I just now realized I don't really have to continue writing "Day 70, 71, etc" because those days are over and we're home!  Bennett continues to do well and adjust to life at home with his new permanent caregivers.  He surprised us last night and slept for quite a while, so his parents feel like new people today.  He had his first at-home nurse visit today to check up on him, and afterward we were even able to take a short walk together around the neighborhood (new pics posted). 

Our main prayer request is for his feedings.  His reflux was pretty bad yesterday and today, so this makes his feedings a more painful experience than they should be and ensures that his feeding tube will stay in longer.  So, we ask that you continue your prayers for his daytime feedings to increase so we can finally take the NG tube out.

Overall, though, Bennett is doing well and we just love having him home with us.  We are so thankful and grateful.  On our walk today I saw several trick or treaters getting ready for the big night, and I told Bennett that one day soon he'd be able to enjoy it with them!

Happy Halloween.

Love,

Travis, Kelly, and Bennett

Well, Bennett has now officially been home a whole day, and we think he has done about as well as can be expected with so much transition lately.  He had his first pediatrician appointment this afternoon, and it went well.  We also went for our first walk together in the neighborhood, and he only cried for about half of it!  He gave us another initiation into parenthood last night, not falling asleep until 4am and pretty much refusing to take naps all day long.  The house is much more quiet than the NICU, but NICU "3" can still pack a pretty powerful punch of its own (a few noisy/beeping machines still) and so we hope this has something to do with it!

Our main prayer request at this point continues to be for his feedings.  His feeding coordination is still just not all there, and so he doesn't eat as much as he should during the day.  This causes us to have to give him his food on a continuous drip all night through the feeding tube.  But the feeding tube is what we want out of him, so the more he eats during the day the better chance he has of getting the feeding tube removed.  That's our goal!

Anyway, we just wanted to post a quick update to let you know that Bennett is well and adjusting to his new life at home.  He was pretty much spoiled rotten at the NICU with the amazing care and attention he received day in and day out, so he's learning that his new home care is a step down from that experience!    

With love and grateful hearts,

Travis, Kelly, and Bennett

We are home and getting settled.....please see the photos for a few shots of our day.

We are praising God for bringing our baby home to us, and thanking each and every person who has read this website for their prayers, love and encouragement.  You have carried us and our families through the past 70 days, and your prayers along with God's mercy have healed Bennett.  We are forever grateful!

We will try to update a bit throughout this week, but until then it's time to get this sweet boy settled in at home :). 

All our love,

Kelly, Travis & Bennett

It's the eve before Bennett comes home and things are hopping around here!  Travis and I survived our night at the hospital last night - very little sleep occurred until 5 am when Bennett finally went to sleep for the night and we then stumbled home to fall into bed around 7 am.  Welcome to parenthood, huh?!?!  The nurses assured us that very few families get much sleep when they "room in" because the babies sense something out-of-the-ordinary is going on and are thus pretty unsettled.  Bennett definitely fit that mode last night, so all we can do is hope that his late night fussiness gets better once we get into a consistent nightly routine at home.

We have picked up all of Bennett's prescriptions, re-washed all his bedding at home, have all the bottles washed and ready, and are just counting the minutes until we get to bring him home.  We will try and post pictures of our homecoming quickly tomorrow for all our prayer warriors to see.  God has been so good to us and we thank him for His love, mercy and healing of our sweet Bennett.

With love and thanksgiving,
Kelly, Travis & Bennett

Bennett continues to do well, and as of now the plan is to bring him home on Sunday!  Our meeting yesterday with Bennett's doctors and nurses went very well.  The staff here at Georgetown continues to amaze us with their care, compassion, and love for Bennett and all the other beautiful little babies in the NICU.  This is truly a special place, and the staff here will always have a special place in our hearts. 

In our meeting we were reminded yet again of just how much God has done for Bennett, and how far He has brought him.  From the cooling treatment, to ECMO, to CPAP and more, we truly marvel at God's power and faithfulness.  We were also reminded that Bennett has a higher likelihood of facing several physical and developmental challenges as he becomes older, and that intense physical and occupational therapy over the next 2-3 years is extremely critical for him.  But we know that God is faithful, and that Bennett we will be exactly who God wants him to be.  We eagerly anticipate this revelation!

On the home front, our little blue house has now been transformed into our version of NICU "3," for there are oxygen tanks, monitors, and tables for his meds right next to his crib (we have been "trained" for using these).  We're planning to "room in" with our boy tomorrow night at the hospital, "recuperate" on Saturday (we should enjoy being able to do this while we can, right??), and then BRING HIM HOME on Sunday, Lord willing.  We will definitely plan to post pictures (and possibly even a video) of our journey home.

The other day as I was driving to the hospital and stopped at a traffic light, I looked up and noticed a squirrel moving ever so slowly along a power line that stretched over the street.  He was moving slowly, but he kept moving forward and eventually made it safe and sound to the other side where a nice big tree and fellow squirrels were waiting for him.  As I watched this I couldn't help but think about Bennett's version of this tightrope walk, and about all of your prayers, love and support that kept him (and us) moving forward and standing tall.  

