Another great day

Today makes day #57 for Benjamin in the NICU. When we arrived today, Benjamin was totally relaxed...he had just finished getting a massage from his personal masseuse/girlfriend...Renee. He's very fond of her and really enjoys her visits. She made him the sign I've included in this post, way too cute! Overall, today Benjamin had a pretty big day. They removed his chest tube..one less thing sticking out of him. We just hope he tolerates this well and gets to keep it out. Also, they were able to make another ventilator wean today.
Not long after we got there, his nurse, Amanda and Renee tried to move his head mid-line, and as soon as they did this, Ben threw up. Next thing we knew, we had 2 doctors and several other staff in his room. We very quickly found out that they were actually pleased with him doing this...basically, he was strong enough to get the fluid that would normally require some suctioning out on his own this time. They are expecting him to have pretty bad reflux, so they started him on protonix to help with this. They also said they are going to hold off on starting to feed him breast milk for a bit longer. Tomorrow the plan is to make another wean on his pain medication and hopefully another wean on the ventilator.
After visiting with Ben tonight, we picked up the girls...Emma talked about wishing on a star tonight for Ben to be well enough to come home for Christmas. Like any little kid, she had more than one wish, the next was for Ben to be well enough to take the trip to Florida that she talks about all the time. Then she drifted off to sleep on the ride home, likely dreaming about the ocean. Elsa on the other hand, had to be woke up when we got to mama and papa's, so she was awake on the whole ride home. When we got home, I took her in her room, rocked her and sang 'Jesus Loves Me'...every time I stopped singing, she would start. It was so adorable.
I would like to add that Ellis is loving being at home with his family and we could not be happier for them!! I spoke to his mommy last night and he had a great first night and day at home, where he should be. Speaking of yesterday, it was quite a big day for our kiddos as well...we celebrated 8 weeks of life with Ben, Elsa turned 17 months, and Emma got her first loose tooth!! Emma's tooth came loose at lunch, biting into a hot dog. She has been very busy wiggling it around so the tooth fairy can make a visit ASAP.
For those of you attending Ben's benefit this weekend, thank you in advance. We cannot wait to see everyone and truly appreciate everyone who is making it to the event. We are planning to have a great time and we hope to have more positive news to share that night..FYI...the official color for CDH awareness is turquoise if anyone is struggling with what color to wear :)