What a beautiful girl!

Bennett met his good friend Charli Miltenberger today... here they are being nap buddies.

What a pretty girl... love the hair! Her mom and dad, Jania and Tony are doing great, enjoying the first few days home with their little girl.

Standing up tall...

With all of Bennetts extra chubbiness he wasnt a big fan of standing up. Suddenly this week he sure thinks it is funny and doesnt want to sit at all anymore. When putting him in the tub, diaper changing table or anywhere else he locks his knees and just wants to stand. It is pretty funny how he is changing all the time and finding new things.

This is one of our nurses attempting to put him down to change him... turned into a good laugh.

Good morning sunshine

Too cute when he is all sleepy in the morning!

Bennett is 0.5 tomorrow!

Yes Bennett is 0.5 years old tomorrow! He shares this birthday week with his daddy. Joel turned 34 this week... what handsome birthday boys I have :) Grandma Jones and I made this cake for Joel... kinda funny...

He also shares this birthday week with his good friend Charli Miltenberger... Her mommy and daddy, our great friends Jania and Tony Miltenberger are in the hospital right now waiting for her arrival... we all can not wait to meet her!

Bennett has been doing great this week. He is healthy happy and just doing more fun baby stuff... only a week or so more until we are up in Seattle again. I know he will do great and be home before we know it... such a strong little man we have!!!

Mr Independant!

This is Bennett saying... "Hey Mom, let me do it my way"

He has just started holding his bottle to eat. He had a great weekend with Grandmama & Grandpapa Jones who happened to be camping near Olympia so it was a quick day trip to see them and give Joel & I a few extra hands for the day. We assure him that next summer will be way cooler when we can go real camping in the trailer with his two newest cousins!

Another cousin!!!

This is Bennett cheering when he heard he has another cousin on the way!

This weekend we went down to Grandmama & Grandpapa's house and hung out with Auntie Jeanie for her 30th Birthday. We had a lot of baby talk going on because Auntie Jeanie is pregnant! The whole family is very excited for all the kiddos this year.

Auntie Katie and Uncle Marty will be welcoming cousin Reece at the beginning of August and Auntie Jeanie and Uncle Kippy will be welcoming their little one the first week of November. We will definitely have a fun Christmas with all the babies!

He spent some time on the back deck with Daddy and Uncle Kippy. It was a fun day and Bennett sure seemed to love playing with everyone!

Are you my mother?

I have had a few hours to kill while Bennett is sleeping and we need to stay close by in the nursery.

So if you dont recognize it, it is the little bird and the tree that he falls from in the book "Are You My Mother?"

Bennett loves reading this book and I think it turned out pretty cute.

Happy Mothers Day

For Mothers day we spent Saturday at Grandma & Grandpa Jones' house. It was a beatiful day of sun on the back deck... what a treat to get out of the house for a day to spend with family.

On Sunday we drove up to Grandma & Grandpa Olsen's house and spent the morning with them. It was a busy weekend of outtings but we did ok and Bennett sure seemed to like to get out.

He is officially on the move!

Bennett has finally figured out a way to get out of the dreaded "tummy time" we have tortured him with lately. Last night he just started kicking and flipped over! We are just sooo excited to get to see him make all these milestones at home playing as a family.

Here is a little video of another flip this morning!

We will be chasing him around before we know it!

And now there is a plan!

Bennett, Grandmama and I went up to the Otolyrongology (ENT) Clinic on Monday and met with the Surgeon to talk about Bennett's road to recovery and getting the trach out.

We decided to do a surgery and it is scheduled tentatively for June 18th. The surgery will remove his tonsils, adenoids and part of the back of his tongue. This will hopefully clear him a great airway to make him a great little sleeper and to keep his little tongue in his mouth on a regular basis.

The surgeon said that about 6 - 8 weeks post surgery he will take a look down his throat and see about getting the trach out. This was great news because we were under the impression that it would take about a year to get the trach out... I am trying to still be open minded but I am ecstatic to see an end in sight. Once he has the trach out we will have no need for nurses in our home or all that crazy machinery! It will be nice to have life back to normal a bit and give our little guy a little more freedom!

I know he will be running around chasing our dog Hurlie before we know it and I will wish we were back at this stage... he is just growing and changing so much each day and we are trying to sit back and enjoy it even with all the craziness.

