Check me out.....Luv, Ben

So, Ben is now over 11 weeks old...we have officially spent 78 days in the NICU at this point. We have been super busy this past week and haven't had time or quite honestly the energy to post. Benjamin is each day getting cuter and cuter as he becomes more aware of his surroundings and is acting more like a 2½ month old baby should. As you can see in the picture with daddy that Ben had quite the 'tan'....he was and is still pretty jaundiced from his TPN. Luckily, he is tolerating the breast milk he is being given via his NG tube pretty well....he is now up to 10ml/hour....so as they increase on this, the TPN decreases and this should allow the jaundice to resolve over time. They will be considering bolus feeds for tomorrow. He has also been just acting adorable...finding his voice (which still kind of sounds like a mad lion/cat), finding his hands, smiling, etc. It is amazing going to see him now...we can hold him anytime that we want to at this point. He now sits in his boppy, in his bouncy seat, and we will be attempting the swing next. He is becoming quite the little snuggler...he likes to take naps on my chest while I'm visiting. We are so blessed to have come this far with him. Now that he is doing better, it is getting harder to leave him at night, I just want to take him home with us. He is still a pretty far ways from that, a date hasn't even been discussed yet. He still has to wean off his pain/sedation meds, of which he is still going thru withdrawal, learn how to eat, and also wean down on the oxygen support some more. It has been nice to call to get reports on how he is doing when we are not there and the list isn't a mile long each time. I talked to Laura tonight, the report was simply....'He's sleeping right now, I'm going to take care of the other kiddo I have and then go in and wake up Ben to do his care and play with him for a while".....sweet music to my ears, heart and soul. We'll try to update more asap.
Luv, Kel