Zero % ???

Yes, it is true. Despite the fact that Benjamin has been consistently gaining and growing, he is hanging out at 0% for both weight and length for babies both born and unborn for his gestational age (36 weeks). What does that mean? He is a very little guy, but a mighty warrior nevertheless! He is now 37 gestational weeks and will be 12 weeks old on Friday.

Since Sunday morning Benjamin has been a little off. He has had a hard time holding his body temperature and has required more oxygen and a higher flow pressure on his nasal cannula. We think this is primarily due to the fact that he received immunizations spaced out from Thursday to Sunday, and hoping that he will bounce back soon. He has not been eating very well either. When I was feeding him on Sunday he gulped some milk and ended up having a pretty severe brady episode where his heart rate dropped for several minutes. It was one of the worse ones I have witnessed.

So he is small and is having some feeding/brady issues and not feeling so great, but the good news is that he is back on 100% milk (vs formula) which they tell me is like liquid gold to preemies and tonight he was a superstar and broke his personal record and took 35mL out of 41mL by mouth!!! Yeah Benjamin!!! I was very impressed since he only took 10mL total earlier that day. He is also healing up nicely from his surgery.

Here is a funny little thing about Benjamin. There is a little Fisher Price aquarium that plays music and makes bubbling sounds and hooks onto the side of his crib that belongs to the NICU. He seemed to enjoy the soothing music on multiple occasions, but I didn't know just how much until yesterday. He was sleeping and the aquarium turned off as it automatically does after a period of time. A few seconds later Benjamin started to squirm and then cry, so I turned it back on and within a few seconds he was peaceful again. I guess I am going to have to find one of those for when we get to take him home!

Speaking of taking him home, we have had multiple people ask when he will be coming home. It is completely dependent on his ability to breathe, eat, and grow on his own. One of his Neonatologists estimated as early as the third week of June to the second week of July. I think the third week of June is probably a little to soon, but I will be super excited if we get to celebrate the 4th of July together at home. It is so incredible to start thinking about coming home. Today was our 82nd day straight in the NICU and it will be strange not going up there every morning.