With love and thanks to all,

Travis, Kelly, and Bennett

We are simply overwhelmed by your love and support.  From the bottom of our hearts, we say thank-you.

Just a brief update here for those experiencing "update withdrawal."  Bennett continues to do well respiratory-wise, and when focused, he continues to feed well.  He was moved back to the NICU 1 area last night, but only because they were cleaning the NICU 2 area (a.k.a. Hilton).  This is his 5th "location" since coming to the NICU, and he is stationed very close to where he began this journey.  He has literally come full-circle around the room.  Only this time, his condition is so much better.

The plan at this point is for Bennett to come home on Sunday, but there is an outside chance that he may even come home on Saturday!  We're meeting with the doctors and nurses later this afternoon to review the plan and go over his at-home care needs, so we've got about, oh, 1,000 questions lined up!  It'll be a long meeting, but this is the type of meeting that we're excited to attend!

As mentioned earlier, we will try and post updates as often as possible, but I imagine that we'll only be able to post every few days instead of every day (for those of you who are parents, you're probably laughing your heads off as we boldly predict how often we'll be able to do anything with a newborn at home!).  We do plan to post updates and pictures of Bennett's progress on this website indefinitley though, so please check back to see how "our" boy is doing.

With love and thanks to all,

Travis, Kelly, and Bennett

Bennett continues to strengthen and grow each day.  He seems to be enjoying his quiet new room, had an excellent blood gas proving that his lungs are doing their job without any assistance, and he had a great feeding tonight.  We are thankful beyond words for God's loving, healing, and merciful hand over Bennett.

We completed our CPR training today, Travis learned how to insert Bennett's N.G. tube (his feeding tube in his nose), we learned that we will be having an oxygen tank delivered to our house tomorrow (only for times when he needs it at home), we are signed up for monitor training tomorrow (he will come home with a monitor but will most likely only need it at night), we were asked to come spend the night on Friday night to "room in" there at the hospital in a room with Bennett all night long to care for him, and we have been told to plan to BRING HIM HOME THIS SUNDAY!  We are thrilled, amazed, humbled, scared, excited, over-whelmed, joyous, and blown away by God's goodness.

Needless to say, we have an extremely busy week ahead and may not be able to post each night because we have a list of things to get done before our baby boy comes home (and the clock is ticking)!  We will do our best to update as much as possible since it is because of all our prayer warriors and the grace of God that we are blessed with the gift of bringing Bennett home.

We will eventually attempt to express more eloquently how forever changed we are by these past 9+ weeks.  Until then, thank you for your prayers for "our" boy - your prayers have saved him.  Please continue to pray for protection from any/all infection, complete healing of his lungs, strength and endurance for his feedings, and minimal neurological challenges for our sweet baby.  He fell asleep tonight in daddy's arms with a complete look of peace......we think he too knows that the light at the end of the tunnel is soon approaching.

Love,

Kelly, Travis & Bennett

Bennett had an eventful day.....he has been moved to his own private room attached to the Hilton!  There is a small private room that has doors leading to both the Hilton (Critical Care 2) and Critical Care 1.  The doctors and nurses want him to have a place with less distractions and over-stimulation in hopes of transitioning him more towards a HOME environment.....and of course we have no objections to that.  Bennett was previously in a pretty busy corner of Critical Care 1 where he routinely heard beeping machines, phones ringing, voices nonstop, and equipment being moved back and forth.  Now he will have a quiet little secluded room, so we are interested to see how he responds - we really hope that he enjoys his new private room with a window!

Bennett's lungs have done wonderful off the nasal cannula - all praise and thanksgiving be to God!  He continues to work on his feedings and is doing well, so please pray that Bennett will grow a stronger endurance to drink down all his bottles.  Thankfully we have the option of going home with the nose feeding tube (referred to as the N.G. tube), so today I (Kelly) had my first experience of shoving that skinny white tube up his nose, down his throat and into his tummy so that I can start practicing for when we are home.   Needless to say Bennett does NOT enjoy this procedure, but thankfully it is quick and painless, just annoying for him.

Last night Travis and I got to experience a couple hours of Bennett's collic and it was definitely an experience.  Since he was completelly inconsollable, he basically got passed from mommy, to daddy, to nurse Adele, etc.  The three of us finally decided to take him on a field trip to walk the halls of the hospital and the minute we stepped out the NICU, Bennett's eyes got super big and he calmed down pretty quickly and eventually fell asleep - he loved the new environment and loves life away from his crib!  Since our little blue house does not have halls as long as the hosptial, we may be back up there walking those halls from 12 - 3 a.m. quite routinely after we are discharged.

This is a big week for us - we have infant CPR training tomorrow and a big meeting Wednesday afternoon with our team of doctors, nurses, and specialists to evaluate where we are, where we are going, and what we need to do to go home.  We will keep you posted if a discharge date is revealed :).  God continues to reveal Himself to us in powerful ways, so thank you for each prayer prayed on our behalf.  We have personally experienced that "The Lord is faithful to all his promises and loving toward all he has made."  Psalm 145:13

Love,
Kelly, Travis & Bennett