August & September

This Summer has flown by!  Our baby will be 6 months old next week...6 months old! How did that happen?  He is changing so fast...babbling more, getting on his hands and knees, doing more for himself every day.  We are just so blessed by all his smiles and love!

Here is what we have been up to...

 Visiting Papa at work

Watching Football...Go Redskins!

Turning 5 months

Ben is a happy, very smilely baby, but you put that camera in his face, and he turns stoic.  I tried to take his 5 month photos outside, because he loves to play outside, but you wouldn't know it from these photos...

We tried to sit in a basket.  Mom, what are you doing?

We tried to lay in the grass.  Grass tastes yummy.

We tried to sit in the lawn chair.  Now my sticker tastes yummy.

Mom gives up on 5 month photos :-)

We do a lot better with dad in the picture.  He loves his Papa!

This is one of the best family photos we have.  I'd love to say this is natural and we got it in one quick shot.  What a cute family!

These were a few of the outtakes.  I burst out laughing when I saw them again, and decided they were worth posting....

Central Texas State Fair

Alain received free tickets to the rodeo at the Central Texas State Fair.  I was really excited to take Ben, because I was expecting it to be like the MoCo Fair, only bigger, because this is Texas.  I thought there would be lots of animals for Ben to see.  This was the only animal we could find...

Boo.  But the Rodeo was a lot of fun. And violent.  But we have already started training Ben for mutton busting.

 

Play Day

After a month of working Monday-Saturday, 12+ hour shifts, Alain finally got a Saturday off! So we took a play day and went to our local park, and then took a picnic to Belton Lake.  It was a much-needed break for all!   Praise God for rest and family...

A crazy July...

Ben has had a crazy 3rd month out in the real world! That boy can't slow down (wonder where he gets it from?)... So what have we been up to this month?

Ben's tita Katrina came to visit us!  Ben was so excited to meet his aunt.

She was a huge help in getting us organized and helping watch Ben while the movers packed up all of our stuff.  In between all of the moving craziness we were able to get some site-seeing in with a visit to White Sands, NM, where Ben touched the sand for the first time...

Then on July 3rd (Ben's actual 3 month birthday) we loaded up the cars (with no room to spare!!) and headed out to our new home in Ft. Hood Texas!  Once again family saved the day...Nana came out to help us drive a car down and take care of Ben.  She said she was happy to see all of us, but we know she would have been fine if it had just been her & Ben :-)

Our new home...

The move went fairly smoothly...only a few things broken, but nothing major.  The movers were in and out so fast it was like a whirlwind!  There were still a lot of boxes to be unpack, but we were able to knock most of them out before mom left...thanks mom!

Another 3 month transition for Ben was a switch to cloth diapers!

I had been thinking about making this switch for a while, but wanted to wait until we had our own washer & dryer before trying it.  We got 2 trial diapers, and I thought they were great so we transitioned totally over to cloth diapers after a few weeks.  Love 'em...

We took advantage of my mom's happy offer to take care of Ben whenever to build a garden box.  Well, Alain did an amazing job building the box, and I cheered him on!  We have some tomatoes, corn, peppers, cantelope, and herbs growing in there.  I will be so glad to have fresh produce again!  Ben is a big help with watering, which needs to be done often in this weather!

Ben's big developmental milestone this month was learning to roll over!  A video of this can be seen on my Facebook.  Other than that, he just gets cuter and cuter...

This has been an exhausting month, but that doesn't stop us!  After about 3 weeks of inprocessing, Alain will officially start working in Family Practice on Thursday.  My big highlight will be the visit of Brynn & Natalie on August 5th!  Until then, some much needed sleep is in order...

To all of our friends in MD & El Paso...we miss you!  Come see us! Or leave us a comment :-)

Our baby is 2 months!

Somebody is happy to be 2 months!

Ben's 2 month photos were taken over several days, because although he is a very happy baby, he doesn't like to smile for the camera....

Unless of course he is playing with Papa...

Ben had his 2 month doctor appointment where he measured at 24 inches for height and 10.1 lbs for weight.  This puts him at the 90th percentile for height and 25th percentiles for weight...Tall & Skinny! He also had his first vaccinations.  It is a truly heartbreaking thing to hand over your baby to something so painful...

With every passing day I grow more and more grateful for this little guy.  He is taking more regular naps during the day now, and while I am glad about that, I truly miss him when he is asleep!  I can't wait for him to wake up so I can see his smiling face.  Even the times when he is fussy or crying can be sweet, because he hold onto my shoulder and snuggles his head on my chest for comfort. My precious little is what I call him...

And how can you not love that face?

Finally, an update...

More than a few things have happened since my last post!  Most of the people reading this will have been updated on Ben's birth and all that happened following that via our e-mails.  We cannot thank everyone enough for praying for our little boy and for all the love and support we received during that time!  And I thank God daily for all of His grace, and power, and love that sustained us, and for healing Ben.


I can't believe sometimes that these are the same little boy...

God has brought us so far!

A few things that God showed me during that time...