Toys Toys Toys

So Although Bennett was born almost 5 months ago, since he was born 2 months early, we can only expect him to be acting as a 3 month old. We have been waiting paitently for him to be more enchanted with toys and really want to play with them. The last couple weeks he has been trying to figure out his hands and how they can help him explore the world.

Today Grandmama Ruth and I went to raid Babies R Us to get all those toys we have been dying to buy that make all those obnoxious rattling and dinging sounds and we came up with a few things that Bennett sure had fun with.

Here are some videos of him playing... He is just starting to grab at toys and use his little fingers to check them out.

He seems to not know what to make of the swing but sure seems interested...

I swear you will be friends someday...

Bennett had his very first play date with another baby... His good friend Hadley Block and her parents, our friends Andy and Shannon Block, stopped in to say hi on their trip home from Switzerland. She is a beautiful little girl and happily makes little cooing noises and plays. Joel and I had kinda forgotten that babies can make sounds like that. We were trying to get them to take a picture together but both of their naps had been interupted and they werent having any of it :)

It was sure fun to see the Blocks and we are excited they will be moving back this summer so that Hadley and Bennett can hang out more often.

Bennett is heading up tomorrow for his first outpatient Seattle Childrens Clinic appointment since his surgery. He has been quite the happy baby at home and just settling in more and more each day. The home nursing has worked out great and mom and dad are finally getting some sleep at night.

Dad is finally getting the hang of our high maintenance child in the baby bjorn... it isnt easy with all the cords so it definately takes some getting used to. But he is getting really heavy so it is a must while carting him around the house.

So this is what outside is like...

I guess when you have a baby in December it isnt too crazy to have them not see what outside is really like until they are a couple months old... but since Bennett has spent most of his life inside a hospital room it felt extra special to get outside in our backyard.

We just spent some time walking around the yard and I was a little worried about his little head getting too much sunshine so I found this hat... We didnt tell him he looked a little like a garden gnome.

He sure loves being outside and I know it will be part of everyday as long as it is sunny!

Best birthday present ever!

We got to come home on Saturday (my birthday :) and it did seem like the best present in the world... and Joel totally came through with the diamond earings and chocolate cake he made himself!! What a guy!

Bennett was scheduled to be discharged on Thursday but he woke up with an awful cough and goobers everywhere... nowhere better to get his first cold than a hospital I guess. So they kept him until Saturday to make sure he was fighting it well enough. He is still stuck with that awful tube up his nose because we havent completely resolved the swallowing air issue and this is the easiest way to retrieve air from his belly at the moment.

We're back!

I think Bennett missed his Drs and nurses at Seattle Childrens. On Monday evening Bennett started being a little stinker with some of his oxygen levels. He seemed to not be taking deep enough breaths. So after a few hours of not getting better we paged to the Craniofacial team at Childrens. We all decided it was best to be safe and bring him up to get him checked out. We all feared he was developing a cold that would quickly turn to pneumonia for little guys like Bennett.

So at around 1 am Tuesday morning we got a chest Xray where his lungs looked pretty good... but it did show that his bowels were up where his lungs are. It turns out his bowels were FULL of air. The Dr immediately came to the conclusion that all this air in his tummy was preventing him from taking deep breaths (he compared it to a pregnant person that gets short of breath, this was all too familiar to me) Trach kids are really prone to swallowing air. So we were admitted to work on moving some of the air south and prevent him from taking in more air.

Preventing him from swallowing more air has proven to be more difficult than we thought... we will see what they come up with. We are hoping to get out of here in the next couple of days and back to loving being home with the family!

The Easter Bunny's first visit to our house...

Bennett was pretty stoked when he woke up to see the Easter Bunny had visited our house in the night... It had some toys for this Summer, a strange Chicken puppet and some candy for Dad.

His Auntie Katie, Uncle Marty, Cousin Maddie, Auntie Jeanie, Uncle Kippy and Grandmama & Grandpapa came to our house to celebrate Bennett being home and to color Easter Eggs. We sure had fun and enjoyed a family day visiting. Grandmama brought this fun seat with toys all over it... He loved kicking and playing in it.

It took Daddy, all the uncles and Grandpapa to install a ceiling fan in the nursery and Bennett is a little skeptical of it... he stares at it with suspicion...

