Stuck Inside

With all the sickness going around we have tried to stay inside more.  That becomes a bit of a challenge when trying to keep a 2 year old out of trouble.  We've tried a lot of different and new activities, some more successful than others.  (Building with mini marshmallows and toothpicks is a bit beyond Isaac's attention span.  He's way more into just eating the marshmallows.)

The other day I saw Isaac trying to trace different body parts so I thought it would be fun to make a life sized Isaac.  He thought it was pretty cool.  He tried to hold it's hand and give it a hug.


And, guess who's learned to smile?  Yeah, it's pretty adorable.  But it's also really hard to capture on camera.  This is the best we've gotten so far.  I'll keep trying.  Cute Ben!

 

A Little Something Funny

I need to start a sidebar dedicated to the funny things Isaac says.  But, until that happens, here's a little story from lunch time today.

I always ask Isaac what he'd like for lunch, sometimes open ended like that sometimes with options included.  If I leave it open ended he usually says "grapes" which is funny because we don't have them in the house all that often, especially this time of year.  Today I gave him options because he is still sort of restricted to the BRAT diet (yes, we are still not 100% over sickness at this house, ugh!).  He didn't like any of those options and told me he wanted Jack-o-lantern bread.  I couldn't understand him at first and then when I could figure out what he was saying I couldn't figure out what he meant by it.  So I proceeded to make a slice of toast that I was going to put a "jack-o-lantern" peanut butter face on when it dawned on me that what he really wanted was the pumpkin chocolate chip bread Jacob took to work yesterday.

Awesome.  Jack-o-lantern bread.  Where does he come up with these things?

Loving Ben

There is a lot to love about this little boy, and he's only been with us a month and a half!

He is the most mild mannered little babe.  And yet so alert too.

Sometimes I have to remind myself that he is a newborn because he behaves so much like an older baby already.  He eats, stays awake, and then gets a little fussy before falling asleep.  He usually falls asleep pretty quickly once swaddled and given his pacifier.  And especially if he's rocking in his swing.  He also sleeps 5-6 hours at night.  He's been a sleepy little one from the get go.  We initially had to wake him to feed him until the doctors gave us the go ahead to just let him sleep because he was putting on plenty of weight.  I love getting sleep.

 

Ben loves his family.  He definitely responds to his mom and dad's voice and especially to Isaac.  I think they are going to be good friends.  Isaac will show Ben his toys and tell him all about them.  I'm sure he can't wait for Ben to enjoy them too.

 

He loves to suck.  He almost always wants his pacifier and is a good eater.  And I'm much happier with his eating now that we have gone to straight formula feeding.

 

 

He's starting to lose his hair.  I know Isaac did this too but it seems like Isaac's hair lose was much later in the game.  Poor Ben may be a baldy soon.  But he's still adorable to me.

He's a sweet baby and a wonderful addition to our family.  When I was pregnant with Ben I would pray for a baby that would be a calming influence in our home.  And I think he is.  I've been a much more calm mother for this little guy.  I sure love him!

 

Sneak Peak

In the midst of our sickness (don't worry if shortly after getting home from the hospital Isaac and I caught the cold and then Isaac and Jacob caught a stomach bug.  Yeah, we've had an AWESOME two weeks at this household.) I stopped to take some photos of my adorable 1 month old babe.  Is he not the most perfect little boy you've ever seen?  I'll post more as I am able to edit them, but this one is probably my fav.

We're Home!

Luckily, Ben showed considerable improvement last night and was able to go off the oxygen completely.  We were released this afternoon.  Here are some sad photos of our little cutie.  I'll take some less sad photos soon.  For now I'm just trying to catch up on a little housework and time with my other two boys.  I missed them!  Thanks to all of you for your prayers.  I have a lot of empathy for parents who have children with chronic illnesses that require hospitalization.  Not sure how they manage that.  I was only there three days and was going crazy.


Benjamin in the ER with his sad little IV.

Isaac ready to go spend the night at Aunt Sarah's.  The report Jacob gave was that Isaac was super excited about wearing his shoes with his PJs.  He also loved getting his back pack ready to go.

And this is what Ben looked like for the majority of our stay at the hospital.  Well, when he was sleeping anyway.  We had plenty of alert time and fussiness.  But after lethargic pre-hospital baby I was thrilled to hear him cry and see him awake.

 

1 Month

Sweet baby Ben is a month old.  I have a few pictures but they are on cameras that are at home.  And Ben and I are in the hospital.

That was his one month gift:  RSV and hospitalization.

He's been sick for a week and had multiple trips to the Dr's office where they declared him fine, just a cold.  And then Saturday rolled around and he was more tired, wouldn't really eat, and then started with a fever.  So, to the urgent care we went.  They promptly sent me to the ER where they were probably going to send us home to care for the RSV there but then Ben's oxygen levels dropped when he fell asleep.  And just like that we were admitted.

I'm sad.  I'm trying not to have mommy guilt about a sick one month old but it's hard not to think of all the places we shouldn't have gone or things we shouldn't have done.  But the reality of the situation is, Ben probably caught this from us.  Jacob, Isaac and I have all been battling colds since Ben was born.  Poor little guy probably never stood a chance.

But I'm also sad to be in the hospital.  It's hard to care for a baby when you are limited in where you can go and what you can do by oxygen cords.  It's also hard being in the same room for days on end.  And its REALLY hard watching your little babe struggle with coughing fits.  But that was hard at home too.  And I'm sad to be away from Isaac.  Turns our I really miss my troublesome 2 year old.

I'm hopeful they'll release us soon.  Ben is doing really well.  He just can't seem to keep his oxygen levels up whenever they do a room air test.  He's not even on that high of an oxygen flow.  The doctor said she may send us home with oxygen but that scares me a little too.  I guess we'll wait and see what happens.  Hopefully we are on the improving side of things but it's hard to tell.  Poor, sweet Ben.