One week old

The many facial expressions of Benjamin Watson....

Good News!!! Ben graduated! He is now on the second floor NICU where apparently the more stable NICU babies go. He's hanging out with babies 2-3 times his size, but he is holding his own. He just has to keep growing and work on his "suck, swallow, breath" skills. The little pipsqueak needs to stay awake during a feeding so we don't have to keep gavaging him. Right now he has the energy to drink about 1 full bottle a day and the rest of the time he gets it through the tube. He's doing awesome and we're so proud of our little warrior.

We have the girls this week. Poor Cassidy is really sick. I feel even more sorry for Cal who was up most of the night last night with her. He went to the hospital about 11:00 last night and stayed until about 2:00 AM. About an hour after he got home little Cassidy woke up. They both had an awful night and day today. Poor Cal. He's got to be exhausted. He has to run me back and forth from the hospital since I can't drive for a couple of weeks, he's been chasing the girls around wiping snotty noses, cooking, cleaning, and comforting me when I cry for no apparent reason. I'm afraid he's going to drop, but he's still holding strong. I think that's where our little Ben gets his strength from. He's got a heckuva good daddy. Cal gave me a blessing tonight so I'm sure I will be healing (both physically and mentally) soon.

Cal is at the hospital right now. He goes at night after he gets the girls to bed. With Cassidy being so sick she has been really clingy to Cal and won't let me put her to bed. Anyway, I just called him to find out how much Ben weighed in at tonight. They weigh him every night at 9:30. The nurse said he is now at 1515 grams. What a little pork chop. This is so awesome. He weighed 1450 grams (3lbs 3oz) when he was born. Last night he was 1445 grams. So he is up 70 grams from last night. Cal said he just had a big blow out though (good for him) and probably doesn't weigh that much anymore. Every little gram counts when you're such a little guy. He has changed so much already. Today is his 1 week birthday. He's lost a lot of his lanugo (baby fur) and his hair has gotten lighter. He is such a little sweetheart.

Thanks everyone for including us in your prayers. We have definitely felt them and know that Ben is doing so well because of them. I never knew you could love someone so quickly and completely. I've been waiting for him for a very long time. I guess those feelings go toward both my son and my husband. There is a sign in the NICU that says "A person is a person no matter how small" I definitely agree!

I also wanted to include some fun pictures of McKenna and Cassidy. As much as I'd like to take credit for their high fashion, I have to admit, they got ready by themselves. What cuties!

Baby Ben

Well, I went to my doctor appointment on Monday. He tested my urine and checked my blood pressure. After finding way, way too much protein in my urine and seeing that my blood pressure about 160 over 110 he sent me straight to the hospital. I asked if I could go home first and he told me I better get straight over to the hospital. So I called Cal who was driving home from Utah and told him he better take the next few days off work since the doctor told me I would be lucky to make it to the weekend. I was so scared. This was all so new and confusing to me. So I had to stay in the hospital overnight. That night I was awakened by bright lights and a lot of commotion. I guess the baby's heartbeat had dropped a couple of times and they were going to do an emergency C-section right then. Fortunately they got things stabilized. So they put me on an IV and oxygen. They had to monitor my urine for 24 hours. The results came back on Tuesday night. My protein levels were dangerously high. The number was 2,444, whatever that means. So Dr. Isbell decided we needed to do an emergency C-Section the next morning.

Our little baby Ben was born at 9:39 the next morning. I only got to see him for a half a second before they wisked him off to the Nicu. Cal was quite a trooper. He watched the whole thing from the spinal to the two grown men ripping my abdomen apart. About an hour later I got to meet my new little buddy. He weighed 3 lbs 3 oz and the doctor said he wouldn't have gotten any bigger because my placenta was dry with no more fluid to nurish him. Poor little guy. He is doing so awesome. He was never put on oxygen or had the need for extra medication. They already have taken the IV out of his head because he could maintain a healthy blood sugar level on his own. He can suck and swallow so he could be bottle fed, but in order to preserve energy he is usually fed through the tube in his nose. They don't want him to have to burn any extra calories.

Last night we came home from the hospital. It was not a pretty sight. I sobbed and sobbed. We went back around nine though and I held him for a couple of hours. I am doing much better now. It's so hard to come home without him. You always envision that ride home with your baby coming with you. It's not right to have to leave them there. It was very hard on both of us. We know that they will take good care of him there so we are grateful for that.

We took a picture from my hospital room to show how beautiful the weather was the day after he was born. NOT. I am so tired of snow, yet that day I was so euphoric that I couldn't care less. We love our baby Ben so much and can't wait for everyone to get to meet him.

Wow, it's been awhile

Well, I forgot my password so I haven't been able to log on but I finally figured it out so here we go. So much has change since last November. First of all, our baby Watson is on the way. Hopefully not too quickly. I'm at 34 weeks right now and am on bed rest. I went to the doctor last week for my regular check-up and had gained 12 pounds in two weeks. Yikes! My feet and ankles were super swollen. So he put me on bed rest. He said I'm done with school for the year. That was pretty tough to take considering I was not even close to being ready to hand the reigns over to someone else. But, I've learned I've got to do what's best for this little guy. Oh yeah, that reminds me....We're having a boy. We were told at our first ultrasound that it was a girl, but they did a second one because our doctor had to leave to deliver a baby. So we went to the second one and the technician asked if we were sure that he said it was a girl. Cal's eyes got huge. Then he showed us our little girl's penis. We were both so excited! We were fine with either, but Cal already has his two little girls so this was perfect.
So now I'm on bed rest. I go back to the doctor today because I've had headaches and my blood pressure has been going up. He's worried about my getting toxemia. He told me last Thursday that if I didn't stay down, he'd probably have to take the baby early. After google-ing toxemia, I've decided I have to stay down and do what is best for our little guy. Apparently it can reduce the blood flow and nutrients that get to the baby. I wouldn't do anything to put him at risk so here I am.
We had the girls over the weekend. They were super patient and understanding. They knew that I had to stay down. Cassidy would come into the bedroom with books that I could read to her. It worked out fine, but I'm afraid it probably wore Cal out. He was up at 7:00 on Saturday morning to go grocery shopping and kept going strong all day. I feel so guilty. Then he had to prepare his Gospel Doctrine lesson. He was so exhausted, and I couldn't do anything to help. He just keeps saying for me to take care of the baby. He is so awesome. I honestly couldn't ask for a better husband!
Maybe someday I'll find my USB cord and post some pictures, but until then, just a lot of words will have to do.