1. His ways are not our ways, His plans are not our plans, but they are definitely good!  I had all of these plans for the hospital stay, and all these ideas for what it would look like, and only getting to have my son with me for a couple of hours, then him getting ill and being rushed off to another hospital, while I got discharged quickly and then spending the rest of Alain's paternity leave, and the first week of my mom's time with us in the NICU was not in my plans!  But God used that time to show us his personal love for me and taught me to trust Him more through so many ways that wouldn't have happened apart from this trial.  I still wish Ben wouldn't have ever had a seizure, but I see God's goodness through them!

2. My husband is amazing.  Prior to Ben's delivery, I used to go for walks around my neighborhood and used that time to pray for various things.  One day I was praying for the labor & delivery, and just felt led specifically to pray that God would use this time to increase my love & respect for my husband, and He certainly answered that prayer.  During my labor, it was so evident to me that no one could have cared for me during that time better than him.  And when Ben was in the NICU, Alain led us as a couple so well in trusting in God.  2 specific instances stand out to me...
--One day we had to go take care of various things to get Ben enrolled on our medical insurance before going to the hospital that morning to see him.  The errands took longer than expected, and the longer they took, the more anxious I became to go see my little boy.  Rather quickly, fear began to grip my heart, as I became assured that "something was wrong" with Ben and I began to cry.  Alain was so patient and had me open to Romans 8 and read it aloud.  That truth was exactly what I needed to hear in that moment, and I was so grateful that my husband cared for my soul in that way!
--On the day we met with the neurologist to go over Ben's MRI results, the doctor told us that there were multiple areas of swelling still in Ben's brain, and that damage could lead to disabilities that would only be revealed with time.  Alain's response was one of trusting in God immediately, that he would guide us and give us grace for whatever He had in store for Ben.

3. God uses the Body of Christ to care for His children!  Our whole church was praying for us almost immediately, and they quickly mobilized to bring us 2 meals a day.  Christian friends from all over were praying and encouraging us.  Christians that we didn't even know, but who knew people who knew us started praying and sending us encouragement notes!  God used this encouragement and prayers to strengthen our faith so much during that time.

So how is Ben now?
He is doing very well!  There has been so sign of any seizures since he came home, praise the Lord.  He has been doing all of the normal new baby things...eating, sleeping, pooping. :-)  He has been able to lift his head up well and look all around, and this past week he started smiling, mostly at his papa!  He is still taking anti-seizure medication, which most likely he will take until he is at least 6 months old.  We have had one follow up with his neurologist, where he did some testing on his reflexes, which he did well on. He will be evaluated by an occupational therapist next week to see if he is meeting his developmental milestones or if he will need some help with that, but from what we can tell, he seems to be doing fine so far, so it may be too early to know if he will need therapy of any kind.   He will have another MRI & EEG in mid-June to compare to his last MRI & EEG to see if the swelling has gone down in his brain.

He is such a precious boy and we are so blessed to be his parents. :-)  I love seeing how excited he is to see me first thing in the morning.  He makes his cutest faces between 2-5 a.m., which makes it hard to put him back to sleep.  I love watching him spend time with Alain.  They already love each other so much, and Ben always seems calmer and happier when Alain is home.  I love it when he falls asleep on me & when his little hand grasps my shirt while I'm feeding him.  I love how he listens intently when I read him a story out of his Kid's Bible.  There is so much to love about this season!!

Of course, there are times when he is crying and crying and I can't figure out why, and he doesn't seem to like to take naps during the day, but that only makes for a cranky baby by the afternoon, and mamma is suffering from sleep deprivation too!  But getting to hold him and see him smile or look around makes it all worth it.  I love being a mom!

Almost there...

Some time in the next 3 weeks we should have our Benjamin out in the real world with us!   We can't wait!  Both of us are so looking forward to holding, cuddling, and playing with our little boy.  I have the additional excitement of not being as big as a house anymore.  Some women when they are pregnant talk about how huge they feel, but when you look at them, they don't look so big.  I really do...

38 week Benjamin Bump

I am now experiencing a pregnant woman's right of passage where everywhere I go, total strangers stop me to say things like, "You're almost done right? You look like you are about to pop."  My favorite so far was when I was meeting Alain at the gate to the hospital because I need to pick something up from him, so he was meeting me halfway.  I walked to the gate (which is literally across the street from our apt), and I was there before him, so I leaned against the railing to wait for him.  A security guard immediately pulled up beside me and said, "Are you all right, ma'm?  I just smiled and told him I was fine, just waiting for my husband and then tried to look as happy as possible for the rest of the time so that no one else would worry that I was going to give birth at the hospital gate :-)

We've been getting Benjamin's room all ready for him!  Here are some photos of things awaiting his arrival:

If you are wondering, "what's up with the yellow flowers?"  wonder no longer:  Last week Alain took his Step 3 Board exams.  This was a rigorous, 2 day, 16 hour exam, that he has been studying for months in preparation.   After he had completed the exam, he came home and greeted me at the door with 3 bouquets of yellow flowers, and then proceeded to put together our stroller & glider chair.  I was so blessed by his selflessness and hard working attitude!  This is just one example of what a wonderful, godly man I am blessed to call my husband!

One highlight of this month was the full moon on March 18th.  I was hoping that Ben might be enticed by the largest full moon in 18 years to make an early appearance, but he wasn't interested, so Alain & I went up McKelligon Canyon to do some moon-watching and so Alain could take some pictures:

Next post will cover our birthday celebrations, if baby doesn't decide to steal the show! :-)