Benjamin's Story

For a nice outing, we decided on the Butterfly Pavilion in Broomfield. It was probably the farthest that Jeanette has been from the house in two weeks and Benjamin's longest trip ever... well... at least since he's been out of the womb. He doesn't know it, but he's already traveled to Minnesota, Florida, and all over Colorado.

It was a nice trip out... though everyone is still a bit tired out. We paused for a bit and fed Ben in the butterfly room. It was very nice!

... he's sure got a big mouth! Check out the yawn on this little sucker

Tuesday was my last day at home with mom and the baby. Well... there will be plenty more time, but I sure wish we lived in Europe where even the guys get a lot more time!

Even Jezebel is pretty curious about the baby... or could she just be dying to curl up in his bassinet? We'll never know because she'll never get to! On the whole, the pets have been all very nice to the new kid on the block. Milo even gives him little kisses from time to time.

Ben has used almost all of the little blankets that people got him. Here's a cute squeaky one from Paul and Sue. He... and we... sure appreciate it!

The pediatrician told us that we need to fatten him up, so we got some high-flow bottle nipples and are working on it. The kid sure seems to want things easy!

Ben seems to be settling in very well. He's just a cute little kid! Tuesday was a pretty chill day... no doctors wanted to see him!

True to form, it seems that the boys like to all hang out together. It seems that whenever I'm sitting with Ben, Milo and JJ aren't far away.

It's very nice to have baby time on the couch, but I also like to make sure Milo is within reach to give him some attention, too!

Ben has such tiny hands and feet. It's amazing to compare our own appendages with his miniature versions!

Today we had Ben basking in the sunlight a bit to continue combatting the jaundice. He sure seemed happy as a clam in the warm sunlight!

Benjamin is feeling much better today and we're having some fun playing with him, now that he doesn't need to be on the light table around the clock. Hopefully, we'll see him improving in color and weight the next few days! It's just so nice to cuddle with him and we'd rather do that than have him on the light table.

By the way, if you look closely, you can see that on the right side of Ben's head is a 'little ear.' Until today, Ben didn't 'let' me photograph it well. His right ear didn't form properly in the womb, possibly because blood was arbitrarily cut off to that ear during an early development stage. It seems to be a possible congenital problem that commonly happens in boys' right ears! We checked into it and we'll be able to help him get a more natural looking ear when he's older and if he desires it. He does have some hearing in the ear... and we think he's perfect no matter what!

For the curious, this particular birth defect is called microtia and occurs in approximately 1 in 10,000 births, suggesting that there are about 3,000 people in the US with this characteristic.

After a night on the UV lights, Ben is feeling and eating better. We'll have to see if he gains any weight tomorrow, but I'm not really expecting it... he's got quite a bit of fluid and feeding to make up for after the jaundice.

We are slowly figuring out the feeding cycle. If he can get past the 2-hour range, we'll be in better shape. At 2 to 2..5 hours, it's rough!

He's a cute kid, though!

... a baking baby. Poor Ben is jaundiced, so we've got to bake him a bit for the next couple of nights. Good thing he's hard to confuse for a banana bread... or he'd be in trouble!

Ben is home now and we're slowly figuring out what to do with him. He's such a cute little guy... you can't help but smile when you play with him.

We were lucky to have almost everything prepared for him... except for us!

Ben and his mom have had all kinds of nice visitors since his arrival. Alison came all the way from St. Louis to celebrate his imminent arrival, but ended up helping to carry his stuff out of the hospital instead!

We definitely appreciate Alison and Tiffany's help!

It's a strange feeling to take a newborn baby out of the hospital on day 2 of his little life. It's kind of amazing that you don't need to go through a training course, have a baby license, or even have your rabies tag. Heck... I get fined for having Milo off-leash in the park!

Well, we'll do our best to take care of the new guy on the block. Leaving the hospital should just be the start of his great adventure.

Mom had planned out this nice bear outfit for Ben, but there was no way that a little tiny boy was going to fit into this!

That last day at Rose was interesting... I felt that the hospital left just about everything till the last minute, including not telling us about the birth certificate papers untill about midnight the night before, and only when we asked!

Jeanette had the best plans for taking the little guy out of the hospital in a cute 0-3 months outfit. Too bad he's -1 month. Poor Benjamin was swimming in his little bear outfit. We had to change it out to something that would work better in car seats!

Jeanette took some time out in the hospital to enjoy her new little boy. He was just a sweet little bundle.

Because some preemies are too immature to want to breast feed, we have done some work to try to encourage Ben to eat by suckling. The nurses showed us this in the hospital, but it sure is back-breaking. Unfortunately, all that hard work may have to be undone because he's such a lazy, reluctant eater that we need to bottle feed him.

Ben already had a visit from his Colorado extended family, too. I can't believe we have so many boys out here, but you know it will be terror on the slopes in a few years! I can't wait.

Tiffany came all the way from Seattle to visit Ben already! He must be pretty special!

We got to take our first family photo tonight. How nice to look rested for a bit! We'll see how tough it is with the little guy tonight.

Thanks again everyone for leaving such nice comments. It was really nice to hear from Lalli and Amy and everyone else!

Ben says : They tried to test my hearing today, but I was too squirmy. They think I can hear from both ears, but we'll have to see for sure tomorrow. I'm guessing I'm still going to be squirmy tomorrow!

It's day two and Dad and Mom got some sleep because little Benjamin stayed in the nursery. We were both soooo tired out after no sleep since Sunday night. On the second day, the peanut looks even cuter. What can I say? I'm the Dad.

Here's another photo from yesterday, just for fun. I'll have some from today up soon!

Thank you so much for all the emails and comments. Ben wil be able to look back some day and know how many people were looking forward to his arrival!

Jeanette's recovering so we've gone easy on her with the photos, but we did get her to take this one.

Jeez... it looks like the little guy needs a tan... and I need a shave!

We've already used a little musical doggy to calm the little guy down. It seems to be working. There's a lot of blue in this photo!

Uncle Steve got to watch while little Benjamin got measured! The little guy has a long way to go to catch up to his uncles!

Benjamin seems pretty cozy when he's all cuddled up with mom. He likes his little legs straight and he likes to push off on things...

... nowJeanette knows what he was doing in the womb the last few months!

Benjamin Christian was born today at 9:11 AM. He weighed 6 lbs, 2.9 oz. and is 19.5 inches long. He's a cute little guy who will surely be special in all his own ways. We're both very happy to have him here, even if he did arrive 3 weeks early!