Redecorating the Nursery

We are home and working on setting everything up. As you can see there is some new equipment and new organization. Even some new people. The nurse above is Stacey and she has been a huge help getting us all settled in and giving me an extra set of hands for everything with Bennett. Thank you Grandpapa for the cool new cabinets for organization!

I cant even explain how wonderful it feels to be back in our home as a family. Even our doggie, Miss Hurlie, is loving having everyone together again.

Good thing I'm Cute!

Bennett may be a bit high maintenance but he sure makes up for it in cuteness!

Here we are having some play time waiting for Daddy to get here today. Enjoying some sunshine (well through the window but still nice)

This is Bennett's "I'm tired and I just want to snuggle" look... he may be the snuggliest baby in the world...

Wrapping up our hospital stay

This week we have been wrapping up all that needs to be done to get home. Grandmama Ruth and I finished our trach training and Joel will finish his at the beginning of next week. We are scheduling our home nurses and finishing up our dreaded insurance paperwork. It looks like we will be heading home on Wednesday and I am really looking forward to being home as a family again.

It has been quite a treat to have Grandmama Ruth here to help while Joel cant get off too much work. She sure seems to know how to get the smiles!

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.

Its another BOY!

Bennett's newest cousin is a boy! Katie Marty and Maddie are very excited. We cant wait to meet him in August!

Although we always thought it was really cute...

Bennett seems to love to stick out his tongue... we have always thought it was super cute, but it seems that he may be sticking it out because of some throat and mouth issues. The reason we are concerned is our Dr. thinks it may be causing some breathing obstruction problems. We have met with an ear nose throat Dr. at Childrens Hospital in Seattle and he thinks that surgery to change the back of his mouth may be our best option. We have a few more tests and screening to do but it looks like our little man may have to spend a couple more days in the hospital around May or June. We will keep everyone updated but the Dr. thinks he will be good as new minus his cute little tongue hanging out.

Bennett loves Dr. Suess. His Grandma Ruth has bought him some of his mommy's favorite from when she was little like, Green Eggs and Ham & One Fish Two Fish. We read them a ton and he loves to listen to all the ryhming words.

We have just been enjoying all the parts of having a 2 1/2 month old at home. He is awake a ton now, holds his head up and seems to make all these new sounds and Joel swears he is going to pop out his first words at any second, haha. He is really acting somewhere inbetween a 2 1/2 month old and a baby that is just 3 weeks past his due date... just where he needs to be.

He even thought it was pretty funny when he had poopy in tub tonight... so cute if it wasnt in the big bathtub with mom... yuck!

Bennett's Family Day...

On Feb. 7th we had some family over to meet Bennett for the first time... It was wonderful seeing everyone and the food was amazing. Thank you Aunt Jeanie, Aunt Katie, Grandma Ruth & Auntie Pam!!

Thank you everyone for coming and thank you Aunt Pam and Uncle Paul for taking some great Pics!

Auntie Jeanie

The Olsens :)

Bennett looking handsome in his car hoodie

All the girlie's checking out Bennett

My two Valentines... what a lucky lady.

I had to post this picture... it is a good representation of our valentines day this year. Although it may have lacked a little romance, spending time with my boys is always amazing.

Bennett has continued to just be a lovely little man... but seems to have learned how to aleart mom and dad he is awake with a great set of lungs. He is awake more each day, sometimes I feel like more than we are.

He was excited to hear his good friend Hadley Rose Block was born happy & healthy on Feburary 12 in Zurich, Switzerland. She is the daughter of our good friends Andy & Shannon Block and we are very much looking forward to meeting her on her first visit home this May.

Bennett will sure be missing his Grandma & Grandpa while they are in Mexico this next couple weeks. Too bad they didnt invite their favorite grandson!! Mom will have to read extra Dr. Suess to remind him of his Grandma.

Bennett has a new cousin on the way...

Bennett's Aunt Katie and Uncle Marty are expecting a little one this August. Bennett is really excited to meet his new cousin! We are sooo happy for Katie, Marty & Maddie and we look forward to many many play dates in the future.

Love you guys!!

Family Photos

Alison at Horizon Photo has completed the family pictures we did a couple weeks ago. Here is the link to a great little slide show.

http://horizonphoto.net/slideshows/Bennett1/

For family that would like a copy of any of them just shoot me an email and we will get it ordered.

They turned out great and I can not believe how small he looks in the pictures... he has grown so much since then already!

Thank you Alison, We love them!!!