and have been pretty excited with how great we feel about his care... this hospital is truly amazing with the little kiddos here.

During the time we are in the ICU they encourage parents to get out of the hospital and sleep elsewhere due to the traffic in and out and the fact that we really wont be able to leave the hospital once he is moved to the medical floor.

So last night Joel and I stayed with our good friends Katy and Mike Rokasy... what a treat it has been to have such a wonderful place to stay so close to the hospital. After a well needed glass of red wine last night and some great sleep, we woke up this morning to coffee, eggs and pancakes! We definitely needed it after a very emotional and hard week.

We have spent some time with Grandma & Grandpa Olsen today and Skyped (video chat over my laptop) right at his bedside with Grandma Ruth & Aunt Katie.

Thank you everyone for all your prayers... the man upstairs must being listening because Bennett is continuing to amaze us with how well he is doing.

Hospital pictures

Before Surgery... Happy little guy

After surgery... drugged up little sleeper

From the ICU

Bennett and I are hanging out in the Intensive Care Unit in Seattle Children's Hospital.

After an appointment about his breathing & Sleeping issues this past Monday the Dr.s decided that his sleep study results were so poor that he would have to be admitted to the hospital and schedule a surgery. He was having some significant sleep apnea due to an obstruction in his airway.

His surgery was yesterday, It went great and gave the surgeon a chance to look closely into his airway and check out the problem more closely. The surgeon also put a Tracheotomy in place. For those who don't know, it is a tube in his neck to establish a clear airway. This will only be temporary until we can clear the obstruction in his airway... then he will be sent off to be a normal little boy. Sadly this process may take up to a year.

We love the team that is looking after him and Children's has the best Drs. in the region so we definitely feel like we are in good hands.

Thankfully he is completely oblivious to any problems and while he is in recovery from the surgery now he will be back to smiling and making everyone around him smile before we know it.

The surgeon did mention that due to the enormous amount of fat under his chin that Bennett got a bit of Lipo on his second chin.... nicely done kiddo.

I wont lie, the little guy has looked better but I will snap a few pictures so that we can tease him about all this when he is older :)

We appreciate everyones prayers and our family looks forward to seeing everyone when the little guy is feeling a little better.

We realize that with all the excitement of getting him here and now being in the ICU it may appear we have been dealt a pretty difficult hand but I assure everyone Joel and I feel like the luckiest parents in the world and can not believe how amazing he is everyday.

My new big boy seat!

Bennett got this cute new seat... I have attempted not to cave and buy too much gimmicky baby junk... but he seems to really like the Bumbo Seat. Now that he can hold his head up he can just chill and watch mom cook dinner.

But it says in great big letters to not put it on elevated surfaces and so Hurlie is sneaking in a few licks when she can because he is within reach on the floor in his seat... she is sure enjoying her close baby time. We are obviously very careful with Hurlie around Bennett but she has been really gentle and has actually learned that the baby does not like kisses :) and he sure seems to think she is pretty neat and it doesn't bother him at all to have her gigantic head near his. They are doing great together.

We have been working with the Dr. on Bennetts upcoming tongue & mouth surgery and have possibly found a special baby surgeon in St. Louis that specializes in this specific surgery. He is the best of the best in the world for this and it is only the best for our little man. We will know more this next week but it is looking like we may head over that way in a few weeks. We will keep everyone updated.

Sleep Study... Saddest Baby in the World!

After our appointments the last couple weeks that determined Bennett has a bit of a breathing problem from some mouth and tongue issues, the Dr. opted for a fairly routine sleep study to make sure this wasnt leading to sleep apnea or any other sleeping problems.

We left the shower yesterday feeling pretty good about the night ahead relaxing, snuggling baby and watching some TV while they monitored our little guys sleep habits.... WAY easier said than done...

Turns out they "monitor" him by placing metal probs all over his body and sticking it there with a very thick sticky vaseline substance.... Needless to say this was not Bennetts favorite process. They topped it all off by wrapping his probed head with a big gauze helmet in an attempt to make it more comfortable, (that seemed to be unsuccessful)

I am pretty sure we may need some Goo-Gone to get it out of his hair because he still looks like he has a little Jerry Curl on his head after another bath at home this morning, and nearly ripping out the minimal amount of hair he does have.

So after the long process of getting him all hooked up the very painful longer process of getting him to sleep with all the junk on began... I think Bennett thought the experience was almost as painful as it was for Mom and Dad.

Good news is he is sleeping very soundly all cuddled up in his bassinett right now and is back to being one happy little baby. :)

Baby Shower!

Because Bennett had such a graceful enterance into the world we didnt have time to have a shower before he got here so he got to go to his own shower.

It was great to see all the girls and family! My favorite part was that Sandy and Terra had everyone bring a book from their childhood to write in for Bennett... He got sooo many wonderful books that I can not wait to read to him. We have already started reading a ton of Dr. Suess (which were some of my favorite from when I was little) and I know he will love all the news ones he got yesterday!

Joels favorite part of the shower is that the ladies were soliciting college funds for Bennett in this great piggy bank (made by Terra). We have a good little fund I pulled from it this morning and ran to startbucks... just kidding, I will be taking it to WAMU tomorrow to open up a money market to grow for the next 17+ years until he runs off to college someday.

Thank you sooo much Grandma Sandy and Terra! We had a great time and what a treat to be showered with all those great gifts.