A Good Day

Things are finally looking up! Benson is doing so good today! Yesterday was rough. The nurses tried and tried to get him off the ventilator all day and he would not breath on his own. It was really scary to watch and after a whole day of trying with no success, it really started to worry me.

Then about 2 o'clock yesterday afternoon he started having what looked like were seizures. I was sitting by his bed and all of the sudden his eyes started shaking back and forth really fast and his whole body went stiff. It freaked me out and I yelled for the nurse. She came over and was trying to figure out what was going on but couldn't and during that time he started to do it a lot. They ended up calling neurology to come give him an EEG to see if they were seizures. The EEG took an hr and the whole time we had to just sit and watch him have these "episodes" and push a button on the machine every time they happened, but we couldn't touch him or do anything else. It was a long hour! He finally relaxed a little in the late afternoon but the jerking and eye shaking didn't stop completely. It took a little while but neurology got back to us after reading the EEG and confirmed that whatever was going on were not seizures. That was a relief but we still didn't know what was going on. We left the hospital for a little bit to go be with Josh and our parents at the hotel and then I went back a little later to be with Benson. When I got there he finally look a little bit peaceful and the NNP told me they think the reason he was shaking was because they had discovered his calcium levels were drastically low and they had just started giving him some through the iv. While I was there a asked them to start tube feeding him and they said that would be fine. So he FINALLY got some food in his poor empty tummy. I left feeling a little better about the situation but both Beau and I agreed that yesterday was the worst day of our lives. There is nothing worse than watching your baby suffer. We held ourselves together for the most part but I did have a couple break downs.

Now for some good news! When I got in this morning they were in the middle of doing a trial on him to see how he'd do off the vent and he did awesome so they scheduled to have it taken out. It was about an hour later when the respiratory therapist came and they took Bens off the ventilator. Beau and I were pretty nervous and we sat right next to him telling him to breath for probably 30 minutes. I'm sure the nurses thought we were crazy. He did awesome though and still is! I can't even explain how nice it is to see him without the tube down his throat! I've never been so excited to hear a cry. They watched him for a couple hours and then we were able to hold him :)

We just fed him a bottle for the first time! He LOVED it! He ate 2 1/2 oz and now he is passed out! I don't think he's been so happy and comfortable in his whole 11 days of life. I had just pumped when I came in the room and they said I could nurse so I thought we'd just wait and hour or so for my milk to build back up before we fed him, but he wasn't about to wait 2 minutes. So we gave him some of my milk in a bottle and we'll try nursing when he's hungry next. They say that heart patients can have a harder time nursing because it's uncomfortable for them to be on their side and because it's harder work than a bottle when their energy is already so low. I hope he does well. I want a good nurser SO bad!

We just said goodbye to Josh and sent him home with Grandma and Grandpa Davis. I'm glad he'll get to spend some time with them and his cousins in Hurricane. I love having Josh here with us at night and in the morning for a few hours, but it adds a lot of stress to have him here during the day. He gets so sick of being confined in the hospital. I start to feel really bad for him. So as good as it is to see him, I'm happy for him that he gets to go play and have fun with family in the warm weather.

We are feeling so hopeful that we will all be home together soon!